U.S. immigration checks when visiting from Germany

Hi,

I'm travelling to New York next week from Munich via Düsseldorf. Just wondering how this works immigration-wise. Is is done in Munich, or Düsseldorf, or New York? I'm also travelling under an Irish passport so wondering if there's anything I need to take care of as I'll be entering the US from Germany, not Ireland?

It's my first time travelling to the US so I'm not really sure how the whole system works and have heard US customs can be very picky about small things. It also just occurred to me this week that my passport looks rather worn as it's 6 years old now and I've carried it around a lot. The machine readable part is fine and it's not damaged, but the laminate is starting to come apart very slightly at the edges... might this be a problem? (...not that there's anything I can do now anyway, flying in a couple of days!). Thanks a lot!

You will go through immigration in NY. As long as your passport is valid and you aren't staying the US very long (or atleast have a scheduled flight back within 90 days) your biggest concern will be waiting in line. However, it has been my experience (as I wait in the "i'm am american" line) that the line for non-US citizens is generally shorter.

Have a nice trip and bring me back a bottle or 2 of Oregon Pinot Noirs! If you like wine I would also advice you to drink a few.

Thanks for the reply, hopefully it will be fine then! Will need a stiff drink once I'm fully vetted to leave the airport, so wine sounds as good as anything :-)

I must warn you, the price of wine in the US is outrageous. Anything under $10 isn't actually drinkable and mid-quality varietals will cost over $20 a bottle.

Only if you're a snob or don't know where to buy your wine. There are some very decent wines for around $10.

Define "around $10" and give examples, I doubt you can provide much in the way of good recommendations under $10.

Further, I would hope the price of wine an hour from Napa would be considerably lower than in NY city.

I await your response while my snobby ass enjoys this tasty bottle of 2.99 Montepulciano D'Abbruzzo.

Old passports are no problem, as long as it's valid and it's yours You ought to check the restrictions on the passport i.e. whether it needs to have a chip, or has to be a biometric passport as per the new guidelines - I think these apply mainly to countries which have a visa waiver agreement with the US. If the passport doesn't meet the guidelines, you won't be able to leave the EU.

If you're travelling from within the EU to the US, you'll go through 2 sets of immigration points. The first is an exit through the EU where they briefly check your passport to see if you're legally allowed to leave from the EU to the US i.e. either you need a Visa, or in your case, the visa waiver agreement between Ireland and the US lets you travel without a Visa. They may also ask why you're travelling there, but I've noticed this happens more for travellers with a Visa than those with EU passports.

The second, is your port of entry into the US i.e. New York. All are handed a US Customs declaration form on the aircraft, and for non-US residents, you also get a departure record (form I94). I think the white one is for travellers with a Visa and the Green one for those without. Fill both and make sure you have both of them before you go to the immigration counter.

The I94 is presented to the immigration officer. Since it's your first time in the US, you'll be fingerprinted and photographed and the I94 should be stapled into your passport. You ought not to lose the I94 and on your return flight, the airline should take the I94 back. If you lose it or fail to return it, re-entry into the US will be problematic.

Present the customs form to the customs officer after you pass through immigration and pick your baggage up. Usually, most people just pass through customs, once in a while you may get called aside so that your baggage can be inspected.

Voila! welcome to the USA


This depends a lot on the port of entry and the time of the year you're travelling. This time of the year, it shouldn't be too bad, but New York is often quite crowded. If you're lucky, you won't spend an hour or more in the immigration queue...

You should probably also make sure that your passport meets the requirements to travel without a visa to the US (if you are travelling under the visa waiver program). More information here

Does anyone know how important this bit is?

I'm flying to the US next week and only just realised that I still have that I94 stuck in my passport from the last time I travelled to the US, which was almost two years ago. I assume that it won't cause any problems?

It can be a problem, most likely resulting in some questioning upon attempting to reenter. CBP may have recorded you as an overstay, so if you have documentation about your departure, you could bring it with you.
At the same time, problems with I-94s not being collected or processed correctly if they are collected are far from uncommon.
Some info from CBP:
http://help.cbp.gov/cgi-bin/customs.cfg/ph...php?p_faqid=752

It can be very problematic! I read about a French guy who's I94 got lost. When he tried to enter he was immediately arrested (he didn't know why) He was sent home with the next plane. What he wrote sounded very scary. I think, you should contact the American embassy as soon as possible.

