I just returned from a 5 day business trip to Finland, via Frankfurt, Germany.
Long story short: if you have a GC, try to use a REP if you have one to enter the USA. Read on if you want details.
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Visa:
Applied to the Finland consulate in NY, with a letter from my employer stating I have full insurance coverage, and that my employer will bear all cost for me during the trip. Although the consulate site says it will take 10 days for the visa I submitted it 5 business days before the trip, and called them 1 day before my flight. They called me at 4:45 to say the visa was ready, and I had to go to NY on the day of my trip to pick up the RTD with the visa. (this was my fault--I should have submitted it earlier, and by calling back the consulate was being very nice). Any way, bottom line is, I got the visa without any other insurance.
Flight / Immigration:
At Boston logan airport, the Lufthansa rep asked if I had a GC. said yes, and then she asked to scan it. I thought it was pointless, but decided to give it to her. EU immigration happened at Frankfurt (l-o-n-g lines) which was very quick. Didn't even look at the visa or the boarding card for the next flight, just punched in my last name in a computer, then stamped it. I thought that was a bit too lax. This possibly meant I could have skipped the visa, come to Germany (which allows entry based on RTD) and flown to Finland.
Coming back was a bit different. Helsinki to Frankfurt is considered a domestic flight. After landing in Frankfurt, had to walk 2 miles to go to the next terminal, and very contrary to German efficiency, they were using hand scanners to scan every single person (no scanning gates). Very, very strange.
Before boarding, two people were checking passports, and they moved me and certain EU passport holders (and one US passport holder) to another line, where another person scanned the passports, tapped on various keyboards, etc before letting us through. Don't know what was going on, but I dont think I was singled out for holding a RTD, or my skin color or my name.
US Immigration:
We landed in Boston Logan with 4 other flights, and very quickly the hall filled with ~2000 people. Someone came and asked US citizens and green card holders to move ahead to the RED line, but when they started calling they were sending others to the US-citizen/Resident line as well. Any way, after stanging in line for 30 minutes, I go in front of a customs/border protection officer, who takes a look at my RTD, thumbs it, and asked a more senior guy next to him "he has a refugee travel document, should I send him to secondary?". And that person responds, "yes" without even looking at the GC I was waving. So I told the first guy, "come on man, I've been flying for the last 14 hours. I have a green card, why do you want to send me to secondary?" He thought about it for a second, and then said, "you'll be there for 1 hour--I don't want to send you there." So the sr. guy turns to me and asks "where do you live?" When I gave the name of the town, he just turned back to the person in his window, and the first guy asked me a few questions about where I went, for how many days, were there any other entry/exit stamps on the RTD, and then let me go. He did punch in my flight number into the computer
This basically matches my previous experience with the CBP people in Boston in general being good guys, but I also felt that with a REP, I could have avoided this whole exchange about secondary examination
Some speculation: the questions about other entry/exit stamps: veiled references to visiting COP. I wanted to ask him to check for himself but decided copping an attitude will just get me in trouble. He did check if I was on the flight I said I was.
Ah well.. the indignity of being an asylee in the land of the free.
Floyd
Long story short: if you have a GC, try to use a REP if you have one to enter the USA. Read on if you want details.
------------------------------------------
Visa:
Applied to the Finland consulate in NY, with a letter from my employer stating I have full insurance coverage, and that my employer will bear all cost for me during the trip. Although the consulate site says it will take 10 days for the visa I submitted it 5 business days before the trip, and called them 1 day before my flight. They called me at 4:45 to say the visa was ready, and I had to go to NY on the day of my trip to pick up the RTD with the visa. (this was my fault--I should have submitted it earlier, and by calling back the consulate was being very nice). Any way, bottom line is, I got the visa without any other insurance.
Flight / Immigration:
At Boston logan airport, the Lufthansa rep asked if I had a GC. said yes, and then she asked to scan it. I thought it was pointless, but decided to give it to her. EU immigration happened at Frankfurt (l-o-n-g lines) which was very quick. Didn't even look at the visa or the boarding card for the next flight, just punched in my last name in a computer, then stamped it. I thought that was a bit too lax. This possibly meant I could have skipped the visa, come to Germany (which allows entry based on RTD) and flown to Finland.
Coming back was a bit different. Helsinki to Frankfurt is considered a domestic flight. After landing in Frankfurt, had to walk 2 miles to go to the next terminal, and very contrary to German efficiency, they were using hand scanners to scan every single person (no scanning gates). Very, very strange.
Before boarding, two people were checking passports, and they moved me and certain EU passport holders (and one US passport holder) to another line, where another person scanned the passports, tapped on various keyboards, etc before letting us through. Don't know what was going on, but I dont think I was singled out for holding a RTD, or my skin color or my name.
US Immigration:
We landed in Boston Logan with 4 other flights, and very quickly the hall filled with ~2000 people. Someone came and asked US citizens and green card holders to move ahead to the RED line, but when they started calling they were sending others to the US-citizen/Resident line as well. Any way, after stanging in line for 30 minutes, I go in front of a customs/border protection officer, who takes a look at my RTD, thumbs it, and asked a more senior guy next to him "he has a refugee travel document, should I send him to secondary?". And that person responds, "yes" without even looking at the GC I was waving. So I told the first guy, "come on man, I've been flying for the last 14 hours. I have a green card, why do you want to send me to secondary?" He thought about it for a second, and then said, "you'll be there for 1 hour--I don't want to send you there." So the sr. guy turns to me and asks "where do you live?" When I gave the name of the town, he just turned back to the person in his window, and the first guy asked me a few questions about where I went, for how many days, were there any other entry/exit stamps on the RTD, and then let me go. He did punch in my flight number into the computer
This basically matches my previous experience with the CBP people in Boston in general being good guys, but I also felt that with a REP, I could have avoided this whole exchange about secondary examination
Some speculation: the questions about other entry/exit stamps: veiled references to visiting COP. I wanted to ask him to check for himself but decided copping an attitude will just get me in trouble. He did check if I was on the flight I said I was.
Ah well.. the indignity of being an asylee in the land of the free.
Floyd