Customs in Amsterdam?

Assuming both flights are part of the same ticket, your bags will automatically be transferred to your connecting flight. You will have to go through an immigration check in Amsterdam. The flight Copenhagen to Amsterdam will be like a domestic flight as both countries are in the Schengen Zone.

Bags will check through to PDX assuming it's on one ticket with US immigration control and US customs exiting PDX.

I cannot say how Amsterdam works but when we returned to Florida from Paris this past May we had a stop at Atlanta. We were told by the ticket clerk, stewardess that our bags would go all the way to our final destination. I was nervous (first time flying international back to US) so I decided to just check with the luggage carousel and to my surprise there were our bags. We had to pick them up continue through customs then turn them in again just a few feet away. So just double check.

Carole - your bags were checked through, but when you go through customs you always have to claim your bag, go through customs, and then put them back on the carousel for your next flight. This is what always happens when you arrive back in the US, but your bags were checked through.

You are arriving in The Netherlands (Amsterdam) from Denmark (Copenhagen), both EU countries, so you should not have any customs coming in. And, there are no customs leaving (they don't care what you take out), just into the US at Portland. Check what tag they put on your bag in Copenhagen. If it's an AMS tag, you will have to pick it up in Amsterdam. If it's a PDX tag, it should go right through in Amsterdam.

As long as you don't have a connection in the US before Portland, your bags will go straight through. But you always have US customs at your first stop in the US.

Thanks all! That's the info I needed. When we came home from Ireland, US customs was at the Dublin airport,wasn't sure if there was a similar thing in AMS. Don't want to leave my bags on the conveyor belt thinking they are checked through!

Dublin and Shannon are special cases where US C&I are set up there, much like Canadian airports with flights to the US.

Just to clarify, security, customs, and immigration are three different things that often get conflated (in the US for some reason, we tend to say "customs" to mean immigration). Customs has to do with goods; immigration is about people (passport control); and security involves both.

Also, each route and airport is different, so the advice about changing in Dublin or in Atlanta does not apply to your situation.

What you have been told is correct. For Copenhagen to Amsterdam to Portland assuming you are all on one ticket and Portland is your final destination, your luggage should be tagged through to Portland. You will check it in Copenhagen and not see it again until Portland. No customs will be involved until you get to Portland.

You will have to go through passport control in Amsterdam, as this is your exit from the Schengen Zone. You will probably have to go through security as well.

Upon arrival in Portland, you will go through immigration, then pick up all your luggage, then go through customs. If that is your final destination, you're done. If you are taking a connecting flight, your bags should be tagged through to that final airport instead of Portland. You will pick them up in Portland; immediately after exiting the customs and immigration area, there will be a "baggage recheck" desk, where you deposit your bags for your final leg(s).

By the way, if you are flying the same route on the way in (Portland to Amsterdam to Copenhagen), you will go through passport control in Amsterdam (your entry into the Schengen Zone), and customs in Copenhagen. However, unlike in the US, customs in Europe is merely a matter of walking through the "green channel - nothing to declare" line. Unless you're "randomly selected for additional screening (I've seen it happen once), you're done.

Harold! That was great information and education! I really appreciate your lengthy reply, just what I needed and a great clarification of "the system" in which I was unaware! Again thanks for your time and input.