Strange Experience at port of Entry(IAD)

D

Dragon4109

Registered Users (C)
Hello,

I recieved my USC on 02/28 at Merrifield App Center(VA, Washington DC). I made a trip to trip to India last week. When i arrived at the Immigration desk at the airport, the lady officer asked me two questions:

1) How long were you out of the country?
I ansered, 2 weeks.
2) What was the purpose of my trip?
I ansered, Tourism.

NOW, I was a little irritated with these questions. I was under impression, naturalized citizens are no different to Born citizens. Why would she want to know how long i was out of the country and why did i leave the country. Will I always be treated like a Green Card holder eventhough i am a citizen now. These questions clearly indicate Natualized citizens are still looked/treated differently.

I thought of resisting her questions by asking why does she want to know how long i was out of the country, but then i do not the laws very well and thought, may be they are supposed to ask these questions to everyone.

Please shed some light. Has anyone experienced this?

Thanks
Dragon.
 
Dragon4109 said:
Hello,

I recieved my USC on 02/28 at Merrifield App Center(VA, Washington DC). I made a trip to trip to India last week. When i arrived at the Immigration desk at the airport, the lady officer asked me two questions:

1) How long were you out of the country?
I ansered, 2 weeks.
2) What was the purpose of my trip?
I ansered, Tourism.

NOW, I was a little irritated with these questions. I was under impression, naturalized citizens are no different to Born citizens. Why would she want to know how long i was out of the country and why did i leave the country. Will I always be treated like a Green Card holder eventhough i am a citizen now. These questions clearly indicate Natualized citizens are still looked/treated differently.

I thought of resisting her questions by asking why does she want to know how long i was out of the country, but then i do not the laws very well and thought, may be they are supposed to ask these questions to everyone.

Please shed some light. Has anyone experienced this?

Thanks
Dragon.
Click to expand...
just curious, did you have an american passport ? or you used your certificate ?
 
I don't know about the US, but most other country immigration people ask similar questions to verify that the there is no fraud. Only the actual traveller and the USCIS know what date the person exited. If a question asked casually gives a wrong answer then they can immediately catch something.

In Australia, all citizens have to fill a form on exit, how long they are going, what is the purpose etc. So if one declares they are going abroad for a conference then on arrival if the person says I had a vacation then they will immediately know that the person and the passport holder are not the same. If biometric identification as opposed to comparing photo on passport and person then ofcourse these questions may not be necessary.

Dragon4109 said:
Hello,

I recieved my USC on 02/28 at Merrifield App Center(VA, Washington DC). I made a trip to trip to India last week. When i arrived at the Immigration desk at the airport, the lady officer asked me two questions:

1) How long were you out of the country?
I ansered, 2 weeks.
2) What was the purpose of my trip?
I ansered, Tourism.

NOW, I was a little irritated with these questions. I was under impression, naturalized citizens are no different to Born citizens. Why would she want to know how long i was out of the country and why did i leave the country. Will I always be treated like a Green Card holder eventhough i am a citizen now. These questions clearly indicate Natualized citizens are still looked/treated differently.

I thought of resisting her questions by asking why does she want to know how long i was out of the country, but then i do not the laws very well and thought, may be they are supposed to ask these questions to everyone.

Please shed some light. Has anyone experienced this?

Thanks
Dragon.
Click to expand...
 
Dragon4109 said:
1) How long were you out of the country?
I ansered, 2 weeks.
2) What was the purpose of my trip?
I ansered, Tourism.
Click to expand...
I thought Customs needs this information to determine how much duty they will charge on purchases one brings in. I don't understand why people would be irritated by simple questions like these.
 
I agree with Joe. I am just waiting for them to pull a similar stunt once I am done with my citizenship process. I mainly use IAD as well.

I will not give them any details about how long I was out of the country or what the purpose of my trip was. Maybe I will just ask him/her "Where have you been the past X weeks?" or "Where have you spent your last vacation and why?".

When these things were first discussed here - under a threat dealing with stupid questions upon first time entry as a USC (like where is your GC etc.), a couple of members said once we were USCs, we should get rid of our GC mentality. I will surely follow that advice once I am done.

In fact, I spoke to one of my neighbors earlier who works for U.S. Customs. He said that such questions do not need to be answered by USC. Yet, CIS tries to pull this a lot.

So the options are: One can either bow in GC fear and answer each and every stupid question they ask, or one can politely ingore such questioning. After all, what are they going to do? You are a USC...remove you? LOL

Cheers!

-------
N-400 @ VSC
PD: 01/17/06
Check cashed: 01/23/06
ND: 02/14/06 (received 02/18/06)
FP notice: 03/01/06 (received 03/05/06)
FP: 03/15/06 (FBI reported back to USCIS the same day)
Online Status disappeared on 04/12/2006
ID/OD: 06/20/2006
 
A practical problem is that after you were flying for 10-12-14 hours, any delay from going home a.s.a.p., taking a shower and get a rest is a pain in the neck.
GC fear, or not, only the idea that you may have to spend another 15 more minutes in the airport is very annoying and unpleasant.
Now, if it is a foolproof way to put your fist in their mouth without any complication or delays, I'd like to know that and I'll use it, otherwise, I rather answer a couple of annoying question and be out of the gate in the next 3 minutes ;)

I know a few members here said: "what they can do, kick you out of the country?" or "take away your citizenship?"...of course not but:
-Claiming that you acted suspiciously they can hold you for more questioning (yes you can complain, even can sue them if they go too far...but who needs all these aggravation after a 12 hours flight?)
-Or they can, based on the same assumption, check your luggage to the last little item, and if you're clean they will put everything back together and you're on your way...after another hour.

