Hello,
Just thought I'd share my travel abroad for the first time experience after I received my GC. I'm just going to skip to the part when I arrived back. BTW, I went back to the old country of Pakiland.
At the airport in US, I don't remember them swiping my GC. The officer looked at my passport mostly and then asked me to follow him to a different room. I was asked to sit down till my name called, there were about 2 other people in that room. I had been in that room before during special registration process so it didn't scare me all that much. Five minutes later I was told that another officer will handle my case, not the regular one. This of course raised my curiosity, but the officers were quite polite and one of them was even familiar with the area that I lived in. More people poured in on and out during this time and about an hour later, my name was called along with two other people (both of them had US passports). We were told by this officer that we were going to pick up our bags and follow him. I asked him if everything was fine to which he said it was. It turns out that the other two people whom he had called along with me had previous arrest records and they had also served some time. I was told that due to my last name being very common, it matched with someone else and they had to make sure that I wasn't that same person. They told me that even though they had cleared their records in the computer, this sort of thing may or may not happen again next time I come back to the US. I was asked to go sit down at another bench in the baggage pickup area, but he asked the other two people to follow him. About 10 minutes later, I was told that everything is okay and I can go, passport and GC were returned, no arrival stamp in the passport. The other two guys were still going through some proceedings, but I left quickly. The whole process took a little over an hour, and though it does not sound that long, it felt like ages probably because I didn't know what was going on.
Overall I would hope that this sort of thing doesn't happen every single time I come back from a trip abroad, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised if it does. I just have to get used to the different stares I get every time they'll take me to that secondary inspection room...
Stoned!
Just thought I'd share my travel abroad for the first time experience after I received my GC. I'm just going to skip to the part when I arrived back. BTW, I went back to the old country of Pakiland.
At the airport in US, I don't remember them swiping my GC. The officer looked at my passport mostly and then asked me to follow him to a different room. I was asked to sit down till my name called, there were about 2 other people in that room. I had been in that room before during special registration process so it didn't scare me all that much. Five minutes later I was told that another officer will handle my case, not the regular one. This of course raised my curiosity, but the officers were quite polite and one of them was even familiar with the area that I lived in. More people poured in on and out during this time and about an hour later, my name was called along with two other people (both of them had US passports). We were told by this officer that we were going to pick up our bags and follow him. I asked him if everything was fine to which he said it was. It turns out that the other two people whom he had called along with me had previous arrest records and they had also served some time. I was told that due to my last name being very common, it matched with someone else and they had to make sure that I wasn't that same person. They told me that even though they had cleared their records in the computer, this sort of thing may or may not happen again next time I come back to the US. I was asked to go sit down at another bench in the baggage pickup area, but he asked the other two people to follow him. About 10 minutes later, I was told that everything is okay and I can go, passport and GC were returned, no arrival stamp in the passport. The other two guys were still going through some proceedings, but I left quickly. The whole process took a little over an hour, and though it does not sound that long, it felt like ages probably because I didn't know what was going on.
Overall I would hope that this sort of thing doesn't happen every single time I come back from a trip abroad, but I suppose I shouldn't be surprised if it does. I just have to get used to the different stares I get every time they'll take me to that secondary inspection room...
Stoned!
Last edited by a moderator: