MUST KNOW Immigration Questions at the Airport (+ Answers)

To avoid problems, always prepare for these customs and immigration questions at the airport!

The more familiar you are with the commonly asked questions by immigration officers at airports, the less nervous you’ll be. And the less nervous you are, the less likely you are to say something stupid and have problems.

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🟣 A L I T T L E A B O U T U S

Heyo! Mitch and Day here 👋🏼

We’re just your typical American-Colombian couple determined to live every second of our precious time here on earth to the fullest. After a 10-month solo backpacking trip through South America, I (Mitch) stopped in Cali, Colombia to take salsa dancing classes 💃🏻. I only planned to stay for a couple weeks, but God had other plans for me. I met a cute Colombian girl (Day) in class, those couple weeks turned into a couple years, and before we knew it...we were married 👰🏻🤵🏼

Now we’re traveling the world full time as digital nomads, supporting ourselves by working online 👨‍💻👩‍💻

Our goal with these videos is to inspire you to step outside your comfort zone, give you an inside peek at our crazy imperfect lives, and show you that you don’t have to be rich to live an extraordinary life...all you need to do is make the choice!

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[ProjectUntethered]

Have you ever had any stressful situations trying to enter a country? Share your stories with other travelers in the comments! 👇

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[CatsMeowPaw]

Always carry a printed itinerary of your full trip with you. In Japan I got asked about my return flights to Australia, because I wanted a quick visit to South Korea and then return to Japan. I was asked the same questions in Korea.

The most intense questioning I had was in the USA, after a 17 hour flight. Great. I was there for holidays and see the 2017 eclipse, so the officer started asking me where I'll see the eclipse, and why I didn't choose better location X and Y. He also asked what equipment I have with me. You'd better be ready to quickly answer detailed questions and not be vague, even after being awake for more than 24 hours.

[Braun]

Atlanta Airport
"What is the purpose of your trip?"
"Business"
"What sort of business?"
"Steel"
"I hope the material and not the verb"
"laugh"
"Welcome to the US+

[AlistairKiwi]

I was held up for 5 hours when I first came to the US - because the school from which I had an F1 education visa could not be reached by the school. I had all paperwork. And actually, I was a student. I got a BA, an MPA, and later a MSN plus RN. My sponsor with whom I was staying was waiting outside the door!

[Volkaer]

"Do you have any explosives in your checked in baggage?"
"Oh not this time, I needed the space for all the drugs"

[mcmoose]

A few years ago, two young ladies I knew (sisters)copped the full 3rd degree from US immigration. The officer could not believe that two young retail workers could afford international travel . He was unaware that the Australian minimum wage was enough to live reasonably comfortably at the time, particularly since they shared an appartment. He staight out accused them of lying when they explained that the recieved four weeks of fully paid holidays, with a 10% loading, every year .

[joep]

"What's the purpose of your trip to Venice?" Food and Wine. He smiled.

[christophermcdonald]

Traveling is one time when I recommend going old school. Print out confirmations of your return/onward flights, accommodation and any ground transportation (e.g. onward rail tickets). This way you can present this to the officer when asked without having to hand over your phone.

We also sometimes travel on one-way tickets (because we often do airline frequent flyer redemptions) and we often have to present a copy of our onward/next flight with Airline B in order to check in for our inbound flight with Airline A. Again, the printout helps.

[elinars]

Usually they're good at figuring out if your responses are a bit dodgy but your visit is legit. Once in a while your responses could be perfect but they still give you a hard time.

[Alex]

I’ve never had problems when travelling in a group but when I’ve been travelling alone I seem to always get grilled and asked a lot of questions. I always print out my flights and all my hotel bookings plus have an idea of the places that I want to see before going on the holiday so I have always been able to get past their questions without being sent to a back room. When I went to Fiji the moment the immigration officer saw those printed out documents he was like “Welcome to Fiji”.

[MSSAg]

You don’t have to be scared of Immigration Officers. Generally their main goal is to research whether a person is potentially a target for/have an inclination to asylum seeking, or whether someone is a regular tourist. In the first scenario, they will lead you to a country’s proper asylum procedure. In the case of the latter, they just try to engage in ‘relatively normal’ human small talk. If anything, being overly shifty and nervous will make you stand out as an person of interest to further question and research, so just be chill about the encounter.

[ganymedes]

I was grilled when I flew to the US back in April 2022. I have since applied and got approved for Global Entry and it's been smooth sailing ever after. It's definitely worth the $100 to not have to wait in line at immigration, AND it comes with TSA PreCheck, which allows you to keep on your shoes and leave your electronics in your suitcase 🙂

[bighoss]

I find it easier to print out my Intinerary and keep it with me to show immigration.

[jstanovic]

When asked about the purpose of my visit, I always simply say, "tourism". That has worked in Europe, Asia, India and South America. When asked what I am bringing into the USA, I always reply with, "just some low value tourist items." In addition to being accurate, it always works.

[schink]

A few years ago we flew with friends from the Czech Republic to New York as tourists. At the airport, my friend had a chat with a Delta employee. He was nervous and he could think of nothing better than to tell the clerk that we were all friends and some of us were in a music band. They almost sent us back from New York saying that we were going to the USA to earn money as street musicians :-D

[philipmullins]

Don't rely solely on mobile phones to store information because they can stop when you least expect it .
I had a problem where the screen of my mobile phone would not open because the button became faulty when I had to travel the airport .
I prefer also to have my travel details in printed paper form because it is so easy to access .

[CaribouEno]

As I am a citizen of an EU country I did not have had that question but the US friend I was travelling with me was asked in Rome what was the purpose of his visit - he replied "Wine, Food, and the Vatican museums" - that was a very fast admitted stamp.

[funshinebear]

I had no idea immigrations liked playing 20 questions on my first international trip. Had an itinerary for a travel group I'd joined but hadn't memorized it. Had no idea off the top of my head where exactly I was going and couldn't recall the specific cities I'd been to when I returned. Lesson learned! 😊

[cijmo]

Another thing that is careless to say, when they ask what your plans are or why you're vacationing here - is to say "just look around or see what there is." Yes, there are people who like throwing darts at a map and just going to see what they can see but it's a really sloppy answer. Even if you have no intention on seeing things, just pull up a travel site about where you're going and put a few things on the list. It's also just not a good place to cop an attitude. Yes, "Where is your husband? Does he let you travel alone?" are really annoying but it's not the time to tell them they're asking stupid questions. Maybe they're a jerk and want you to get fresh with them so they have to keep you longer ... just answer the questions and give them no reason to keep you there any longer.

[GiantEagle]

Put everything in a file with organizer. Customs is happier. They will get annoyed if you start digging through pages looking for air ticket, hotel reservations