U.S. Immigration. WTF?

[KennDodd]

Why are they so rude?

I've spent years traveling the world. Many years recently entering the US. I find US immigration SO SO SO much nicer than than the British. And that's coming from a Brit!

Unless you enter Miami where they are utter cunts.

DH is a US citizen and is shocked at how nasty the UK are to him and my ds. It's upsets me every time.

I find the US border patrol so nice and courteous, I'm embarrassed whenever we enter Britain.

I'm going to get ds a UK passport just so they may treat him less like a piece of shit they need to interrogate at the UK border.

To be more concise, I've entered the US over 100 times and they've only been rude once when I was coming in to Miami for the WMC.

I’ve always flown out through Dublin so I do immigration there- quicker, easier, more pleasant and can start our holiday as soon as we arrive

Been doing fucking American immigration for the last 20 years. They are actually far more polite than they used to be, and as polite as other countries. I think the big difference is that the system is just so backward, (no technology for biometric passports, etc) this just makes the whole experience seem so shit, especially for Europeans.

Yes please explain how it came about that your child was crying.

Yep. Rude as fuck and nasty. Kept saying "your country, your country" as if I owned the UK.

Actually thinking back puts me off going again.

No worse than the British. They treat my Brazilian husband like shit they just cleaned off their shoes, and he's been married for 18 years to a British citizen, has 4 British children and a degree/profession that is in high demand. Ironically he's on his 4th US work visa and has been given work visas by Norway and Canada as well. I've dealt with far nastier customs officers in the UK, when I've come in with my husband than the 20 years I've been in and out of the USA.

Never had a problem, it's just luck of the draw I guess.

No worse than some British immigration staff, when I still had a Pakistani passport I was treated like shit and regularly taken for a grilling. I have never once been stopped or had a rude immigration officer when entering the UK on my British passport.

@brigitsbigknickers
Seriously- I was 42 year old teacher and mother of two. Hardly the profile of terrorist or an illegal immigrant!

What exactly does a terrorist or an illegal immigrant look like then? Curious to know your thoughts.

They tested us on the pictures in our passport. By pictures I mean the pictures of significant historical things from Britain. Asking if we knew the name of the train. Thankfully I did and said 'it's stephensons rocket'. What was that about?

You don’t know what a terrorist usually looks like?🙄

Ummm... Re: pp - why would EU citizens get preference over other foreign nationals in the US? 🤦🏻‍♀️🤷🏻‍♀️

That said - try being a single woman of a certain age trying to enter the UK. That can be fun being part of a cohort that is notorious for overstating. 😂

Who said EU should get preference Corner? I must have overlooked that comment.

We've never had an issue with border control in the US, thankfully. Last agent we had was a woman and she was lovely.

Last 2 times I entered Australia, NZ, UK, US (plus a couple of others I think) citizens all entered via the same queue; the other one was for all other passports.

@Myfoolishboatisleaning the post at 00:19 - although rereading it it may have more to do with a child's disabilities and was badly worded by the op

I think they were talking about Heathrow, but yeah, really unclear.

I've found them rude in Chicago and New York but lovely in Las Vegas, Seattle and Charlotte.
Though the ones in Charlotte often get flummoxed at a woman travelling alone for leisure, but are polite about it.

I have taken 50 pupils to the USA twice and we found rudeness this side and pleasant people in the US. So swings and roundabouts!

Have flown to the USA quite a lot. HVe never had a confrontation with immigration that was nasty.
Even when as an 19 year old my passport didn’t have 6 months left on it. They were firm and clear but not aggressive.

Never had an issue with US customs. At least they do their job and don’t let illegals in, unlike here.

How on earth did I embellish anything? you did question him about doing his job, no??

Blimey... I wonder if we are getting the full story from you.

What exactly made your DC cry?!

I have a relative who , in the 50s, tried to take the piss out of them. He spent the night in jail.
"Never piss off US immigration ", was his life lesson to us all. He went back several times, as did we (do I).
It's their country, why should they be nice?