I may have mentioned this before, but one of the things I love most about traveling is people watching. It’s so interesting to walk through an airport and see the wide variety of people. People from all walks of life wandering around the same space going who knows where. Its even more interesting when traveling through large international airports. Throughout my travels I’ve witnessed several interesting situations and on my most recent trip saw one worth mentioning. The situation made me laugh, but also served as a great reminder of a very clear ground rule for clearing customs in the United States.
Clearing United States Customs
If you’ve ever flown internationally chances are you’ve had to fill out one of the required single page document handed to you while arriving at your destination. In years past the form was a slender blue US Border patrol form which required you to manually enter you personal information. Generally when these forms were passed out the flight turned into a Lord of The Flies situation as passengers attempted to get their hands on the most precious commodity in the sky, a pen. Or at least that’s what it often felt like to me.
Today the United States Customs and Border Patrol has introduced several advances in customs technology which make the process much simpler. Most major international airports now have automatic kiosks which allow passengers to complete an electronic version of that blue form. The kiosk works by asking passengers to scan their passport and answer a few questions. Mobile Passport speeds this process up even more and reduces the total number of questions to four. The questions are extremely basic and easy to understand.
United States Customs and Border Patrol Questions
- Do I (we) have any commercial merchandise or am I (we) transporting currency or monetary instruments equal to or greater than $10,000 U.S., or foreign equivalent in any form?
- Do I (we) have any articles to declare that were acquired abroad and are being brought into the United States in excess of the duty free exemption? The duty free exemption is normally $800 for U.S. residents and $200 for flight crew members.
- Do I (we) have any fruits, vegetables, plants, seeds, insects, meat products, dairy products, animals, or animal/wildlife products, disease agents, cell cultures, snails, soil; or have I (we) visited a farm/ranch/pasture outside the United States.
- Have I (we) been close to (such as touching or handling) livestock outside of the United States.
Each question is extremely easy to understand and only requires a simple yes or no answer. Answering “No” to all of the above questions generally ensures rapid entry to the United States. Answering “Yes” to any of the above questions generally triggers additional screening. Keep in mind you absolutely should answer all of the above questions truthfully.
What Happens If You Eat Fruit In Line?
Question number 3 is specifically important for this situation. After disembarking from my long flight back to the US from Frankfurt it was time to clear customs. I was waiting in line, with my receipt, trying to exit the secured customs area. As the line inched forward, ever closer to the final guardian of the free world, a passenger decided to open her bag and begin eating an apple. She was roughly halfway through her apple by the time we reached the final border patrol agent. The agent took her electronic receipt for review and noticed she had clearly selected “No” for question number 3. Cleary this agent was on top of things because after reviewing the questions and noticing the apple he sent her to a separate area for additional screening.
I’m not sure exactly what happened to the passenger in questions, but from my experience additional screening can take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. Generally passengers are taken to a separate area for additional questioning and more intensive screening of their personal items. Any contraband items are removed and typically discarded. All in all additional screening is nothing to worry about, but it is sometimes simply frustrating, especially if the border patrol agent requires you to empty your baggage during their search.
Final Thoughts
Over the years there have been several times I’ve grabbed an apple or banana from an airport lounge with the intention of eating it on the plane. When I land and realize I still have the fruit in my bag I either leave it on the plane or throw it out immediately after disembarking to avoid this situation. No one is going to be arrested or deported for bringing fruit into the US, but by doing so you subject yourself to additional screening and added headache. Additionally, at the end of the day border patrol will more than likely require you to throw the food products out anyway.
Either way I thought this was an interesting experience I noticed the other day and thought that I would share. The Featured Image is a fruit dish from my Next Restaurant experience months ago.
