Have you ever been held at customs?

Not Customs, but back before open borders of EU, I was removed from train in Serbia, en route to Istanbul from Budapest. Apparently I didn't have a transit visa to cross through the shit hole country and they were trying to force me to pay some ridiculous fine, which seemed more like a bribe. As the train started pulling away from the station I ran and jumped back on, it was the scariest 30 seconds of my life.

Canadian customs is the worst. For a country known for being so fucking polite, they blow all of their goodwill at the border. Fuck them.

In Cincinnati once. My three year old had one and a half chicken nuggets in a happy meal bag purchased at Amsterdam airport stashed in his Clifford wheelie case, and the sniffer dog ratted us out. We had to stand on line like criminals. I asked the young guy in front of me "What are you in for?" He laughed and said "A banana".

[Quote] I asked the young guy in front of me "What are you in for?" He laughed and said "A banana".

LOL

I got my car searched once at Canadian customs because I had a container of mace hanging from my keychain. Oops. They took the mace and I didn't bother going to process to get it back. (not sure I could have anyway)

I’d like to be held by the guy in that photo link OP.

I was visiting family in the UK. I decided to fly to Amsterdam for the night, so I only took a backpack.

Coming back through the airport in the UK, I was a flagged as a drug dealer because I was coming back from Amsterdam with only a backpack.

Fortunately, I had not bought a dildo or porn.

Or possibly unfortunately R7.

You never know, that dentention might have taken a sexy turn with those additions.

Coming back from SE Asia to Hawaii, immigration? customs? asked me a question about one of the countries I'd been to which was currently having some problems. I had traveled around several countries and that one had been fine when I was there so, jet lagged from an 18 hour flight, I tried to sort out an answer and that triggered something. He wrote S on my form and told me to stand in a certain line. There were several people there, mostly Filipinos with massive cardboard diaper boxes taped shut which were now going to be sliced open. Still half asleep, I was standing there (the only non-Asian) and another agent walked up and asked to see my form, made an exasperated sound, took it, scribbled something on it and told me to walk on through.

A couple years later I worked in an office next door to the Customs office downtown. When I was bored I'd go next door to chat with whoever was manning the front desk. These guys do not have a sense of humor, I tell you. (This was before 9-11)

Bananas will always get you into trouble. ALWAYS.

About a decade ago, I had just returned from Europe at JFK with my partner. The form Customs asks you to fill out says "one per family," so I filled out one for the both of us. (This is back when gay marriage was being debated but hadn't gone to SCOTUS yet)

The Customs agent wouldn't take it because he didn't see us as a "family." I stopped and argued with him. He wouldn't budge. I asked to speak to his supervisor. The supervisor and the other customs agents were exceedingly nice. The supervisor said his niece was gay, and he understands what we're going through, yet his hands were tied. Other customs agents came by and said the decision to admit was up each specific agent. If we had gone to another agent, they would have let us through.

In the end, we filled out two forms, but I wasn't done. When I got home, I wrote every gay organization and every politicians about how customs defines "family."

Our experience along with that of others' led to a change in how Customs officially defines family. I'm very proud of that accomplishment.

R11 that's nice, but sometimes you just want to get where you're going, and not hold up the line. Would it have killed you to fill out another form and complained later?

Shortly after 9/11 I was detained at the border after a quick trip to Canada. US customs agents searched my car from end to end. I think they took an extra long time with it because I insisted on being present during the search so that they didn't plant some sort of evidence against me. That little stopover added 4 hours to my 8 hour drive home. Of course they found nothing and didn't apologize for keeping me.

R13 are you Middle Eastern? Why would you think they'd plant evidence against you for no reason?

R12, could you stop being a fucking asshole for just one second?

Please. All of you people wanted to get caught just so you could get strip-searched.

