Why are United States immigration procedures so cumbersome?

[babs135]

On our recent trip on the Elizabeth we disembarked at San Francisco. THREE HOURS LATER we were finally through customs. No real explanation as to why it took so long. One lady (an American by the way) collapsed from standing so long and was stretchered out of the hall

 

Ridiculous.

[Happyholidayer]

With New York you have to wait until immigration has search the whole ship. We only waited about an hour but people after disembarkation. Who didn't know not to disembark until the last minute if not visiting New York. Waited up to three hours.

[Host Hattie]

Is this annoying procedure exclusive to the USA or does it happen at other ports where handicapped passengers do not wish to disembark ?

I'm not aware of anywhere except the USA where all passengers have to disembark whether they want to or not but there might be some world cruise ports where the ship has to be empty. Edited April 2, 2018 by Host Hattie

[PRINCESSTHE BEST]

Except when I took a transatlantic there were at least two UK customs agents along for the ride.

Wow, that's about the same number that were in Fort Lauderdale when we disembarked!

[david,Mississauga]

I don't know if immigration and custom inspection fees are part of the taxes we pay on an ocean voyage, but they are for air travel. On a recent flight from Toronto to board the QM2 we paid the following (in addition to airport fees and taxes to the Canadian government) to the U.S. government:

U.S. transportation tax: $23.58

Immigration tax:$9.02

Customs processing fee: $7.28

U.S. Agriculture tax $5.10

I have no idea what the last tax is for. We weren't travelling with any chickens or goats.:)

 

So we each gave the U.S. government $44.98 for the privilege of standing in a queue for an hour at Newark. We are grateful, however, that as Canadians we were allowed to go to the half of the customs hall designated for returning U.S. citizens. I shudder to think how long we would have had to queue if we were sent to the larger queue with other foreigners.

[Underwatr]

The agriculture tax probably pays for the beagle who comes over and sniffs your carryon in the baggage hall. :)

[Neuhoftraveler]

The US Dep't of Agriculture fee covers the cost of maintaining an inspection force for plants and foodstuffs that some travelers try to bring in (or bring back) with them. The purpose of the inspections is to prevent the introduction of (non-human) pests and foodborne illness-causing organisms. Recall the questions on the customs declaration form asking about food and plants. Not only the declaration forms, but also the occasional random searches turn up such products that cannot legally be imported. The USDA inspectors are there to deal with these cases.

[happicruzer]

Some agents are exceptional.

 

Then....I figured out, after standing in line two hours and asked where I lived three times, figured they were working on an hourly salary. The slower they process you, the more overtime they rack up. US tax dollars at work.

[orvil]

When we did our EB Transatlantic a few years ago, we were delighted to have a UK Customs officer aboard to handle the formalities. We thought it was such a treat. We sailed off the ship. It had to be classiest way to travel ever. What a brilliant idea. Somebody in Her Majesty's Government has a clue.

 

We did a WB Transatlantic on the QV one year. It stopped in Port Canaveral and the next day sailed to Fort Lauderdale. We got off in Port Canaveral and sacrificed a days sail to avoid Fort Lauderdale. We hate that place. Port Canaveral is a bit of a sleepy backwater, so don't expect much from them.

 

My DH and I are both aircrew. We deal with various customs world wide. We deal with US Customs a lot. Most are very nice and it's a very hard job. Watch out for Barney the Beagle. If you have it, he will find it. Customs is grossly understaffed. There are some that need a new line of work. The TSA is even worse than useless. There is a reason why they are nicknamed Thousands Standing Around. We are equally critical of the treatment of aircrew by the Heathrow officials. It's out of sight of the public, but it has the worst reputation among crews world wide. I won't go into the reasons, but their conduct borders on abusive.

 

Anyhow, I can only apologize for my nation's inept and rude behavior to our guests. Welcome and enjoy your visit. Most of us are pretty nice people and want to extend our hospitality to you. Just bear with us, we have to put up with them, too.

[gerelmx]

Just returned fro Eclipse cruise, when we arrive Miami from MTY (MX) there were at the MIA airport a lot of machines to do the pre check, the machine scans your passport, visa, fingers and takes you a photo, so the time to meet with the officer is very fast and less questions. Also when the ship returned to Miami port no much officers as you say at the terminal but the process was as fast as I never seen. They only check you are the same in the passport photo and the last entry to USA is within the 6 month period.

I think your delay was so long because the ship comes from a NON USA port, origin port South America, etc. I think Cunard failed to help with the process providing information for a fast immigration process.

the long delay has no justification, officials and Cunard should have done the pre-check on the last day of the sea.

[DT_PB_all_at_sea]

When we did our EB Transatlantic a few years ago, we were delighted to have a UK Customs officer aboard to handle the formalities. We thought it was such a treat. We sailed off the ship. It had to be classiest way to travel ever. What a brilliant idea. Somebody in Her Majesty's Government has a clue.

 

We did a WB Transatlantic on the QV one year. It stopped in Port Canaveral and the next day sailed to Fort Lauderdale. We got off in Port Canaveral and sacrificed a days sail to avoid Fort Lauderdale. We hate that place. Port Canaveral is a bit of a sleepy backwater, so don't expect much from them.

 

My DH and I are both aircrew. We deal with various customs world wide. We deal with US Customs a lot. Most are very nice and it's a very hard job. Watch out for Barney the Beagle. If you have it, he will find it. Customs is grossly understaffed. There are some that need a new line of work. The TSA is even worse than useless. There is a reason why they are nicknamed Thousands Standing Around. We are equally critical of the treatment of aircrew by the Heathrow officials. It's out of sight of the public, but it has the worst reputation among crews world wide. I won't go into the reasons, but their conduct borders on abusive.

