Why does my elderly mom keep getting questioned at customs?

April 19, 2024 8:16 AM

Mom (80 y.o., white, US citizen) flew to Amsterdam earlier this week to embark on a river cruise with her 75 y.o. bestie. At customs, she was questioned by the agent more than others in line ahead of her. This isn't the first time it's happened with recent international travel and she's mystified as to why.

In Amsterdam, the customs agent asked the purpose of her trip and if Amsterdam was her final destination. She was taking the train to Antwerp for the cruise, so she said no and the agent seemed to get irritated. "Why didn't you fly into Antwerp, then? Why are you going to Antwerp? Do you have proof that you are going on a cruise?" Last year, after arriving home from Germany, she was pulled out of line and her suitcase was searched by U.S. customs.

Is there a way to find out what's in her "file" (if there is such a thing), or is there anything she can do to reduce the chance of this happening in the future? She finds it very unnerving. She has no criminal record in the U.S. and was approved for Global Entry. She did get a citation in Berlin a few years ago for getting on the U-bahn without a ticket (due to a misunderstanding for which they were not at all sympathetic!), but she paid the fine.

posted by Sweetie Darling to Travel & Transportation (22 answers total)

The two interactions you describe are fairly normal. AMS customs is disconnected from US CBP; those questions are likely just a grumpy border person. I once had my bag searched because I had lemons in it - and I've also had random searches.

On the US end, your mom could look into a TSA redress number. It doesn't sound like the interactions are at that level (not being pulled into a separate room, denied boarding, etc.) Since she already has Global Entry, there's not much to do there. There is not anything she can do that would make a difference for all international borders.
posted by quadrilaterals at 8:33 AM on April 19 [3 favorites]

Does she have any issues in other customer service contexts, or is it just with travel? My mother had a knack for confusing the heck out of people in these kinds of roles and getting them frustrated, despite her being extremely polite throughout the interaction.
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 8:35 AM on April 19 [9 favorites]

Does she travel to Europe or outside the US in general often? Before I moved here, I used to get some (very mild) flack from the customs officers in Spain because I had a lot of Spanish entry stamps on my passport, even though I was always well under the 90-day annual limit. It's also possible she just has bad luck, or perhaps her nervousness due to the previous questioning is being mistaken for a guilty conscience by the customs officers.
posted by nanny's striped stocking at 8:40 AM on April 19

This sounds well within normal experience to me. I think your mum is taking it all a bit personally. Sometimes a border person is having a bad day or focusing on a specific type of situation. For getting bags checked, sometimes it’s just that day they’re checking every nth bag.
posted by warriorqueen at 8:42 AM on April 19 [5 favorites]

Are you basing this on just two experiences? Seems potentially just a coincidence - as others have noted, sometimes you get a grumpy customs agent, or get randomly selected for a bag search.
posted by coffeecat at 9:02 AM on April 19 [2 favorites]

Is your mother at all confused, anxious, hostile, or shaky? Some of these signs of aging are also prompts for follow up questions.

I have an essential tremor that gets worse when I am tired and stressed. An early morning encounter with a hostile border guard set off the tremor and pulled me into secondary. It was suggested to me in secondary that I should share this info earlier in the interaction to keep things from going sideways.

Keep an eye on things. If moms faculties degrade she may have to travel in a party that can assist her.
posted by shock muppet at 9:04 AM on April 19 [7 favorites]

Yeah. I agree that it's nothing out of the ordinary really. In my experience Schiphol officials are notoriously rude (encountering them after a sleepless night on the cramped plane might color my impression a bit of course.) Coming stateside, I can speculate that 80 year old grandma-looking people might have a higher than average tendency to bring in the fabulous fresh farm produce / meats , etc. they encountered in Europe (all frowned upon by USDA), so some profiling in customs is probably happening. Nothing you can do about either really.
posted by Dotty at 9:06 AM on April 19 [2 favorites]

Based on what you describe of her Amsterdam interaction, it sounds like she might be answering these questions very literally and without a higher level understanding of why they are questioning her and what they are trying to get that out it.

It might help to prep her before her next trip.

“Amsterdam is not my final destination. I’m staying in the city for a day to see the sights, then I’m traveling to Antwerp and will be on a river cruise for five days. I return to Amsterdam for a day before I fly out.”
posted by scantee at 9:07 AM on April 19 [5 favorites]

In Amsterdam, the customs agent asked the purpose of her trip and if Amsterdam was her final destination.

Customs or immigration at the Amsterdam airport? I'be been in that airport a lot (both transiting through and arriving to Amsterdam), and no one has ever so far as glanced at me walking through the "nothing to declare" gate in customs. The questioning at immigration is a little more thorough than many at other European airports, though (probably has to do with the fact that every agent speaks fluent English). So your mother's experience is not particularly surprising.