Christchurch, New Zealand, off a flight from Sydney. Customs fuckwit ran a "test" on my backpack and said "your backpack tested positive for methamphetamine". I was hauled off to a room and interrogated. I said I was there on a hiking tour, that if I was going to smuggle drugs, I'd smuggle cocaine or heroin, not something that anyone can make in their bathtub at home. He said "how do you know so much about the price of drugs"? I'd had enough, got up, grabbed my backpack and said, "if you have no further questions, I'm going to get on with it". And then I walked out.

No, but I've been picked up by the fuzz

I am light brown and look vaguely ethnic looking, which to the PoPo means I look like a person of "middle eastern extraction. Actually, I am half Polish and half Pacific Islander.

I am always pulled aside for a "randomly assigned bomb search" at hand luggage scanning. When I sweetly respond "yes, every time I fly" when asked by security if I have had this test before, they always give me a filthy look.

Yes, from Spain to DC.

I tried to "smuggle" in some Cuban cigars that I bought in Madrid (back before we had "relations" with Cuba), and they confiscated the cigars and made me fill out a form.

I guess I'm on some list now.

Btw, are Cuban cigars still banned from the US? I would love to get my hands on a box.

Like R7, I was stopped and searched when returning to London from Amsterdam. I was a 30 year old man travelling alone and looking a bit scruffy, so probably fit the profile of a British drugs tourist. However, I am actually Dutch and was returning from a family celebration. They initially didn’t believe this and they were visibly surprised when I showed a Dutch passport.

R12, because gays should just let the government shit all over them?

Yes, by East German border guards. I'd earlier crossed into East Germany through Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin for a day trip to the museums. East Germany didn't accept West German money, so we exchanged about $40 US into East German marks for the day. We spent about a quarter of that at the museums (this was back in 1980, things were cheap) but were stopped when crossing back to West Berlin at about 8 p.m. and refused exit because we were "smuggling currency." They were quite threatening, saying things about warmongering Reagan (Reagan had just been inaugurated and his anti-communist stance made him pretty unpopular in the Warsaw pact. We were told we'd have to spend that money in the DDR or we couldn't leave. However, going back into the city at that time meant almost everything was closed - the East Germans rolled up the sidewalks early. After wandering a bit, we found a apotheke and bought some chocolate and some other sundries. We tried to give the guards the chocolate, but just got waved through with disdain.

I know the random checks security does in the US is true. I have that vague "you could be from anywhere" brown look.

I've never gotten stopped in the US because all the data security has on me shows I'm not a threat in the least.

In Montreal, however, while waiting in line at airline security, a security officer announces he will do random checks, walks right by the three white guys in front of me and stops at me.

Random. Right.

R23 couldn't you have just thrown the money away? Not being snarky.

R23, we thought they might want to see receipts. Plus, my friend is a skinflint. We did get a snarky "Don't they have food in the West?" comment while leaving.

I bought a lot of clothes when I visited London and declared them so I was taken into a room in Vancouver's airport for my clothes purchases to be inspected.

ugh. all these stories make me not want to travel internationally again.

Quite the opposite for me, actually.

My first trip to Europe decades ago involved staying with a friend who happened to be a farmer. The US Customs form specifically asked if I had been to a farm, to which I answered yes. I believe I may have been one of the first people the agent had ever seen check that box, he wanted nothing to do with the extra work involved in processing such a possible agricultural nightmare, so instead asked me whether I had done any sort of actual farm work. When I said that I had not in any way done so he motioned me ahead with a sigh of relief.

When I arrived in Melbourne a couple of years ago an old Chinese lady in front of me had apparently ticked a box to say yes, she was carrying illegal pornography. There was a lot of confusion and drama and loud questioning, until an interpreter arrived to help clear things up.

R23 something similar happened to me also.

1985 at age 21, I visited West Berlin and of course wanted to visit East Berlin. Changed WG Marks into EG Marks but didn’t spend much (honestly there was hardly anything to buy, even museum gift shops were not exciting). I ended up buying an EG travel book about the country and thought nothing of it.

