Stopped at airport because of expired esta

[teanet 20]

So I was at the airport and I had to show my passport and plane ticket and the guy looked at immigration officer who called me on side and started looking through my passport and asking for purpose of visit because they noticed my esta was expired. I showed him my green card and no troubles, I just never heard that they re checking passports for expired visa while leaving USA, is it always or just sometimes they check? And what happens if they catch somebody with expired visa when they re leaving USA? Just curious

[JimmyHou 611]

So I was at the airport and I had to show my passport and plane ticket and the guy looked at immigration officer who called me on side and started looking through my passport and asking for purpose of visit because they noticed my esta was expired. I showed him my green card and no troubles, I just never heard that they re checking passports for expired visa while leaving USA, is it always or just sometimes they check? And what happens if they catch somebody with expired visa when they re leaving USA? Just curious

The airlines are always supposed to check your US visa or green card when you leave the country. The first three or four times after I got my green card, the check-in agent flipped through my passport, didn't find a valid visa and asked me "do you have a green card?". Since then, I've just always handed my green card to the airline agent along with my passport.

I never knew what would happen if I didn't have valid proof of status, but I guess you've answered that for me.

This is only slightly related, but I'll add it here anyway:

This is one potential problem that people face after naturalization. Some people want to travel immediately after their oath of citizenship and don't want to wait for their US passport. Of course, US citizens are legally required to leave and enter the US on a US passport, but some people think they can leave and then apply for a passport at a US embassy and then use that passport to reenter the US. Of course, not only does this violate US law, but it may also be caught by the check-in agent because the traveler won't have a valid visa on their foreign passport and will have surrendered their green card at their oath ceremony. Of course, for visa waiver countries, the chance of getting caught as you are leaving is lower, but as the OP described above, it does happen.