Returning to the U.S. from Europe

I used Mobile Passport when i flew into EWR in June, that's where the questions were for me.
Where did you fly from? Did you maybe do preclearance?

This has been changed for entry to many airports in the U.S. if you hold a U.S. passport. Instead, you use automated passport kiosks where you scan your passport, take a photo of yourself, answer the questions online, then get a receipt to hand to the customs people. See the U.S. Customs website for more detailed info, but it's been smooth and easy for us.

I used Mobile Passport when i flew into EWR in June, that's where the questions were for me.
Where did you fly from? Did you maybe do preclearance?

No special program was used. I flew from CDG to ORD.

This has been changed for entry to many airports in the U.S. if you hold a U.S. passport. Instead, you use automated passport kiosks where you scan your passport, take a photo of yourself, answer the questions online, then get a receipt to hand to the customs people

But I didn't use a kiosk. I didn't scan my passport. I just went through the usual procedure, showed my passport to the fellow behind the glass, and moved on.

Instead of paper forms to fill-out, most airports in the US use computerized kiosks in the immigration hall. But the kiosks are simply asking you the same exact questions that were on the forms, so at the end of the day the procedures are essentially the same.

Instead of paper forms to fill-out, most airports in the US use computerized kiosks in the immigration hall. But the kiosks are simply asking you the same exact questions that were on the forms, so at the end of the day the procedures are essentially the same.

Thank you, but I saw no kiosks. I used no kiosks. And I never was asked any questions. That's why it was puzzling to me.

But I didn't use a kiosk.

Perhaps the kiosks weren't working that day. So they had to have passengers bypass them.

Perhaps the kiosks weren't working that day.

Perhaps. But I saw no kiosks. While your suggestion may seem reasonable, knowing how ridiculously strict the U.S. has become about immigration, it strains credibility that, if a technology were temporarily unavailable, the response would be to ignore longstanding practice and just move folks along. That seems about 180 degrees from what I would expect.

Things like that can happen. Twice entering the US (once before 9/11, the other after) there were thunderstorms over the NYC area and planes had circle for a while for the storms to pass. Once we did land the immigration/customs hall were over their fire-saftey capacity and they treated my flight from Europe as a domestic and routed all the bags to the domestic carousels and absolute no passport or customs screening.
Also once happened on a flight into Amsterdam. For reasons unknown, all the immigration desks were unmanned and myself and everyone else on the flight entered Holland without a passport check.

OK. So my question is: what is current normal procedure, assuming one doesn't subscribe to various speedy entry schemes that may be offered?

I'm just curious what people have been experiencing in the recent past, not around 20 years ago.

Please see my reply. This was June 11, 2019, when we flew from Zurich to San Francisco. Not every airport has the kiosks, but you can find a list on the U.S. Customs website, and I would certainly think that O'Hare would be on the list.

Matt, I don't know what happened on your specific flight, but I haven't gotten one of those forms for a couple of years. They were only passing them out to non-US citizens on the last few that I remember. The first time, I did ask the flight attendant to confirm we didn't need one and he confirmed. Not related to Global Entry status or any other qualification. But we were asked to answer those questions at a kiosk, followed by a quick review and collection of the printouts by a CBP officer. US entry (CBP screening) at Atlanta, Toronto, Vancouver, Minneapolis, Chicago, Dulles, as I recall.

what is current normal procedure,

You land, you are directed to kiosks and answer the questions. The Kiosk spits out a paper summary of your answers. You take that piece of paper to the manned immigration desk. You hand over your passport and the receipt, the officer may ask you a couple of questions stamps your passport and gives you back the receipt. You then head to the customs/baggage hall, collect your baggage, then head to the exit where a couple of Customs officers will review and collect the kiosk receipt, and look you over a bit. From there you are either given the go ahead to leave, or are directed to a secondary area where your baggage is either hand-searched or goes through a x-ray scanner.

Please see my reply. This was June 11, 2019, when we flew from Zurich to San Francisco. Not every airport has the kiosks, but you can find a list on the U.S. Customs website, and I would certainly think that O'Hare would be on the list.

I saw your reply.

But I saw no kiosks at O'Hare in March 2019, and my passage through the airport from Paris was essentially what I would have expected had I come from Paducah.

At any rate, this trip later this year I will be entering through PDX.

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/us-citizens/apc

Thanks, Mr. Schneider. I look forward to seeing these kiosks.

Thank you skunky. I'll believe it when I see it.

Be it paper forms or kiosks, my experience is the procedures, and attitudes of US immigration/customs agents hasn't really changes in the thirty years I have been traveling overseas. Probably not true along the US/Mexico border, but at airports it's essentially business as usual for US passport holders.