In 1987, I again visited WB and had money left over from my prior visit, so just took it back across the Friedrichstrasse crossing into EB and happened to buy an EG flag as a souvenir.

This time, the border guard wanted to see receipts and how much money I had exchanged, as unbeknownst to me, taking EG Marks out of the country was illegal. Of course I couldn’t produce any because I had so much leftover from my first visit. They didn’t like my answers but finally let me thru back into WB after arguing with me.

In reality I had about 25 Marks, so they were most likely fucking with me.

I'm of Middle Eastern-descent, and i've been stopped at almost every airport except for some lax ones in the Mediterranean. Australia is generally bad (i'm Australian by nationality) but I remember when I was 18 and took a trip to London with my siblings, we were each put into separate interrogations about our purpose of the trip, where we were staying, if any of our relatives had connections to firearms or bombs... it took us 5 hours to leave. They called our accommodation and questioned them, went through each of our phones (checked all the photos and Whatsapp messages), etc. That was probably the worst one.

I was born in the US but have light brown skin--some latin heritage. EVERY fucking time I go to London (which is three times in the last 5 years), while whomever I go with (white guys) get through immigration without a problem, I get the third degree: Where are you staying, how long will you stay, do you plan to travel in the UK, You ARE leaving, right?

I always want to say, "I have an American passport. Why would I want to stay in this backwater where you can't even figure out that hot and cold water don't have to come out separately???" Instead, I smile and answer their questions.

R32 did they go through your photos too? hope you didn't have any nudes!

I had the opposite problem in Jamaica. Most of the travelers were black. I was white as was everyone being held in customs

I was detained in British customs coming back from Belgium. The only white guy in the tank. I was living in London with my then partner and my paperwork from his company was not in order. The worst part was, I was going to be flown back to Belgium, then from Belgium to the United States and I have a huge fear of flying. When we had landed in England I was so happy that I had no flights on the horizon for the forseeable future and then that happened.

My laptop was missing a few screws...so four guys had to inspect it to make sure I had not put a bomb in it.

R31, yes the DDR guards were assholes and obviously enjoyed it.

Suuure you did, R17.

Yes, Once in the US, coming back from India, once in the US driving back back from my first and last trip to Canada. The first incident, India, was just a line protocol mix-up.

I lived in Troy, MI in 2006, back when you could cross without a passport, which I didn't have at the time. I decided to take a drive to Canada while my friend was visiting from out of state. I'm a white woman, I was in my mid-20s at the time.

Crossing into Canada we were interrogated about not having passports, which weren't required yet, but that was already slated to change; I think this was around the time of the shoe bomber. Or the underwear bomber, I don't recall. Of course the officer let us in because we were still legal to cross, but not before she gave us an earful about Americans thinking they're entitled to do whatever they want.

Went to Windsor, had lunch, wanted to get the hell out of there. Got in the car and headed back to the border after dropping a postcard to my grandma (I was told by the person in line behind me at the post office what a dirty, nasty city Detroit is after he asked where I was from).

I don't make a lot of eye contact with people I don't know--just fleeting eye contact. (No, I'm not on the spectrum). Apparently this made the Canadian officer suspicious and he asked what I did, where I ate lunch, what I had, what I liked about Canada, and "Did you lick the pole?". The last question threw me off and I laughed and said "What?!" Apparently, or according to the officer, there's a pole in Windsor town square or some place that tourists lick for good luck. At least, that's what he said. I laughed and went on my way.

Coming back from Canada into Detroit, I was detained and my car was thoroughly searched.

If we’re talking about immigration as well as customs, we need a separate thread just on the hell of US immigration, where the warmth of the welcome for foreign visitors reminds one of the train platform scene in Sophie’s Choice.

If one is flying to the USA from Canada and/or are transiting into the States from another country you deal with US customs agents not Canadian.

Passengers flying to the US go through American Customs even when in a Canadian airport and are handled separately from passengers flying to other destinations.

