Problems when entering the US with GC

[Chewbacca 18]

Last year I entered the USA with a CR1 visa, and received my green card shortly after that. I had a visitor visa and a J-1 visa in the past and never had any issues entering the USA. I was recently hired by a company and occasionally I have to travel outside the USA for conferences/training. Three months ago I left the country for a week, and CPB sent me to secondary inspection. Someone told me that it's common for this to happen as it was the first time entering the country with my GC. I ended up missing my connection, but the airline booked me in a later flight with no cost. Last week, I went to another trip, and the same thing happened, at the same airport. I was sent to the "room" and after two hours they released me without giving me any information. I tried to ask the officer what's wrong and he said that he doesn't know. He only asked me if I had been fingerprinted before. I said no, as I believe he was referring to being arrested, and I have not and actually I never had even received a parking ticket in my life. He suggested that I should apply for Global Entry, but that also doesn't exclude the possibility of being sent to secondary inspection. This second time was worse because my flight was the last one of the day, so I ended up spending the night at the airport as it was very late to find a hotel and I was hoping to catch the next flight in the early morning. I have another trip planned in December and now I'm afraid to leave the country and go through the same experience again. 

 

Have anyone been to a similar situation? I don't know what to do. 

 

Thanks!!!

[Lucky2Lucky 2,526]

No experience here but if you are in and out of the country often applying for global entry is a good idea 

[cd37 229]

15 minutes ago, Chewbacca said:

Last year I entered the USA with a CR1 visa, and received my green card shortly after that. I had a visitor visa and a J-1 visa in the past and never had any issues entering the USA. I was recently hired by a company and occasionally I have to travel outside the USA for conferences/training. Three months ago I left the country for a week, and CPB sent me to secondary inspection. Someone told me that it's common for this to happen as it was the first time entering the country with my GC. I ended up missing my connection, but the airline booked me in a later flight with no cost. Last week, I went to another trip, and the same thing happened, at the same airport. I was sent to the "room" and after two hours they released me without giving me any information. I tried to ask the officer what's wrong and he said that he doesn't know. He only asked me if I had been fingerprinted before. I said no, as I believe he was referring to being arrested, and I have not and actually I never had even received a parking ticket in my life. He suggested that I should apply for Global Entry, but that also doesn't exclude the possibility of being sent to secondary inspection. This second time was worse because my flight was the last one of the day, so I ended up spending the night at the airport as it was very late to find a hotel and I was hoping to catch the next flight in the early morning. I have another trip planned in December and now I'm afraid to leave the country and go through the same experience again. 

 

Have anyone been to a similar situation? I don't know what to do. 

 

Thanks!!!

Do you generally get “SSSS” on your boarding pass when you fly ?

[Chewbacca 18]

5 minutes ago, cd37 said:

Do you generally get “SSSS” on your boarding pass when you fly ?

No, nothing in any of my boarding passes. I think it's so weird that I've been in and out of the country more than 20 times as a visitor or student, but as soon I became a Green card holder, I'm having problems. The opposite of what I would expect 😟

[Ben&Zian 4,398]

Just being a GC holder means nothing when you are in and out constantly. Depending on what country or countries you're visiting, it can raise suspicion. Even as a USC, going to some countries can raise questions as to why.

Best advice is if you still have to travel, seems your main issue is missing next flight, make sure to allow extra time between connecting flights to help possibly avoid it if possible.

[Chewbacca 18]

3 hours ago, Ben&Zian said:

Just being a GC holder means nothing when you are in and out constantly. Depending on what country or countries you're visiting, it can raise suspicion. Even as a USC, going to some countries can raise questions as to why.

Best advice is if you still have to travel, seems your main issue is missing next flight, make sure to allow extra time between connecting flights to help possibly avoid it if possible.

Thanks for the reply. I don't believe the issue is the frequency of the travel as in the first occasion I was out of the country for the first time in one year and only for 9 days, coming from a conference in London. But I agree, from now on I will book flights with a longer connection time. 

