I was connecting from Grand Cayman to London via Miami after visiting one of
my six grandchildren. I had gone through immigration, but suddenly an
announcement came over the Tannoy asking for me. When I contacted an
official I was marched away and shoved into a room with two others – no
explanation, nothing. It was absolutely awful and very frightening. I asked
why I was there, but they wouldn’t say. I was having visions of Guantanamo
Bay.
After an hour and a half I was told I could go. I was furious and demanded an
explanation and was told: “We don’t want undesirables in our country. Next
time I advise you use hand cream, as your fingerprints have come up as those
of a known terrorist.”
I’ll never, ever fly through Miami again. – Jenny Bloomer,
Crowborough
After a long, sleepless flight from London to Los Angeles, I sprinted to the
immigration hall in the hope of beating the queues. Fat chance. The hall was
already three plane-loads of people deep: hundreds of tired travellers
snaked in huge, angry, haphazard queues, with just four immigration officers
processing our passports.
Over the next three and a half hours, duty staff – disorganised and
overwhelmed – kept rearranging the lines in the hope that we wouldn’t notice
that we were not moving. Occasionally someone would start crying in
exhaustion. Old people collapsed, children lay down on the floor and wept,
adults started shouting.
But what made me luminous with rage was the fact that I spent three and a half
hours inching past a big sign declaring: We pledge to do all in our power to
get you through Immigration as quickly as possible. – Polly Smith,
Liverpool
I entered the US through New York’s JFK airport. Considering you’re not
supposed to joke with the staff, I thought it was a bit one-sided that the
immigration official made fun of my name – “Arrowsmith, ha ha, like
Aerosmith” – but clearly I wasn’t supposed to join in. Less funny was
arriving in Las Vegas to discover the penknife that I thought I had checked
in had been in my hand baggage all along. And this was post 9/11. – Matt
Arrowsmith, Twickenham
We visited New York on our final adults-only holiday before the birth of our
daughter. My partner Cathy was pretty heavily pregnant. We disappeared into
parallel lines at JFK. She came out the other side swiftly – I didn’t. With
no explanation (to me or to her, despite me saying that my pregnant partner
was outside and undoubtedly worried), I was kept for 20 minutes.
Apparently my name resembled that of someone on the most-wanted list. Not a
great start to the holiday. – Andrew Edwards, Leeds
On several occasions I had real trouble going into Washington’s Dulles
airport, always queueing for at least two hours, sometimes more, and quizzed
in detail about why I was going (to visit my American boyfriend), where we
met etc. When I said Vietnam, that didn’t exactly help. – Hannah
Strange, London
I arrived at Miami and stood in line for an hour. When I reached the desk, an
incredibly officious immigration clerk told me I had put some information
one line above where it should be. He wouldn’t let me correct it there,
which would have taken five seconds, or get a new form and come back to him.
He said that I had to line up all over again, which took another hour. I was
beyond livid. – Jane Nairn, Perth
Let us know your US immigration nightmares – or do you have more pleasant
stories to share? Are you a US citizen who has had trouble entering the UK?
Contact us at yoursay@thetimes.co.uk.
How to beat the immigration blues
Avoid landing in the afternoon when most flights from Europe are arriving.
Fewer aircraft land in the evening – Virgin has a flight into Newark at
11.10pm, American Airlines has one to JFK at 10.50pm while BA has arrivals
at Boston at 9.55pm and Washington Dulles at 10.40pm. Air New Zealand’s
daily service from Heathrow reaches LA at 7.45pm. If the thought of getting
into town late is scary, prebook a transfer, for example through www.supershuttle.com.
Alternatively, for early birds, American Airlines reaches Chicago from
Heathrow every day at 10.20am and BA arrives at JFK at 11.20am.
Don’t dawdle – you need to get to the head of the immigration queue fast.
First and business-class passengers have priority disembarkation, but in
economy try to reserve a seat as far forward as possible to get off before
most of your fellow flyers. Website www.seatguru.com
has seat maps, and most airlines let you choose a seat when you book.
Fly in to an airport with fewer international arrivals – for example BA flies
to Tampa, Denver, Phoenix, Seattle and Baltimore. US Airways flies to
Charlotte, North Carolina, Delta flies to Cincinnati, Ohio, and Continental
has flights to Cleveland (Ohio). Northwest arrives at Detroit and
Minneapolis and American Airlines has a daily Gatwick-Raleigh (North
Carolina) flight.
If connecting through Frankfurt, Lufthansa has a useful Portland (Oregon)
service, while KLM/Northwest (via Amsterdam) flies to Memphis (Tennessee).
Fill out the green visa-waiver form correctly. Sounds easy, but the boxes and
lines are close together and confusing. Take two in case you bodge one.
Smile – you’re jetlagged and dehydrated, but if you sat in a booth for hours
processing forms, you’d be grumpy, too.
R Rogers - have you taken the eurostar? You will notice that French and UK customs / immigration officers clear passengers before tey depart rather than on arrival.
Is the US-Irish scheme a pilot programme or what? It sounds like a good idea.