If you are flying anywhere else in the world from Canada you go through customs when you arrive in whatever country you've flown to.

Another East German border story. Driving into Berlin from West Germany during the Reagan Administration I was stopped at the checkpoint, taken into a glorified mobile home and questioned by the East German (Russian?) border guards. I had short hair, and they kept asking "US Military? US Military?" about 50 times. Then they made me sit on a bench for an hour until one of the officers came over and said "100 Mark fine." I gave him the money and I was free to go. No receipt or anything, I'm sure the money went right into his pocket. What a bunch of pricks those guys were.

Did a post-doc fellowship in Turkey for ten days in 2014. Prior to leaving, I cleared everything with the State Department. I am also with Global Entry (as well as having a brother who was in the Secret Service on VP detail) so I have been vetted. Some delay in leaving Istanbul but nothing major. Connect in Paris. Get to board the plane and was pulled aside and had everything thoroughly searched. Get to Atlanta - should have TSA Pre-Check - didn't but instead had three X's. Got pulled aside again. This started the longest six weeks of my life because every time I flew I was thoroughly searched, did not have TSA Pre-Check, had to present ID at the gate AFTER presenting it to TSA twice, and once on-board the gate agents had to confirm I was in my seat by checking my ticket AND ID again. Finally contacted my Congressman and Senators about why this was going on. The TSA would never tell them why but my Pre-Check came back and all the harassment stopped - except now every time I fly either my electronics or my shoes or I am patted down because of a "random" selection.

I was stopped in Chicago coming back from Mexico. I had 12 HUGE garment bags filled with clothing and accessories from a photo shoot that we had done down in Cabo. The agents wanted to see a certain Form**** , prior's to going I had done my homework and there was no form that applied to the merch that I was carrying, so I told them that form did not apply to what I had and asked to speak to a superior. Their superior came over and I explained the situation and then he asked for the same Form ****, that they other agents had asked for. Once again I had to explain to the Customs Department that the Form they were asking for didn't apply. He started getting into that superior attitude thing that cops do..... and I had to explain to him that clothing, shoes, jewelry and such didn't have Serial Numbers!! And once again that none of the Forms he was asking for applied to what I was transporting back to the USA. At this point it was getting late and I just wanted to get my garment bags & luggage rounded up and into a waiting truck, so I befuddled them with paper work. I gave them forms that were signed and stamped from the Mexican Government, the Mexican consulate and some other crap from Home Land Security, just dozens of pages of bullshit all stamped signed and in their own protective plastic pages. They pretended to study and understand the pages of crap that I had given them and eventually came over and said " Were going to let you go this time, just don't do it again" LOL.

I was back again at O'hare being detained 4 months later!

I was stopped in Paris at coming back from a 12 country trip on my way to Cardiff Wales. They said I had "drugs" in my backpack. I course I didn't because I didn't do any at that time and the backpack was from my brother who had never done one drug is his life. The most laughable part was when they brought out the "drug machine vacuum" they vacuum my bag which indicated I had drugs in the bag. It literally looked like a hand vac with a long tube taped on the end. I never deviated from my "no I don't have drugs and never did them" response. They stripped search me and after six hours they let me go. I got the last chunnel and the last train to Cardiff and got into Wales at 1 am missing my hotel reservation so I was lucky a person at the train station helped me get a tiny room in a pension . The cities hotels were sold out because of a Wales vs South Africa Rugby match that weekend. I fell in love with Cardiff and stayed a week. Fucked a few big dick beautiful Welsh men while I was there. It was awesome.

R44, your Global Entry should provide TSA Precheck clearance as well. You just have to enter it as your Well-Known Traveler number when booking.

Datalounge,

I had the worst experience at customs. I was pulled aside and a very tall Dutch man subjected me to a search. When he got to my back passage area he went in BEYOND the second knuckle with his fat, gnarled fingers. I sobbed all the way to Heathrow after that.

