About our trip to NY next week - wow - how things have changed!

**Dutchie** · 08-08-2009, 02:33 AM

Dh and I have been a frequent visitor to the US - the last being last September when we entered the US via Canada on a cruise ship.

This time we are flying to New York and sailing back on a ship (done this before too and vice versa).

I have had to fill in our passport particulars so many times this time round
1) to book the flight
2) for passenger confirmation - for the flight
3) for homeland security on ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization - this started in January this year)
4) for booking the ship
5) for security purposes - on board the ship because we are leaving a US port (their story - I don't know if it is for other countries too but wasn't for Canada last year)
and 6) - however I am not sure if this will still happen - probably on board the plane on the temporary green card for our trip.

I'm also the type of person who double and triple checks this kind of detail so these kinds of things take me ages.
However if it makes things easier in New York, then I'm all for it. However I still have a funny feeling that there will still be a long waiting time at immigration at JFK.

When we flew to NY 2 years ago, I had to fill in the passport details twice - once when booking the flight and once on board the plane.

**frugalfranny** · 08-08-2009, 02:39 AM

Good luck and have fun on the trip.

now......don't you just feel sooooooo secure after doing all that???

**Dutchie** · 08-08-2009, 03:01 AM

Originally Posted by frugalfranny

Good luck and have fun on the trip.

now......don't you just feel sooooooo secure after doing all that???

To be quite honest, it freaks me out!!
Thanks - I'm sure we'll have a ball.
We leave on Aug. 18th and will be back on the 30th.

**homemaker66** · 08-08-2009, 08:06 AM

I know how you feel. My DH and I went out of the country in Jan of this year and what a time we had getting there. It was both physically and mentally draining. We now know that we are going to stay on the state side for every vacation from now on. We did not relax at all throughout the whole trip. I have to say we live next to the Canadian boarder and we never have any trouble going back and forth to Canada. Canada is a beutiful place to be.

**Luckybustert** · 08-08-2009, 12:20 PM

Sounds like a fun trip - enjoy! One of my favorite things in NY (aside from the usual tourist attractions) is the cheesecake at the Carnegie Deli

Are these just a lot of new requirements? Our trip to London summer before last was a breeze and don't remember having much paperwork to fill out.

I think it's a bit freaky having to give so much information all the time. It's like being on an electronic leash or something. (So much for freedom, eh?)

**mauimagic** · 08-08-2009, 04:51 PM

I'm glad that you brought this up - so the rest of us won't be shocked if/when we get to travel. Might be a good idea to get passport just in case!!

For a first timer, it wouldn't appear out of the ordinary to have to fill out all those forms - however, it's all obviously new!!

Have a great time!! My mouth is watering for realy NY cheesecake!!

**Linus** · 08-08-2009, 10:34 PM

Originally Posted by Dutchie

Dh and I have been a frequent visitor to the US - the last being last September when we entered the US via Canada on a cruise ship.

This time we are flying to New York and sailing back on a ship (done this before too and vice versa).

I have had to fill in our passport particulars so many times this time round
1) to book the flight
2) for passenger confirmation - for the flight
3) for homeland security on ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization - this started in January this year)
4) for booking the ship
5) for security purposes - on board the ship because we are leaving a US port (their story - I don't know if it is for other countries too but wasn't for Canada last year)
and 6) - however I am not sure if this will still happen - probably on board the plane on the temporary green card for our trip.

I'm also the type of person who double and triple checks this kind of detail so these kinds of things take me ages.
However if it makes things easier in New York, then I'm all for it. However I still have a funny feeling that there will still be a long waiting time at immigration at JFK.

When we flew to NY 2 years ago, I had to fill in the passport details twice - once when booking the flight and once on board the plane.

As a Canadian living in the US, I'm very familiar with a variety of the requirements needed to travel. JFKs immigration is actually pretty quick. If all your paperwork is order, it should be fairly quick. I think, at most, I've had to wait about 45 min for customs (the longest was an hour while they processed my visa).