Alex , London, UK
I am a 6th. generation American citizen of Irish descent. I traveled to Saudi Arabia and was returning home to the Dallas Ft. Worth area. After standing in line for at least a 1/2 an hour I was questioned by some womanon a power trip. Why were you there? I answered that I had been to see my son. She replies "and?" I said" I'm sorry I don't know what you want to know" When was the last time you saw him she asks. I replied that I hadn't seen in 10 years as his father had him since he was 7. She is IRATE at this point and is gesturing with her hands and says your going to have to elaborate. Elaborate on what? "do you work?" No, I don't. What was your occupation? Well, I've been an English instructor as well as a personal asst. Huh? Then the highest ranking memeber of the brain trust says," I notice your wearing a wedding ring yet you say that you are divorced." Huh? I am in fact remarried.She then asks if I had a picture of my alledged son. I said yes and showed her. I then mentioned that if she looked at the visa it clearly states that is a FAMILY VISIT VISA. Saudi Arabia isn't a country that grants tourist visas. She then types furiously into her computer and wrtites a big red C on my customs form. I go to the next guy who actually says, HUH? Looks at her notes and then passes me thru. My question is....What the hell just happened there? I'm a 44 year old, 25 pound overweight woman who had been in a plane or at an airport for 26 hours. I had been weeping periodically throughout the trip because my son broke down in the airport when I left. What was it that I was suspected of and why was I treated so badly? What happened to Welcome Home?
Mary, Dallas, TX
To R. Rogers from Bedford... you did notice when you arrived in Boston that you didn't have to go through immigration there, didn't you? How about the line you didn't have to queue in? US pre-clearance in Ireland is an ADVANTAGE, not a negative.
Thomas Ralph, Dublin 4, Ireland
In the interest of fairness, I would love to hear of horror stories of immigration issues at LHR ... not to mention the well publicized difficulties of connecting planes at that fine international gateway.
Michael, Jersey City, NJ, USA
Here's a great one for you. I'm an American living in Japan. My wife is Japanese and my 6 yr. old daughter is a dual-national.
We went to Hawaii for a vacation in the summer of 2005. Although we were traveling as a family, immigration made my wife and daughter go through the foreigners line, and I went through the arriving US nationals line. I waited and waited and, after about an hour, started to ask around. Turns out both my wife and daughter were flagged and put in a cell with about 12 other people. I was not allowed to see them, ICE would give me no information. I had to threated legal action and media attention to get them to allow me to see my family.
In all, we were held for six hours with ZERO explanation. I was livid! In all fairness, the lady who worked our case was professional, but just about every other ICE rep was cold, callous and indifferent.
This incident alone makes me want to change my nationality over to Japan.
John, Yokohama, Japan
On a recent visit to Toronto, Canada I went to Niagara Falls for the day and wanted to see both the US and Canadian sides. So I walked across the bridge linking the two and went through the US entry formalities. I didn't know quite what to expect at a land border so I took with me a printout of my return flight details from Toronto and my hotel booking in Toronto, expecting to be thoroughly questioned. I wasn't and they didn't want to see the documents. All in all it was a very simple procedure for a 2 hour visit to the USA. I even joked to the border guard that the visa waiver form asks for dates in dd/mm/yy format rather than their usual format of mm/dd/yy.
Ewan Hardman, Wokingham, UK
I am horrified whenever people tell me stories of entering, or just having a layover in, the US. But even as an American, getting into the US is the longest, scariest procedure I've ever encountered in my travels.
Ivy, Oregon, USA
Oh, that horrible United States! These experiences would NEVER happen in country devoted to customer service such as the UK. Non-EU passport holders NEVER encounter two hour long queues (Oh wait. That's we faced when arriving at Gatwick behind a plane full of Russians at 10:00 p.m.) And UK immigration officials! So pleasant! So helpful when you ask where to queue! They NEVER direct you to the wrong one, and ALWAYS let you into the shorter visa-holder queue once the misdirection is revealed. And you're SO nicely greeted and welcomed back to UK! (Oh wait. That's when I fly back to the US, granted on my US passport. When I return to the UK, my legal residence, I'm greeted by a grilling about my visa.)
And does someone who flies with a penknife post 9/11 really expect to be treated like an intelligent member of society?
Dear Times: Next time, look under "pot, calling kettle" before you publish.
Suse, London,
This is in connection with your section on 26th May about going to the US on holiday. Our son lives in Wichita, and the times we've gone to see him we've gone through to Chicago from Heathrow. They are slick, quick, professional and friendly. We arrived early afternoon in April this year and they had about 15 booths open. We were through - waiting time, fingerprinted and photographed, and had a pleasant chat with the official, in about 15 minutes. So it's an interesting question about where you arrive and how well organised the airport is.
I have to say that this contrasted with our horrible experience at Heathrow when we came back a couple of weeks ago. It was a shambles; we were given the wrong information three times and we ended up waiting for two hours in about three different queues - if our flight had arrived on time rather than half an hour early we'd have missed our connection to Newcastle.