I think a better approach after you're done with the "interrogation" just ask for their name and later, from the comfort of your own office type a complaint and mail it to the appropriate authorities. (Maybe after asking for the name you can tell what you need it for and what you intend to do, so s/he will know exactly what to expect and where is coming from ;) )
 
Suzy the only bad part of going to india is it takes 24hrs to get there,we guys are not as lucky as other people....we need to calm our @$$ down for 24 hrs.....
especially on your way back it takes a toll,when u see that hughe line in the airports... ;)
but,seriously the poor guy was just doing his job right?
i got my gc 10 yrs ago,so pic on gc is old(from when i was a kid)...now a brother(immigration official) in india didnot let me board the planeuntil i almost missed the flight in mumbai saying i look different,now how would this poor guy know that in a period of 10years a kid grows older and has the option to have a goatie ..... :confused:
anyways,whats next...why did the cop pull me over didnt he know i am a dragon? :D

Suzy977 said:
A practical problem is that after you were flying for 10-12-14 hours, any delay from going home a.s.a.p., taking a shower and get a rest is a pain in the neck.
Click to expand...
 
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I think the second question is completely legit. You could answer something like " I was selling guns" and see if they have a right to do anything about that :) or about your citizenship.
As for the first question, if you were naturalized and went to live somewhere for few years, that means you lied on the naturalization interview about your intend to live in USA. I believe they can also do something about that. But maybe not, I will not argue...Could be plenty of other reasons why they ask as mentioned above in the posts.
I would though agree with Suzy, just answer those questions and move on. Don't look for problems, there are plenty of them anyway...
 
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I am a Canadian citizen living in the U.S. Every time I go to Canada, Canadian immigration/customs officer always asks me the purpose of my trip to Canada. I just answer visit family and would never be irritated by the question. I still don't understand why some people get upset so easily. It could shorten your life expectancy.
 
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merovingian said:
.
As for the first question, if you were naturalized and went to live somewhere for few years, that means you lied on the naturalization interview about your intend to live in USA. I believe they can also do something about that.
Click to expand...

Which question on N-400 you are referring to that asks your commitment to live only in the US if you are naturalized?
 
GeeC said:
Which question on N-400 you are referring to that asks your commitment to live only in the US if you are naturalized?
Click to expand...

It's on the backside of the form, in the fine print. He can obtain a waiver if he signs an affidavit that he will cast absentee ballots for the GOP for the time he resides outside the USA.

Alex
 
NJGoose said:
I am a Canadian citizen living in the U.S. Every time I go to Canada, Canadian immigration/customs officer always asks me the purpose of my trip to Canada. I just answer visit family and would never be irritated by the question. I still don't understand why some people get upset so easily. It could shorten your life expectancy.
Click to expand...

Of course you don't understand you're from Canada. Here is a diversity of people from different parts of the Globe;)
Some are from "X" country, some are from "Y" country and some are from "Angry" country, is in their culture :D :D
 
AlexanderG said:
It's on the backside of the form, in the fine print. He can obtain a waiver if he signs an affidavit that he will cast absentee ballots for the GOP for the time he resides outside the USA.

Alex
Click to expand...

N-400 has backside? The one that I download and used had 10 pages. Can you post the relevent text here?

Why do they need an affidavit to vote for only GOP? GOP=republican party.
 
NJGoose said:
I am a Canadian citizen living in the U.S. Every time I go to Canada, Canadian immigration/customs officer always asks me the purpose of my trip to Canada. I just answer visit family and would never be irritated by the question. I still don't understand why some people get upset so easily. It could shorten your life expectancy.
Click to expand...

Well, i am still in transition from GC to USC :-). And i am used to these questions while on GC. I wasn't sure if these questions are asked to most of citizens. If this is a norm, then i guess one should just go with it.

Customs officer never asked any other questions other than about $100 i put on the form as total import value :-). He asked me if i had any alchohol or electronics, i said no. May be i need to up this figure to around $400 to avoid this question :-).
 
Didnt talk to any customs officer in IAD

When I flew back thru IAD last Nov, I didn’t even talk t a customs officer. The Border patrol person who looked at my passport also collected my customs form. Asked me how long I was out of the country and what countries I have been to. Then said welcome home and I was on my way to collect my luggage and out of there. This was the 2nd time I used my new US passport. Used it the first time at Niagara Falls border when walking back after visiting Canada for few hours. At that time the immigration officer asked when I became citizen, what was my country of birth and was on my way. He didn’t ask my wife anything (She is natural born citizen)

Previously when came back thru NY or Pittsburgh, I had to go thru immigration and customs where they scanned my bags and even had to open in NY. I was surprised that I didn’t have to go thru customs in IAD (I didn’t see anyone else do it either).
 
pinto19 said:
.... Used it the first time at Niagara Falls border when walking back after visiting Canada for few hours. At that time the immigration officer asked when I became citizen, what was my country of birth and was on my way....
Click to expand...

I thought a US citizen currently does not need a passport for travel to Canada??
 
LOL;)

GeeC said:
N-400 has backside? The one that I download and used had 10 pages. Can you post the relevent text here?

Why do they need an affidavit to vote for only GOP? GOP=republican party.
Click to expand...
 
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