I'm not sure that you're getting a "temp green card" as a green card is a permanent resident card for the US. It could be just a visa you're getting to allow for entry into the US. Do you know what airline you're flying with? Terminal 8 at JFK is awesome and it generally takes 5 min to process through the security gate.

It's actually not as bad as some think. Just make sure you plan in advance:

1. ensure that you meet the requirements for plane boarding (e.g., liquid limitations, suitcase limitations, etc.)

2. have all your paperwork in order and easy to find

3. nothing that will set off alarms and such.

4. Patience.

Good luck and have a great trip.

**Dutchie** · 08-09-2009, 04:55 AM

Originally Posted by Linus

As a Canadian living in the US, I'm very familiar with a variety of the requirements needed to travel. JFKs immigration is actually pretty quick. If all your paperwork is order, it should be fairly quick. I think, at most, I've had to wait about 45 min for customs (the longest was an hour while they processed my visa).

I'm not sure that you're getting a "temp green card" as a green card is a permanent resident card for the US. It could be just a visa you're getting to allow for entry into the US. Do you know what airline you're flying with? Terminal 8 at JFK is awesome and it generally takes 5 min to process through the security gate.

It's actually not as bad as some think. Just make sure you plan in advance:

1. ensure that you meet the requirements for plane boarding (e.g., liquid limitations, suitcase limitations, etc.)

2. have all your paperwork in order and easy to find

3. nothing that will set off alarms and such.

4. Patience.

Good luck and have a great trip.

Thanks for the good wishes and I'm sure that we will have a great trip, it's just that we are getting emails almost every day to remind us about documents and requirements and it is a bit unnerving since we have never had this before.

Believe me when I say that we have everything in order regarding paperwork. We travel quite a bit especially dh. He travels the world over and with the exception of Russia, the US is actually the most difficult regarding paperwork (our experience anyway).

We are travelling with Aer Lingus (Irish national airline - best prices for us at the moment).

Even 45 minutes seems such a long time for immigration since coming into Holland (even as a visitor) it takes all of 5 minutes.

It was stupid of me to call it a temp. green card, it is of course a temp. tourist visa - however it is big and green and we have always had to fill it in when travelling to the US by plane.
I have heard that Aer Lingus possibly has better visa agreements with the US and therefore we will have a shorter time getting through, but I am not coutning on it.

We have never had any problems at immigration and the officer at the desk the last time even joked with us which we found a little unusual.

The best immigration procedures that we encountered was in 2000 when we travelled by ship to New York from Amsterdam and we could do all of the immigration on board of the ship (each day a different deck was called between certain hours). When we arrived in New York, we gathered our luggage and just went into New York - SOOO easy.

I'm sure that everything will be fine.
Thanks

**ladykemma2** · 08-09-2009, 12:00 PM

the customs people will want to see that you have a return ticket. the fact that you DON'T have a return ticket will raise alarms, so whip out that boat ticket and intineray and have it handy.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 08-09-2009, 02:04 PM

I think the entire thing is overkill, to be completely honest. When you have people in your own country whom are planning jihad against your own citizens, I think that's a bigger red light than keeping other people out.

Anyways, I went through the immigration process post 9/11 and it's completely outrageous. When we were all travelling through North Dakota to go to Calgary, they turned us back because I didn't have a residence or a job anymore (this was because we were actually moving to Canada). When I got to the US side of the border, that's when the entire thing got way out of hand. The customs agents made me strip down to almost nothing and searched all of my things (they even took stuff out of the trunk of our car that I never got back) and almost didn't let DH back into the US because he had exceeded his 6 month stay. It was November in North Dakota and it was absolutely freezing, so they were going to leave us stranded there until they felt compassionate enough to let DH come with me.

We drove back to Minot and stayed for three days, got married and then they had no issue with us going back over the border into Canada. From November 2002 to August 2005, I went through so many hoops to stay here and in that time frame, I'd have had a baby with DH. Even with US military experience and no police record, it took us almost three years to get Permanent Residency.

Let's just say I have nothing but bad feelings towards any immigration process, especially being from the US where you don't have to enter legally to live there.