Oh dear - you might want to read this.

To the original poster: fill in all immigration forms and the customs declaration clearly and without amendment (no crossing things out, get a new form instead) *before* you get to the counter!

great...on the I94 it only says that "Failure to return this document, may delay your entry into the U.S. in the future".

Sounds like I'll be having a lot of fun when I arrive. I will just take proof, which states that I haven't been in the US for the past two years and hope that it'll be okay. Not much else I can do at this point anyway.

Don't worry too much, though...the record-keeping on those things is pretty spotty, so it's far from an unusual event.

US to impose stricter visa rule (Financial Times):


I guess that would be January 2009...

It has always been a hassle. Though last september it was worse. (JFK)

When i finally came to the checkpoint the guy took my fingerprints and pic, but then took another look at the passport and asked me to follow him to a sepparate room with two officers taking care of me. He went back to the line. The passport, adress and waiver were absolutely fine, which was clear at that point. Though they hold me for an hour in that little room with dwarf chairs. Whispered behind their desks, shaking their heads and then asked me to stand up and come upfront. Then they began asking me about my whole life, my friends, about the details of my friend who lives in Connecticut etc. Later, when i asked them what the problem was, they replied, routine check. But one advice: Be as kind as you can possibly be and
do not interrupt them. Imagine, speaking to your schools headmaster. They hate disobedience and impatience.

Since i visited a friend at Wesleyan Uni and later AU in Washington i came across a few foreign students who spend whole nights at the airport, without any real preoblem behind it. Same happened to many tourists.

Toko, are you serious? Photographs and fingerprinting sound so extreme to me - and I would be terrified if I am sent into a little room whilst simply clearing customs. I am not american, but have a green card since I was 9- so please excuse my surprise. Because of the card, I have never had issues entering the US beyond things to declare. I am in Europe quite a bit tho, so when I arrive state-side, I am sure they check I have not overstayed the 6 month away limit for green card holders. I remember once arriving to Gatwick from Houston to visit boyfriend at the time- Gatwick passport control actually rang him up, to verify that he knew me, what our relationship was, if he lived in the address I gave, and if he had paid for my ticket. I left feeling like mail order bride from dodgy buyaspanishgirl.com type company. I spent this New Year's in Amsterdam, and had no problem entering NL, but upon leaving Schipol to fly back to the cesspool that is Newark airport, my passport was taken to "supervisor" before clearing security to enter gate for boarding. I hated letting go of my passport, and "supervisor" came back, and again asked in lovely whistle-y Dutchie accent who I'd been staying with AGAIN. I am blabbing on - but, if anyone fancies starting mail order bride dodgy web site, I can model for it for free beer, or simply a free place to crash in Germany However, I cannot guarantee that German authorities won't ring you when I arrive!

Once you're red-flagged in the INS system for a visa overstay, it's like herpes ... 10 years later, with a green card in between which was duly returned when we moved to Europe, and my spouse always has to budget an extra half hour to get pulled aside and prove to their satisfaction that she's not planning to try to stay in the US beyond a reasonable visit. This can be very harrowing with small kids in tow, and for that reason we avoid her entering the US without me alongside her.

What really amazes me is how cavalier some people who obtain green cards in the US are once they've moved out of the US. Our immigration lawyer told us that the whole "even if i live abroad, if I go back every six months it'll keep my green card warm" gets a lot of people in serious trouble. If the immigration guy sees someone coming in with a "permanent resident card' and does not prove to the satisfaction of the official that one is, in fact, a permanent resident of the US, he can make one's life very, very difficult. There was a guy in front of us last time we went through JFK who had produced a green card but had a round-trip ticket back to Germany paid in euros, a wallet full of german credit cards, a german driver's license and no permanent US address to put on his customs form. The guy was all indignant, and the INS guys were just shaking their heads and laughing that the guy was such a dolt.