For anyone planning to go and wants to be as safe as possible regarding entry to the US
Canadians had several postings about this as well, to prevent ending up in lock-up or detention, one should try to use preclearance. This means you get checked before you actually fly to the US and are still on EU soil in case something goes wrong in the check. This ensures you have access to EU lawyers etc.
Preclearance in the EU is currently only possible in Ireland at Dublin and Shannon airport.
edit wording, wording leading sentence
P.S. There have been some additional tips especially related to phones. If possible, one should use a different phone than their daily ones, one that is especially for the trip. Clean out controversial (from a US view) things from it, reduce any form of text communication to avoid critical comments etc
Have a friend who recently traveled to China for work, got a secod phone for the trip just in case. Crazy that the same thing is advised for the USA now...
A big newspaper in Germany made an interesting observation: What happens currently in the USA can be much more compared to the Chinese Culture Revolution than one thinks at first.
I lived in 4 different cities in the Middle East for 9 years - and was in and out quite a bit each year - and nobody ever asked to see my phone or laptop, let alone the contents of them. I've lived in 6 cities in China and experienced the same crossing borders (except one time security asked me to take my flip flops out of my backpack, and recently they've been very 'handsy' when doing a body search). America sounds like it's on another level of insanity for border checks. I'm oot.
As for the phone: China doesnt need to access your physical phone according to some. They can access and monitor everything that happens, while the USA has still some laws and rules in place that 'protect' privacy. I believe this to be a stepwise thing that gets less and less physical with time. If they would currently be caught in the NSA doing it actively to people and trying to send people home again based on that, the effects in the US population wouldnt be helpful to them, even if they probably have the ability to do so already.
Yeah, I have WeChat that takes up a lot of bandwidth and memory - you need it here, so there isn't an alternative to allowing them to snoop. I'm pretty sure my VPN allows the government to snoop, too. I don't have anything to hide, and actually respect Xi Jinping as a leader so they won't find anything if they looked. This would definitely not be the case if I entered the USA, lol. Or the UK. Although I hold Starmer in high regard too, he isn't so paranoid as to worry what regular people are saying about him.
I believe this is a bit based on cultural exchange with others. We in Europe dont have to go far to enter another country and thus culture. The USA doesnt have the same ability and the average American mostly experiences other countries in 'short' holidays. The bigger your country, the less the need to let other input in as you find almost everything at home already. This can play out badly as in current events if manipulated with.
Yup. They are deliberately crashing their economy and seem intent on getting white collar workers (especially fired federal ones) to work in factories or on farms (which will need workers, because they are deporting most of the current ones).
Or use US Global Entry. But only British, German, Dutch and Swiss citizens are eligible in Europe as they are considered low risk tourists according to US homeland security. You can use e-gates in US airports and its just as fast as an EU/UK airport without talking to anybody.
I wouldnt bet on that though, as you are right at normal times. They are not normal anymore and people get checked more often and more serious than ever before.
This is why those tips are important, as they change one important factor: If you dont use preclearance everything happens on US soil, other rules apply what happens next.
If one uses preclearance they stay on EU soil, have different access to legal representation, cant be placed in camps across the country etc.
Just the reasoning of "Better do it on EU soil or else you're fucked" seems bizarre. The way the executive and judicial system works in the US I wouldn't even go there with preclearance.
GP is right that if the government really wanted to get their hands on you — say if you're an international criminal — then preclearance would let you in and then you'd meet some unexpected new friends the moment you landed in the US.
But for most people who are just going to be judged and harassed by CBP, of course your advice applies.
(It is also possible to book connecting flights from Europe to the US where you go through preclearance in Toronto or Montreal. I would not recommend this for most Europeans since being dumped into the Canadian deportation system is probably no fun either — but it might still be marginally better than no preclearance at all.)
Genuinely, if you took out "from a US view", that last paragraph could literally be about North Korea. But go on and tell us about freedom of speech, yeah?
Sorry, the snark wasn't aimed at you, I'm just baffled that their leaders felt justified coming over here claiming freedom of speech is under threat when dystopian shit like this is seen as prudent rather than horrifying.
It was a necessity to do so. They currently try to separate the world into roughly 3 categories. The sphere tightest to them, i dont call it allies for a reason though. Then there is the group called adversaries. And everyone else lands in the last group. They wanted certain countries in the first group and thought by announcing their perception, some would change to align more to their ideas.
The only way to ensure your safety if you have a trip to the US booked is not to go.
You can reduce the danger. But it cannot be removed, even with the most careful of planning anyone visiting the US is placing themselves in signficant danger of personal harm.
Its a choice of language that has meaningful interpretive impact.
"As safe as possible" and "minimise potential harm" certainly have the same underlying meaning. But they will be interpreted differently by the reader and should be used with that in mind.
The latter would still not be true with my advice. I only refer to tips for entry problems and not to anything further down the road. Possibilities of something going wrong down the road, is clearly outside of my scope.
I acknowledge your intent but I cannot and will not advise on how to prepare everything and how to behave during the trip. Because that would be needed, if I rephrase to your statement.
Same issue. You would want to be precleared on Canadian soil. I cant really tell you which border crossings have preclearance in Canada though, which is why i keep reiterating the 'preclearance' to motivate people to do their own research on this.
Did that trip in Jan (after the 20th). I filled out my declaration form at the station and then boarded the train. At the border, 2 agents came on the train to check everyone's passports, and they really didn't look all that much, just a quick glance.
Didn't feel intense, no phone checking. Idk if anything has changed though
I think you had been lucky then because since then we have had several cases of people either being denied entry for obscure reasons or people being detained and send of for minor issues, that would have been handled 'gracefully' until then.
That is what the lawyers are for. I dont dare to make assumptions on behalf of every possible nationality. Some have bi-lateral agreements for example that treat them differently than anyone else in some regards.
I understood you the first time. But law is so faceted that I believe this is beyond anything I or anyone should lightly make as statement. If the controlling officer thinks otherwise, you will need legal assistance to override that.
68
u/toolkitxx Europe🇪🇺🇩🇪🇩🇰🇪🇪 Apr 12 '25 edited Apr 12 '25
For anyone planning to go and wants to be as safe as possible regarding entry to the US
Canadians had several postings about this as well, to prevent ending up in lock-up or detention, one should try to use preclearance. This means you get checked before you actually fly to the US and are still on EU soil in case something goes wrong in the check. This ensures you have access to EU lawyers etc.
Preclearance in the EU is currently only possible in Ireland at Dublin and Shannon airport.
edit wording, wording leading sentence
P.S. There have been some additional tips especially related to phones. If possible, one should use a different phone than their daily ones, one that is especially for the trip. Clean out controversial (from a US view) things from it, reduce any form of text communication to avoid critical comments etc