Again got held up for secondary- long post

jdade

Registered Users (C)
Hi ,i am a GC holder with Macedonian Passport ,this is the second time this happened ,first time in Miami coming back from Cancun after vacation- they questioned me about my trip to Saudi Arabia and about my wife and practicaly everything i do,income ,employment bank accounts and all of the above. This the second time coming back from Turkey and Dubai with my wife and 2 kids. At the passport control the CBP officer said " you go to the line and wait for a officer and your family can leave" (they ar US citizens) without explanation to me or my wife. Took me to another room took away my passport and half hour later again without explanation gave passport back and said you can go on. Has anyone had this kind of experience because in a way im parranoid about leaving the country and dont want to go thru this again. I have never broken any laws.
 
That's why they're interested in you.

Even though i haven't done anything wrong or have a criminal history of any kind will this be happening everytime ? i applied N400 in May im wondering if this will be an issue. Anyone on this board had similar experience after visiting Saudi or Dubai? Has anyone had any problem getting citizenship after visiting this countries?
 
At the fear of sounding and being called out a racist ...

Nobody is a criminal until ... they are.
You can say profiling is good, or profiling is bad. Also what happened could be random, or could be profiling. But I would not be surprised if most of natural born americans with no ties to muslim world do not understand what you are saying.
While this may or may not happen again, I am surprised you do not realize the high probability of you getting profiled.

N400 will go through one time FBI inquiry which happens for everyone. Assuming everything is good, usually they will approve without causing you any trouble.

Can they do secondary after citizenship - sure ... there was a recent thread on this but that was secondary outside US.
http://forums.immigration.com/showthread.php?312955-Secondary-Screening-at-Toronto-Airport-by-CBP
 
Good Americans and those who want to be good Americans have no business going to Saudi Arabia and UAE. Is it really hard to understand? You continue your pattern of travel and before too long your name will end up on "no-fly" list. You will be lucky if it happens before you leave the USA. Habeas Corpus is so 20th century.
 
Good Americans and those who want to be good Americans have no business going to Saudi Arabia ...

I would not go that far. People can go anywhere for a reason, even for pilgrimage, but they should not be surprised if someone else looks at them suspiciously.
That is the America of now, and I guess the new world!!
 
I visited the UAE twice in the 3 years preceeding my N-400. Was a non-issue at my N-400 interview and at the POE on both occasions. Oh wait, on one re-entry, the lady officer wanted to know what UAE stands for :)

Has anyone had any problem getting citizenship after visiting this countries?
 
Hi ,i am a GC holder with Macedonian Passport ,this is the second time this happened ,first time in Miami coming back from Cancun after vacation- they questioned me about my trip to Saudi Arabia and about my wife and practicaly everything i do,income ,employment bank accounts and all of the above. This the second time coming back from Turkey and Dubai with my wife and 2 kids. At the passport control the CBP officer said " you go to the line and wait for a officer and your family can leave" (they ar US citizens) without explanation to me or my wife. Took me to another room took away my passport and half hour later again without explanation gave passport back and said you can go on. Has anyone had this kind of experience because in a way im parranoid about leaving the country and dont want to go thru this again. I have never broken any laws.

Have you ever lost your G.C or any u.s issued travel document? Many reasons can be for sending to secondary...tell us your immigraiton history and we can help you.
 
Have you ever lost your G.C or any u.s issued travel document? Many reasons can be for sending to secondary...tell us your immigraiton history and we can help you.

Never lost my GC or anything else,i understand about those 2 places are a concern area luckily i kept all receipts from both trips ,the first time they actualy asked for proof or if a had anything from there on where i went and what i did but i had my camera with me so i showed the CBP the pictures of the trip. I have a non bio-metric passport from Macedonia,in USA since 1989 without a criminal record.
Only thing i can think of the Saudi customs have the arabic letters and numbers on the entrance and exit stamps on my passport.
 
I guess if I ever need to travel to "high risk" countries, I will use my other non-US passport. There is no difference in terms of visas since they are required in any passport, but at least it may save me some hassle returning back to the USA. Plus, I may be safer there on the non-US passport.
 
On entry in US, they can still ask you where you went, and you will need to tell them, would not you?

they can ask you of course but my question is can they hold you like they did me the second time and not tell me why or any kind of explanation? i have nothing to hide from any of my trips but it kind of makes you wonder if theyre gonna do this every time i leave the country to go on vacation?
 
they can ask you of course but my question is can they hold you like they did me the second time and not tell me why or any kind of explanation? i have nothing to hide from any of my trips but it kind of makes you wonder if theyre gonna do this every time i leave the country to go on vacation?

I think you are un-necessarily worrying about being held up. They hold 1000s of peoples everyday. And they let most of them go either without questioning or after some small OR big questioning. You can not predict if it will happen again, and naturalization is not going to change anything. If they want to talk to you, you may have rights, but they will talk to you!!
 
On entry in US, they can still ask you where you went, and you will need to tell them, would not you?
I don't have to answer their questions at all. Lying is a bad idea. Refusing to answer is perfectly legal. Of course, I would most likely end up in the secondary, but they still cannot refuse me entry because they cannot refuse entry to US citizens. It boils down to how principled an individual is and how far he would go to support his principles. I, for one, prefer convenience, so I would probably answer their questions.

Here is an example of one such principled US citizen.
 
naturalization is not going to change anything.
Naturalisation gives very noticeable rights. The most important is the right to enter one's own country regardless whether you talk to the CBP or not.

If they want to talk to you, you may have rights, but they will talk to you!!
THEY can talk as much as they want, but it will not go far if YOU prefer to remain silent.
 
I don't have to answer their questions at all. Lying is a bad idea. Refusing to answer is perfectly legal. Of course, I would most likely end up in the secondary, but they still cannot refuse me entry because they cannot refuse entry to US citizens. It boils down to how principled an individual is and how far he would go to support his principles. I, for one, prefer convenience, so I would probably answer their questions.


A very good point BUT i think when you are a GC holder the game is different and you have to answer all questions and even tho you haven't done anything bad they can hold you without giving you a reason like they did with me the second time gave my GC back and said "you can go" without explanation why i was held back ,i thought about asking why i was held back but my wife and kids (US citizens) were waiting outside.


Thanks to everyone responding to my question
 
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