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I recently took my very first trip out of the United States — actually, out of the lower 48 states.  This was my very first experience with customs and passport control, and on the whole it was pretty reasonable.

When we arrived in London, we had to go through passport control, which is a fancy way of saying they check your passports, make sure it’s you, and ask you a few questions about what you’ll be doing while in the country.  Everyone who just got off the plane is going through the line at the same time as you, so there is a post & rope setup to keep everyone moving through like good little sheep.

Coming home was much of the same, except that we had to go through customs AND security.  At the first stop, we were blocked from entering the rest of the airport until we’d gone through both, by means of another post and rope system.  First we went through customs, where we had to declare a dollar amount for what we were bringing back with us, indicate whether they were personal souveneirs or business merchandise, and answer some questions about whether we’d come into contact with any lifestock or farm dirt.

Then it was back through security — though why I don’t know, because we hadn’t acquired anything since going through security the first time, in London.  Maybe they just don’t trust other countries’ security personnel!

My experience may have been good, but just days after getting back, I heard about someone’s experience that wasn’t so positive — someone trying to cross the U.S. border on a business trip.  It makes me shudder to think of how it would have destroyed the vacation if I’d had to deal with a delay like that!

Technorati Tags: customs, passport control, post & rope, post and rope, U.S. border