I have a question for all of you seasoned travel pros...

Everytime I have travelled out of the country I have had problems getting through airport security. This past summer the Toulouse airpot in France detained me for hours and I almost missed my flight. In Morrocco I was "given the wrong passport stamp (?) by their customs agent and AGAIN detained for nearly 24 hours.

I wonder if this has to do with a racial profiling thing? I don't know. I have a squeeky clean record, have little to no carry-on luggage and I conduct myself in a responsible manner. I honestly never have anything to declare.


Does anyone have any tips on getting through customs more smoothly?

Very strange...we've always walked right through Customs in France and sometimes haven't even seen anyone there. It could be different at the regional airports, however.

Where else have you had problems?

Why do you call it "Customs" when it's "Immigration" that look at your passport?

You've talked about 3 different things here:

Security is the inspection process you go through before getting into the gate area - and sometimes then again getting on the plane

Immigration is where you enter the foreign country and have to show your passport (and visa if necessary)

Customs is after you have collected your luggage - and may be inspected or may just go through the green Nothing to Declare lane

I'm unclear which you're talking about in each case.

And depending on which it is various factors can affect what happens:

Security checks at random - but also people with certain patterns of dress, behavior, luggage and type of ticket/means/time of purchase

Immigration also has different standrds, based on nationality, point of departure, age, attire, carry-on luggage (they are always suspicious of younger people who are not well dressed - fearing they will become illegal immigrants)

Customs is the same - picking at random - but also based on which flight you arrived on and if your luggage seems appropriate to your status/situation

So - without more details I don't know how anyone can advise you.

Why would a customs agent stamp your passport? Your post sounds a bit off to me....

As the others say - you are no doubt talking about immigration. Has nothing to do w/ customs. But to be detained hours one time and 24 hours another time - there simply MUST be more to the story.

Maybe your name is the same as someone else's who is on a "watch" list.

Actually I've noticed quite a few posters over the years wrongly calling the official *arrival* process just "Customs", as in "How long does it take to get thru Customs at XYZ airport".

And for *departure* wrongly calling it just "Security", as in "How long to get thru Security at XYZ airport".

So in both cases they completely leave out 'Passport Control/Immigration' which is a real pain sometimes .
Regards, Walter