The last couple of times I've flown back here the flight attendants have passed out the little blue forms, I've filled them out, and no one at SeaTac has collected them. Instead, I've answered the questions at the kiosk, as described by others. Someone should tell the airlines (Icelandair and British in my case) that no one wants those blue forms.

OR (my speculation) they're still collecting the paper forms for non-US citizens and the airlines, not wanting to deal in flight with who's a citizen of where, are just passing them out to everyone.

Michael Schneider, that's a very optimistic response.

I appreciate your responses, though. We'll see if your experience as a short-term traveler compares well to my experience as a long-absent American. I'm not optimistic. In fact, I'm pessimistic. But we'll see.

If you have a smart phone, just get MObile Passport, soooooooooooo fast - I got through faster than Global Entry. They cared about the food I brought back (Cadbury chocolate, of course), and that's it.

My last trip back to the US was in March flying with Iceland Air. We were given those little forms to fill out but no one asked for them. In Seattle, they have those kiosk things. The whole customs and immigration thing was a disaster! It took an hour from the time we entered the airport to being done. 3 security clearances and I only had a carryon! Thank goodness I didn't have a checked bag or the whole thing would have lasted even longer. Give me Frankfurt airport over this, any day. Show your passport and walk out.

I am with Matt and his being leery of the border control folks. We are watching what the border controls are doing as well as what the rest of the government is doing to the rights of citizens and how they are treating non-citizens. Living in Germany, these situations and events are too close to what was happening in 1932-33. Much too close.

My last time returning from Europe to the US was on 7 June 2018, except for the picture of me tech part nothing else seemed out of the ordinary, had to fill out the little form, had to present that to customs after going through Immigration.

What struck me was the wait on this occasion in line to get to an Immigration official was longer...no matter, I wasn't go anywhere anyway. This was OAK. Most importantly, that guy stamped my passport, ie, I got what I wanted in the first place...that "readmit" stamp.

Sometimes they say "welcome back" ca. 50% Other times nothing...makes no difference to me but I have noticed ethnic -wise which Immigration person is more likely to say "welcome back" when I come back through SFO and OAK in terms of the odds.

maybe you didn't notice the kiosks because you weren't looking for them. or maybe it was your lucky day! Either way - I suspect coming through PDX on your next trip you will either get the paper forms or be sent to a kiosk.

At least the last two times I have flown home to the States, the airline has not passed out those landing cards.

This is April of this year and November 2018. And it might have been the case for a time or two before then, but I don’t remember exactly.

I think this is constantly in flux so you can’t really know what to expect. I’ve filled out the cards, I’ve used a kiosk, I’ve done neither. It just...changes. Be prepared for any of these possibilities, or something new. Just go with it, once you are there you will know the procedure that day.

Fred, are you kidding me?
Geeeez!

The kiosks are at O’Hare. We flew home from London in March 2019 from spring break and had to use the kiosks. The odd thing was, the place was dead! Employees were standing around helping people out and once we completed the kiosks, we didn’t have to wait in any lines! Best time ever coming back through O’Hare!

Last July, 2018, I returned from Paris through Philadelphia. Philly also had the kiosks at that time.

It's all true, just as I described. There was the kiosk. after finishing with that, I went over to the next Immigration official and got that stamp.

Well...in a perfect world you wait for the kiosk, get a picture taken, answer a few questions and move on....or you do as I do everytime, wait, picture, answer and big red X...I have been directed to an agent every time I've used the kiosks since they were first introduced.
Before I retired I was in and out of the country at least 10 to 20 times a year, often in Asia but also Europe, Africa and the Middle East.... I've had a passport for over 60 years..I'm not sure what the deal is but I actually prefer talking to the agents when I arrive. The declaration form...not for a while.

I started traveling abroad 10 years ago and this year in May returning from Hungary there was no longer a form to complete, previous trip was September 2018 and the form was still used then.

May of this year, flew into PHL from MAN.

Used mobile passport app, they did not distribute the cards on the flight. After a very long walk, there was a table with the cards on it. I stopped to fill one out and became quite popular since I have a pen and pencil case with about 8 pens in it. There were no pencils or pens anywhere on that table.

Went to the area for mobile passports, go through in about 5-10 minutes, they briefly looked at the card. Then went to baggage retrieval and waited about 20 minutes for customs, they gave me the card back.

I then had to recheck my bag for the flight to ORD and then do another stupid security screening.

Returning to Portland, Oregon (PDX) October 2018 from CDG via Icelandair, we had to fill out the forms--no kiosks.