A baggage search for someone with Global Entry is a little bit unusual. Which US airport?
posted by mr_roboto at 9:20 AM on April 19

My guess is: a very rule based customs employee responding to perhaps some anxious behaviour.
In the EU we don't keep track of a U-Bahn ticket. Thankfully.
Pls tell her on behalf of this Dutchman: I'm sorry my compatriot was grumpy.
posted by jouke at 9:21 AM on April 19 [4 favorites]

I am wondering if she is approaching and leaving these interactions with a bit of an edge -- I know that I used to, because I was so nervous that I was doing or saying the wrong thing. I was interpreting any tone other than "friendly" as negative (an unwise and unfair assumption) , and this would stay stuck in my mind a bit, when the reality is that these are fairly routine, perfunctory interactions.

I also agree that the reason for the additional questions is because she did not answer what they are trying to understand, which is the purpose and destination of her travel. The questions can vary but the intent is generally the same.
posted by sm1tten at 9:21 AM on April 19 [1 favorite]

(also I'm assuming that OP/mom means passport control, not customs)
posted by sm1tten at 9:22 AM on April 19

Schiphol officials are notoriously rude

I am glad we aren't the only ones who have had this experience, but yeah, they can be exhausting.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 9:25 AM on April 19

I wonder if she shares a name with someone who is on an international watch list.

I have a relative who had this problem. He has a very generic American name --- imagine something like "Bill Stevens" -- but the name happened to be on the US terrorist watch list and for years he always got pulled aside when he went through any kind of travel security check.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 10:16 AM on April 19 [6 favorites]

I had a professor who was a sweet older white lady from the Midwest who said she always got stopped for additional screening presumably because she seemed like the type of person who would be happy to “help out” and carry a package for a stranger, or just hold their bag a minute while going through customs, etc and seeming naive enough to say yes.
posted by raccoon409 at 10:54 AM on April 19 [5 favorites]

I used to get pulled out for screening every time I flew - despite being a middle class white woman in my 20s/30s/40s - one time I was going through airport security with 10 coworkers (all of us in business clothes) and I was still the one who got pulled aside!

Someone I know who worked at an airport explained that they have a quota of screenings to get through per hour - so they pick travellers who look meek/compliant/not likely to make a fuss, as that way they can swab all the pockets of their handluggage for explosive residue faster and get them on their way faster and thus meet their quota of X people screened per hour.

I also had a security person in New Zealand explain that the reason that she was searching my suitcase was because everyone else before me/ahead of me in the queue was travelling with elderly parents or grandparents or young kids, and I was the only person she could screen without holding up 5 or 6 other passengers who were travelling with them.
posted by chariot pulled by cassowaries at 11:43 AM on April 19 [9 favorites]

Years ago my husband was treated ridiculously obnoxiously by customs agents when traveling between the US and Canada. He did some digging and learned that someone with the same first and last name and middle initial had been problematic on a flight and had had a record in Canada, as well as a known history of being disrespectful to their customs agents. Despite there being a good 20 years difference in age, the name alone was triggering something in the system.

Could this be similar? How common is your mom's name?
posted by nadise at 12:20 PM on April 19 [2 favorites]

I can echo the comments about Schiphol customs. I was leaving Amsterdam after 6 months on a fellowship and the agent almost didn't let me board my flight. Many many questions.

In my case, it was because my passport was my primary form of ID and I'd been in the habit of carrying it in my back pocket and the plastic around the photo was lifted. Totally one of those "well you should know better" situations, and he pointed out how easy it would have been to fake the photo. But since I had not, and manifestly was not going to change my story or crack under pressure, he eventually let me go.

Sorry your mom had this experience! Customs are assholes, it's baked into their job and she should not take it personally. Maybe her name is similar to one on a list, but it's equally likely the agent was just flexing on her.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 12:56 PM on April 19

Ha, even my cat got questioned at Schiphol coming in from the US... (What do you mean you're importing her here for one day then heading to the UK by ferry?). I'd say it's just luck of the draw!
posted by socky_puppy at 1:13 PM on April 19 [1 favorite]

Agree with the others that say that this is not particularly unusual. I'm a middle-aged white guy and I've experienced all of this, including getting pulled into a private interview because I was careless in marking my customs form.

Custom agents are usually intentionally trying to rattle you, shake your story, look for inconsistencies, or see where you get nervous. I've had my luggage searched to, according to them, verify my job. *shrug*

Once I learned that they intentionally try to rattle folks, I've been much more relaxed about it. Answer simply, truthfully, and don't provide any extra information. It doesn't seem to make much difference in how I'm handled, but my anxiety is lower.
posted by Ookseer at 1:22 PM on April 19 [1 favorite]

Mod note: Comment and follow-up removed. Please just stick to answering the question. Thank you.
posted by jessamyn (staff) at 2:58 PM on April 19 [1 favorite]

I got an extra long questioning once at Schiphol. I think they randomly select people to question a little bit more, and then if there's unexpected answer to one of those questions they'll basically switch modes on the spot. In my case I was staying with my sister in Haarlem but I was meeting her in Amsterdam, so when he asked "is that where you're going today?" I said "no, actually," and then I got the full assortment. But I'm also pretty certain that by the time he was done adding follow-up questions, he'd already been satisfied that I didn't present a risk and he was just amusing himself by seeing how detailed my plans were ("I'm supposed to take this streetcar to this stop and walk to this address."). At the end he handed me back my passport and very pleasantly said "you can buy an umbrella downstairs."
posted by fedward at 12:30 PM on April 20 [2 favorites]