[quote]I had the opposite problem in Jamaica. Most of the travelers were black. I was white as was everyone being held in customs

No one should be visiting Jamaica, one of the most homophobic countries in the West.

My father (olive skinned, bearded, 1/8 Sephardic) is extremely sarcastic. He rolled his eyes at a customs official departing Sydney and then he must have been tagged; he was stopped at EVERY airport check for the next 5 years while he was still on that passport.

Oh! I forgot! Overland Morocco into Mauritania in the late 1990s with my parents and brother. Despite us already having Mauritanian visas, we were asked to pay $100 each "tax" whilst our car was taken apart. My father didn't want to pay the bribe and we ended up sleeping overnight in our car and purchasing piping hot fried dough and tea from touts to eat. They let us go with a $20 the next morning when a carload of Germans showed up.

West Africa is no joke.

Attempting to return to the US from Tel Aviv. It was so over-the-top I will never go back.

Im 1/2 Polish and the other half is Slovenian and Croatian- have a swarthy Mediterranean look - I grew a full beard about 15 years ago, before it was the fashion - was travelling a lot for work at the time and went from 10 percent being randomly singled out before the beard to 100% --- every stinking time - lol now i have a white beard so I resemble Santa's thin brother - no hassles now.

Were the problems leaving Israel or entering the US, r52?

...........

my partner put a banana in my backpack and forgot to tell me. i answered "no" to the question about bringing back fruit and veg.

I picked up on kind those minuture jars of honey you get on your breakfast tray with room service and popped it into my carryon. How useful to liven up a sad bread roll en route to Sydney, I thought.

I forgot about the honey and it was pulled out of my bag with a triumphant smile by the quarantine official. To make matters worse they were filming a reality show and thank the maker I informed the crew I didn’t want to be filmed beforehand. I received an extended telling off and thankfully entered Australia unmolested.

Went to Cuba three years ago. US Customs allow you to bring back Cuban cigars, rum, and other souvenirs. I still haven't smoked the cigars.

[quote]Erna

Fetid Nazi pedo shit eating cunt fuck

I was stopped in line at JFK from boarding a flight to London. I'm American, a white, blond woman. I had to remove my shoes in the interrogation room and answer loads of questions; there were a few people there, too, not just one. I was annoyed but kept my cool and thankfully, didn't miss my flight.

Another time: I was going through Customs at Heathrow---and the agent couldn't believe I was staying in London for a month. So I went through the usual barrage of questions about why, where, etc. He even wondered why my workplace would let me take such a long vacation and wondered if he should call my boss lol. So he orders me to sit in some cordoned off section with chairs, very open, not a separate room. How nice to be on display as some kind of interloper. He goes off somewhere to check up on me and after half an hour, he returns to let me go. No apologies, gruff as fuck. Asshole.

When I was still a college student, traveling on my own from a vacation in Mexico (Puerto Vallarta) to NYC, I had a stop in Dallas. So this good ole boy with big red jowls gave me a hard time. Looked at my college ID and started in on me with questions---what's my major, why am I studying that, etc. I mean wtf? Anyway he had me step aside while he and another person pawed through my luggage. They found a baggie of powdered detergent among all my clothes---and pulled it out, all excited. I tried not to laugh out loud as they had been hoping it was a big bag of coke, which obviously would have made their day. Anyway, with no apology, I was let go.

I was stopped at the train station entering Switzerland from France. There hundreds of people leaving the train and the agent pointed to me and I was searched top to bottom including my luggage. It was embarrassing when they found my Spartacus Gay Guide, and the guy just said "books" and they let me through after finding nothing. I think they thought I had drugs. Might have been my overstuffed suitbag that gave them the idea. Never was so nervous in my life.

[quote]and thankfully entered Australia unmolested.

Well, that's no fun!

[quote]Have you ever been held at customs?

Hold me, Customs - I'm scared!