Everyone who enters the United States must go through passport control and a customs check. This is a strict rule with only a few exceptions, such as diplomatic delegations, federal agents on duty, and entire military units returning from overseas deployments. For the most part, travelers go through passport control before they go through customs upon arrival at major airports, maritime terminals, and border crossing stations. This is an ideal order, but it hasn’t been a standard practice since agents of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) began operating in late 2002.
Foreigners at U.S. ports of entry should have already gone through some sort of passport clearance before arrival. Let’s say a Dutch woman wants to spend a couple of weeks vacationing in Southern California. She books a flight with Delta Airlines from Schiphol in Amsterdam to San Diego, but she has to board another airplane when she lands in Miami. At the ticket counter, the Delta representative will check her passport to see if it’s valid for entering the U.S. as a tourist without a visa. If the passport expires soon, she may not be allowed to board at all. If she insists, the airline will notify U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents in Miami, where she will likely be detained and ordered to leave as an inadmissible foreigner.
Foreign Travelers Arriving in the U.S.
Let’s say the Dutch traveler’s passport clears the Delta counter in Schiphol. When she lands in Miami, she’ll have to stand in the CBP line for travelers without American passports. If she’s enrolled in the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA), her admissibility determination will be made quickly so she can advance to customs. If she isn’t an ESTA traveler, her passport will need a stamp. Clearing customs in Miami will allow her to go through the TSA check before boarding her connecting flight, where she can proceed to ground transportation without any checks upon landing because she’s cleared, and she probably won’t need the services of a San Diego immigration lawyer.
It’s important to note the customs process often begins before travelers arrive at the point of entry. Customs can be declared on Form 6059B aboard airplanes, trains, buses, and vessels before reaching the CBP stations. This can also be completed with the Mobile Passport Control mobile application for expedited checking.
Now let’s say the Dutch traveler accepts a marriage proposal from an American citizen during her California vacation. She’s now in a position to apply for a K-1 fiancée visa, which she can request through the U.S. Consulate in Amsterdam, so this would be her first brush with immigration even though the K-1 visa starts as a nonimmigrant process. To get the visa, there must be a determination of admissibility, and this will be checked again by CBP agents at the port of entry. Her passport will be stamped in the Netherlands before she travels, so she shouldn’t get more stamps until she departs the U.S.
CBP also operates preclearance stations at 15 locations abroad for all travelers. Most are at major airports in Canada, but a few others are in the Caribbean, Ireland, and the United Arab Emirates. These highly convenient preclearance stations are one-stop shops for both passport control and customs. However, some foreigners traveling under special status, such as war refugees, may have to meet with CBP agents or immigration case officers upon arrival in the U.S. even after going through preclearance abroad.
If you have any questions about immigration matters, contact trustworthy immigration attorneys in San Diego, CA. The lawyers at KS Visa Law have vast experience with every aspect of immigration law, and they’re the attorneys to call on when you need the most up-to-date information about immigration regulations and how to navigate the immigration system. Call KS Visa Law today to schedule an appointment.
