US Customs
03/10/08 13:39 Filed in: US Customs
You will find a lot of stories on the Internet about
the USA customs. People are scared about entrance
requirements and procedures. However you have nothing
to worry about and generally speaking you will have
no problem entering the USA. Just be sure to follow
certain guidelines and be prepared.
You might want to reconsider visiting the USA in case you have problems with providing the basic information. But understand you provide most of the information to other customs after requesting a VISA for another country, to the airline making a reservation or travel organization handling your hotel or car reservations. Taking a step, people protective about their privacy shouldn’t travel regardless of their destination.
Citizens of the European community don’t need a VISA for regular holidays or short business trips. You will be asked to fill out entrance forms asking for elementary information about your identity and the purpose of the trip. You will be asked
During your flight to the USA the forms are available from the airline. Arriving from Canada you will get the forms from the custom officer at the border. You only need a passport valid for 3 months and the complete address you will spend the first day.
You probably already have to provide exactly the same information during check-in for your flight. The so-called Advance Passenger Information (API) is collected by the airline and forwarded to the US customs before the flight departs.
You will also have to fill out a form for the Department Of Agriculture. You are not allowed to bring food, plants or drinks into the USA. Signing the form you state you understand and comply with the rules & regulations. You will have to show the form to the US customs officer. However you will have to keep the form. An officer from the DOA will take the form after passing US customs.
Sometimes you are forbidden to cross the state borders bringing fruit e.g. import apples into the state of California is prohibited.
In general the US customs officers are nice enough. Be polite and relaxed. Answer any question, but don’t elaborate too much. A good start is having your paperwork in order and clearly written.
First offer them the passports and the custom forms. You need a passport for each individual in your family e.g. for each adult and each child.
Normally the officer will ask you a number of straight forward questions:
Next they want to take a picture of each individual older than 12 years and take fingerprints.
Normally that’s it and you may proceed. You get the necessary stamps and they staple part of the customs form in the passport.
Since August, 2008 the US and Canadian customs officers are allowed to investigate any electronic device e.g. computer, iPod or MP3 player, iPhone or other mobile phone, USB sticks, photo camera’s, etc. They are even allowed to keep the device for an undefined period. They can look at the content of documents, your locally stored E-mail messages, check for illegal software, downloaded videos and music, other offensive material. They can forward information to other authorities without notice.
Don’t forget some information can be retrieved from trash can, history files or cache. Normally deleted information is still available on the hard disk. References are removed, but the files can be retrieved with the proper software utilities.
Understand US customs officers may have a different definition of offensive or suspicious material. In the “war on terror” they are very serious and extremely sensitive. Understand legislation in the US and Canada can be different from the legislation in your country. Some things may be allowed in your country, but are forbidden in the US and Canada. Don’t you dare to make fun of it, that is if you want to stay out of trouble.
All these measures bring additional inconvenience for travelers. It takes time, but you will have to manage without these devices after they are confiscated. The business traveler might have no access to his/her presentation for the marketing meeting the next day, no access to company E-mail. But business critical or sensitive information might get into the possession of parties with different interests e.g. US government or US competitors.
The measures could also impact your travel plans. As a result of the additional investigation you might miss your connection flight.
For some problems you have good alternatives. Leave documents or E-mail at home and make the accessible from the Internet e.g. the secretary can forward the documents to a trusted party by E-mail, you could arrange remote access to the document server and download the documents at your destination, you can use WebMail to read your E-mail or view appointments in your calender.
You might want to reconsider visiting the USA in case you have problems with providing the basic information. But understand you provide most of the information to other customs after requesting a VISA for another country, to the airline making a reservation or travel organization handling your hotel or car reservations. Taking a step, people protective about their privacy shouldn’t travel regardless of their destination.
VISA
Citizens of the European community don’t need a VISA for regular holidays or short business trips. You will be asked to fill out entrance forms asking for elementary information about your identity and the purpose of the trip. You will be asked
During your flight to the USA the forms are available from the airline. Arriving from Canada you will get the forms from the custom officer at the border. You only need a passport valid for 3 months and the complete address you will spend the first day.
You probably already have to provide exactly the same information during check-in for your flight. The so-called Advance Passenger Information (API) is collected by the airline and forwarded to the US customs before the flight departs.
Department Of Agriculture
You will also have to fill out a form for the Department Of Agriculture. You are not allowed to bring food, plants or drinks into the USA. Signing the form you state you understand and comply with the rules & regulations. You will have to show the form to the US customs officer. However you will have to keep the form. An officer from the DOA will take the form after passing US customs.
Sometimes you are forbidden to cross the state borders bringing fruit e.g. import apples into the state of California is prohibited.
US Customs
In general the US customs officers are nice enough. Be polite and relaxed. Answer any question, but don’t elaborate too much. A good start is having your paperwork in order and clearly written.
First offer them the passports and the custom forms. You need a passport for each individual in your family e.g. for each adult and each child.
Normally the officer will ask you a number of straight forward questions:
- The objective of your trip (business or pleasure)
- Where will you be staying (have the address prepared, the same address as you wrote on the customs form)
- Do you have enough money (having a credit card is good enough)
Next they want to take a picture of each individual older than 12 years and take fingerprints.
Normally that’s it and you may proceed. You get the necessary stamps and they staple part of the customs form in the passport.
August, 2008 - Additional Checks
Since August, 2008 the US and Canadian customs officers are allowed to investigate any electronic device e.g. computer, iPod or MP3 player, iPhone or other mobile phone, USB sticks, photo camera’s, etc. They are even allowed to keep the device for an undefined period. They can look at the content of documents, your locally stored E-mail messages, check for illegal software, downloaded videos and music, other offensive material. They can forward information to other authorities without notice.
Don’t forget some information can be retrieved from trash can, history files or cache. Normally deleted information is still available on the hard disk. References are removed, but the files can be retrieved with the proper software utilities.
Understand US customs officers may have a different definition of offensive or suspicious material. In the “war on terror” they are very serious and extremely sensitive. Understand legislation in the US and Canada can be different from the legislation in your country. Some things may be allowed in your country, but are forbidden in the US and Canada. Don’t you dare to make fun of it, that is if you want to stay out of trouble.
All these measures bring additional inconvenience for travelers. It takes time, but you will have to manage without these devices after they are confiscated. The business traveler might have no access to his/her presentation for the marketing meeting the next day, no access to company E-mail. But business critical or sensitive information might get into the possession of parties with different interests e.g. US government or US competitors.
The measures could also impact your travel plans. As a result of the additional investigation you might miss your connection flight.
For some problems you have good alternatives. Leave documents or E-mail at home and make the accessible from the Internet e.g. the secretary can forward the documents to a trusted party by E-mail, you could arrange remote access to the document server and download the documents at your destination, you can use WebMail to read your E-mail or view appointments in your calender.
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