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

Sounds odd, from someone who also travelled frequently as a visitor before getting a green card.  Never had any issues returning, before or after global entry (which I got about 2 years after my green card]. GE by the way is highly recommended- it includes TSAPre and so is a huge timesaver for both domestic and international flights. 

[Orangesapples 1,954]

9 hours ago, Luckycuds said:

No experience here but if you are in and out of the country often applying for global entry is a good idea 

Some credit cards give you global entry for free (if you qualify), so that might be worth looking into. 

[Orangesapples 1,954]

4 hours ago, SusieQQQ said:

Sounds odd, from someone who also travelled frequently as a visitor before getting a green card.  Never had any issues returning, before or after global entry (which I got about 2 years after my green card]. GE by the way is highly recommended- it includes TSAPre and so is a huge timesaver for both domestic and international flights. 

Precheck is great but you can still get randomly selected to go through regular security and it's rather annoying when it happens. 

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

1 hour ago, Orangesapples said:

Precheck is great but you can still get randomly selected to go through regular security and it's rather annoying when it happens. 

Really? Never happened to me. The opposite used to happen, where I’d fairly often get put into TSAPre randomly before I signed up, but I believe they don’t do that anymore because the people who pay for it get annoyed or something...

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

1 hour ago, Orangesapples said:

Some credit cards give you global entry for free (if you qualify), so that might be worth looking into. 

Amex platinum does - it’s a great card that pays for itself easily if you travel a lot (lounge access, Uber credits, airline extras like baggage credits etc too) but it’s pricey if you don’t. 

[Orangesapples 1,954]

2 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

Really? Never happened to me. The opposite used to happen, where I’d fairly often get put into TSAPre randomly before I signed up, but I believe they don’t do that anymore because the people who pay for it get annoyed or something...

Yep, it happened to me and then to my husband a month later. The metal detector beeps a certain way and they tell you you've been randomly selected for additional screening, so you go through the other detector and some other stuff, I think. I hate the TSA process with a passion, so I was very annoyed. 

 

3 minutes ago, SusieQQQ said:

Amex platinum does - it’s a great card that pays for itself easily if you travel a lot (lounge access, Uber credits, airline extras like baggage credits etc too) but it’s pricey if you don’t. 

Yep, Chase also has a similar card, I'm sure there are others, too. 

[Amisharjil 26]

12 hours ago, cd37 said:

Do you generally get “SSSS” on your boarding pass when you fly ?

What does a SSSS mean on the the boarding pass?

[lierre 224]

That’s unfortunate. 

 

I travel frequently even while I was an LPR. I’ve realized (the sad way) that at least 2 hours layover will be better and cause less heartache. Also, traveling in the morning! So that in case I miss my flight, there’s likely more in the afternoon.

 

check out the Global Entry program, also includes TSAPre. And yes, AMEX reimburses the payment and you get access to AMEX lounges and certain international lounges (there was a really sweet lounge in Auckland!)

[visaqueries 111]

My husband had this problem.  Originally he was fine, but we drove (in our own car) over the border to Canada once.  When we returned, the officer sent us to secondary.  From that point on, my husband was always pulled aside when returning to the US...Japan, Australia, the Bahamas.  At the Bahamas, both of us were led to the secondary inspection.  From what we gathered from the side talks is that they struggled because my husband had such a long name (four last names to be exact) and that caused problems.  We always listed his first name as his first name and his other names as his last name (the way they do names in Egypt don't exactly match the way we do it here), and it appeared somewhere in their system his first name was listed with the first 4 names and his last name was the last one.  So, his name didn't match to them...even though all the names were the exact same.  He is away on his first trip as a US Citizen, so we imagine things will go much smoother on Friday when he returns (he legally shortened his name which should help).

 

What We Did:  First name: John  Last Name: Smith Jones Carpenter Lewis

What They Had In the System:  First Name:  John Smith Jones Carpenter  Last Name: Lewis

 

My husband was never interviewed.  He just sat and waited for them to clear him.  The reason we felt this was the issue was because the Bahamas CBP said, "Yes, it's fine.  It's the same."  The original officer just didn't want to make the call to clear us.