Linda Hargrave, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Flew into JFK with American Airlines on Thur 24 May at 12.30 hrs.......at immigration 13.00hrs....into taxi by 13.30..i think we may have been rather lucky .!
Richard Saxby, Totton, Hampshire
I have dual citizenship and travel often between the US and the UK. I also am (mysteriously) on the American terrorist watch list; probably because my common name matches a known alias. Anyway, that's what I was told by the security personnel. As a middle-aged female white school teacher I don't fit any of the usual profiles.
In my experience, it doesn't matter which direction you're going or which passport you hold, the lines will be long. Even though I'm thoroughly searched EVERY time I take a plane now, I've found that if you go through the searches with a pleasant attitude and stay patient, you'll get through with as little hassle as possible and the officers will stay good-humored and professional.
Get petulant, act nervous, or demand special priviliages, and it will be a long, drawn-out, nasty process for you. It doesn't matter which side of the pond you're on.
alice, Salado, TX/ USA
R.Rogers is missing the point about US immigration In Shanon ( an Dublin ! ). We Irish don't spend hours waiting in line in a US airport - we creatively use the 60 - 90 mins you spend in the departures area to do it in comfort. You Brits might have the "special relationship" but we've got the smarts !
Luke B, Dublin, ireland
I'm from Argentina and I usually travel abroad on holidays.
I would like to say that every time I arrived at a UK airport
not only was I asked what the purpose of my visit was, but
also how much money I had with me, what my job was at home, when was my return flight, was asked to show the money, credit cards, hostel reservation and the return ticket.
Last time I was interviewed by two officials. That was truly
unkind and on the verge of rudeness.
The same happened when visiting Australia in spite of having a visitor's visa.
I think it is interesting for those citizens of the UK and
Australia to experience how bad people from other countries sometimes feel at their airports.
Favio R, Buenos Aires, Argentina
When I was younger, I decided to take the overnight bus from Paris to London. It was very inexpensive, and I thought it would be an interesting adventure. I was on my own.
There seemed to be few other regular tourists like me on the bus. Most of the other people were families from exotic countries with paper shopping bags for luggage.
On arrival in London, I was questioned extensively in a rude and bullying manner by an officer who looked like Elvis Costello. He wanted to know how much money I had with me. He wanted to see the money. He wanted to see my air tickets and further travel itinerary. He wanted to see my hotel reservations and my credit cards. He wanted to know all kinds of information about my job.
I don't know what that was about. Every other time I arrived in London by air, and I was always treated in a polite or at least a businesslike manner.
It must have had something to do with arriving by bus.
Donna Cuervo, New York, NY - USA
I picked up a cheap bargain flight in March 2007 ... Heathrow to Boston with a major Irish airline ... there were scheduled stops in Dublin & Shannon before the hop to Boston ... I was surprised when eveyone had to troop off the aircraft at Shannon & be subjected to US immigration scrutiny in the terminal building before being allowed back on board to continue our journey ... to be absolutely clear, this is now happening within EU borders ... shame on the Irish for allowing this ... how would it be if we were to put our immigration staff in US airports?
R. Rogers, Bedford, UK
"Also, I think families with young children should be prioritised to channel through quickly."
As a father of two children under 5, i disagree. For terrosists, people traffickers and illegal economic migrants can and will use any weaknesses in the system to abuse any immigration laws of the USA.
As a UK resident i have seen the results of well meaning and obvertly practical policies, and the results mass untrollable and unpopular net migration.
You may notice reports in the UK media of the numbers of unaccompanied minors who find themselves in these shores and who must be housed and provided for by local authorities, whose associate body has recently made it clear that many such needs arrising from Government policy may have to be met by local council tax payers.
You may aware of the "crackdown" on "sham" marraiges only to be overturned on human rights grounds especially because church of england marraiges are excluded thus leading to a charge of discrimination.
Muji Bally, London, England
Having travelled regularly to Dulles, Washington DC, pre and post 9/11, I have observed an improvement since the first chaotic procedures were put into place soon after 9/11. Procedures through immigration (and also leaving Dulles) have steadily become more organised and customer friendly as long as you observe all USA requirements. My concern is for people who don't speak English and have to try to follow all the instructions about filling in relevant forms. Also, I think families with young children should be prioritised to channel through quickly.
Ginny roberts, Carterton, United Kingdom
As a UK resident who happens to like vising New York, i can sympathise with your experiences. However, i think you should perhaps consider what happens when immigration laws are relaxed.
Britain under new labour has some of the "softest" immigration policies in the world, so much so that Government ministers have resigned one after another amid scandalous reports of mismanagement, be it the incompetence of unleashing paeodophiles, terrorists, foreign criminals or the sheer number of illegal immigrants on the UK population, or the fact that population numbers are increasing at around the size of a city in a matter of years.
Whilst the population of the UK is torn between facing the reality of a rapid population inreacse and inevitable lower standards of living on the one hand, and the desire to be decent human beings, to refarin from racist thought or motivation, the Government has used muticultural spin and lies to tacitly impose mass immigration on UK................................
Muji Bally, London, England