3 ms·

Heck, I've been quizzed this way by agents of the US while returning to the US, as a citizen, from abroad. What's your job, what did you do on your trip, how lo

Heck, I've been quizzed this way by agents of the US while returning to the US, as a citizen, from abroad. What's your job, what did you do on your trip, how long was it. This was before I got on the plane, in a foreign airport. They aren't interested in the answer, they're interested in whether you have a ready answer and don't sound evasive.

gruez 6y ago
>They aren't interested in the answer, they're interested in whether you have a ready answer and don't sound evasive. It doesn't seem too hard to remember the answers to four questions and practice it beforehand.
- Kalium 6y ago
  You're absolutely right, it doesn't seem difficult at all. That said, have you ever had stage fright? It's pretty common. Practice often seems to melt away when an actual performance is at hand. With that in mind, it's perhaps not unreasonable to think that this particular bar - quite low as you rightly and wisely point out it seems to be - will trip up no few liars at scale.
  - tehjoker 6y ago
    If you've ever been low on coffee and have a brain fart you get harassed too.
    - Kalium 6y ago
      YMMV. It's been my experience that customs agents the world over are accustomed to dealing with very tired people.
- roywiggins 6y ago
  It's probably harder if you you're a first-time drug mule or whatever. This isn't designed to catch out international terrorists so much as people with illegal substances in their underpants. And of course there are follow-ups: I got asked what programming languages I use at work. All very casual-like.
shadowgovt 6y ago
My experience and the experience of some friends of mine has been that questioning as much more stringent entering the US than leaving the US. in fact, I have a friend who took a day trip to Canada with no problem and then, upon attempting to reenter the United States, was blocked because she had not brought her passport. Canadian authorities had accepted her driver's license as sufficient proof of identity for entering their country; US authorities would not accept it for reentering her home country.

gruez 6y ago

>They aren't interested in the answer, they're interested in whether you have a ready answer and don't sound evasive. It doesn't seem too hard to remember the answers to four questions and practice it beforehand.

Kalium 6y ago
You're absolutely right, it doesn't seem difficult at all. That said, have you ever had stage fright? It's pretty common. Practice often seems to melt away when an actual performance is at hand. With that in mind, it's perhaps not unreasonable to think that this particular bar - quite low as you rightly and wisely point out it seems to be - will trip up no few liars at scale.
- tehjoker 6y ago
  If you've ever been low on coffee and have a brain fart you get harassed too.
  - Kalium 6y ago
    YMMV. It's been my experience that customs agents the world over are accustomed to dealing with very tired people.
roywiggins 6y ago
It's probably harder if you you're a first-time drug mule or whatever. This isn't designed to catch out international terrorists so much as people with illegal substances in their underpants. And of course there are follow-ups: I got asked what programming languages I use at work. All very casual-like.

shadowgovt 6y ago

My experience and the experience of some friends of mine has been that questioning as much more stringent entering the US than leaving the US. in fact, I have a friend who took a day trip to Canada with no problem and then, upon attempting to reenter the United States, was blocked because she had not brought her passport. Canadian authorities had accepted her driver's license as sufficient proof of identity for entering their country; US authorities would not accept it for reentering her home country.