 

Anyhow, I can only apologize for my nation's inept and rude behavior to our guests. Welcome and enjoy your visit. Most of us are pretty nice people and want to extend our hospitality to you. Just bear with us, we have to put up with them, too.

 

Hello - your thread made me smile. Officials and autocrats, sorry bureaucrats seem to be the same the world over. And no one likes lining up/queuing!! Still love the USA though, looking forward to being back in The Big Apple in June, even if only for the day.

[Bigmike911]

Over my work career I have put a couple millions air miles on my back end. Most of my travel was international, and I didn't find the US Customs and Immigration longer or more difficult than Canada, the UK (as a foreigner you have to queue, you cannot just wave your passport like UK citizens can) , Portugal, South Africa, but infinitely easier than Germany, Japan or China. I have traveled by ship 18 times, and never had any real unreasonable waits. Cunard has now finally gotten their embarkation and disembarkation processes under control so it's gotten easier,

[peteukmcr]

I understand what those travelling through Port Everglades in Fort Lauderdale are saying regarding a slow and rather torturous process for US immigration as we have experienced this ourselves (Tampa is also pretty bad too). However, it is not the same at all arrival points in the USA.

 

Last year we were on a transatlantic crossing where our first port of entry into the US would be Boston. There had been horror stories of the previous experiences of waiting in line for hours to meet the officials and as a result a long delay on being able to go ashore.

 

However, we were allocated a time to present ourselves to the officers who had come onboard and stood in line for a short while, presented ourselves to one of the numerous sets of officials seated at several tables and we were processed swiftly and efficiently and were soon on our way ashore.

 

Again on 22nd of this month, 7 days ago, we ended our sailing in Port Canaveral and as it had been a few years since we disembarked there we were expecting to join a long line of non-US citizens to be processed. The cruise line had advised we also needed to present a copy of our ESTA's.

 

However, we disembarked, retrieved our bags and just joined 1 long line that was constantly moving to present ourselves to the officers. The officer checked our passports, asked how long we were staying in Florida and wished us an enjoyable stay and waved us on. We've experienced longer waits to get back into the UK!

[ToadOfToadHall]

, the UK (as a foreigner you have to queue, you cannot just wave your passport like UK citizens can)

 

Those days are long gone. Now we too have to queue up to be abused and mistreated even when returning to our own country.

[sammybonny]

Those days are long gone. Now we too have to queue up to be abused and mistreated even when returning to our own country.

Yes I agree, from our experience now at busy times in the UK it is just as bad as in the US.

It seems to be the same at all airports in every country we visit![emoji51]

 

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[Bigmike911]

Yes I agree, from our experience now at busy times in the UK it is just as bad as in the US.

It seems to be the same at all airports in every country we visit![emoji51]

 

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Sorry to hear that you have to queue too. But considering how long it takes to travel internationally either by ship or plane, it really is a small portion of the journey.

[ToadOfToadHall]

Sorry to hear that you have to queue too. But considering how long it takes to travel internationally either by ship or plane, it really is a small portion of the journey.

 

It does take a long time, but most of that time is caused by the stupidity at the airports.

 

For example, on our last cruise, we flew from Venice to Heathrow. It's a 2 and half hour flight - total time was over 7 hours (from arriving at Venice airport to collecting my car at Heathrow).

 

We had to queue for 3 hours at Venice and 2 at Heathrow. A 7 hour trip, 5 hours of which was queuing - that 70% of the journey time standing in a queue.

[jetwet1]

Just a little bit of information....

 

MIA and FLL are training ports, new agents go there to be put through their paces, the simple reason is because they will see everything that people will try to do to gain access to the US. Of course the downside to that is it takes longer for the new agents, even when they have someone shadowing them to process each person.

 

In general, the US is a pain in the butt to enter, even as a US citizen, nowhere is set up for international transfers (well actually there are a couple of airports, Anchorage for example) so everyone has to clear ICE no matter what.

 

Yes, the process is tedious to say the least, however, a good friend of mine is one of the high ups with immigration at LAX, I spent a couple of hours up in the secondary screening area saying hello, the things I saw there were, well amazing, the thoughts that kept going through my head were how stupid do these people think immigration agents are and how desperate are these people to get out of their country and into the US to try this.

[Elephant1151]

We did this cruise on the way out immigration was at Port Canaveral and we got through on about 75 minutes from leaving the ship. On the return at Fort Lauderdale we left at 8.15am and went through in 60 minutes. We are UK citizens and thought it no different from any other time we have been through FL.

[ElaineKeagy]

If you're a US citizen disembarking at Fort Lauderdale/Port Everglades, the good news is that if you have a Global Entry card there is now a Good Entry queue at all Port Everglades teminals. If you have a free CBP-approved app called Mobile Passport on your smartphone you can use the Global Entry queue as well. We got off a HAL cruise at the beginning of March. I had the app on my phone and there was literally no one in the short line ahead of us. We skipped past about (guessing) 150 people in the normal line.

 

The bad news we ended up spending all of the time we saved there waiting for the rental car shuttle, but at least that was outside and it was a nice day.

 

 

 

Could that have been the Hertz shuttle? I waited 1 hour 40 minutes last Monday and finally an Avis driver took pity and drove 8 P.O. ‘d cruisers to Hertz. We did make it $ worth his time but the delay was inexcusable.

 

 

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[Underwatr]

Could that have been the Hertz shuttle? I waited 1 hour 40 minutes last Monday and finally an Avis driver took pity and drove 8 P.O. ‘d cruisers to Hertz. We did make it $ worth his time but the delay was inexcusable.

It was Alamo. PE is a big port and it feels like everyone was on a Sunday-Sunday 7- day cruise like us. We got there eventually.