onthepunt

I am moving to the USA next week as a student and im just getting ready to pack but would like some advice..

I plan on taking food.. Im not talking Chinese medicine ground Tiger spine, nuts or duck tounge, but plain old English sweeties like Jaffa Cakes and Double Deckers.. if I declare that I have food am I getting a guaranteed back search? Because I'd rather go without Jaffa Cakes than have the hassle of having someone go through my two heaving suitcases.

Also I am taking electronics, Laptop, Nintendo DS and a hard drive.. I plan on taking all this in my hand luggage as I don't want them pinched or smashed about, but am I going to have to boot up my laptop or show them whats on the hard drive? I'm certainly not taking anything illegal but I have personal documents, mp3s, videos and photos on there (I wouldn't want someone snooping through my PC at home) and possibly some "adult" entertainment.. again, nothing illegal but the sort of stuff you wouldn't want your mum finding under your bed, let alone a stranger!

Cheers for any help, you guys have already been a great help and my time as a student in the States is just about to finally begin

Bill_S

There have been reports of laptops being inspected/searched buy Customs and Border Protection. If you don't want them finding your porn collection, park it on RapidShare before your trip and scrub the files from your disk.

Hellopaul

Have gone in and out of the US to/from UK many times, always with my laptop and have never been asked to switch it on. Never seen anyone asked to do it either. So your lovely porn collection is probably going to be safe and moist!

GeoffM

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/va...restricted.xml might be useful for what is NOT allowed - I think your Jaffa cakes will be safe (certainly from me in any case).

Adult stuff... while not necessarily illegal within a country, some countries do not allow you to export/import even for personal use. The above page doesn't seem to mention it so maybe it's ok. But if it's on your hard drive then you might need to prove ownership for copyright purposes (original DVD for example; and this goes for other copyrightable stuff too) IF it was searched and found. Chances? Unlikely, though it does happen.

I've only ever had my bags examined once, and even then only to open it up for a dog to sniff inside, not even going through the contents.

anuny

While you are coming in as a student. It is not likely that they will inspect your laptop; however it is good to get rid of the nekkid videos & photos just to be on the safe side.

S Folinsky

Hi:

Lot of the searches take place in BOARDING the airplane. And the UK's pre-flight security is tighter than the US. It used to be that the US always required booting the machine before boarding, but it is actually rare now.

[I've wondered what would happen if the laptop had a dead battery. I took one trip with a dead battery and it was no problem. I travel with the oldest working laptop I have -- I don't care if it is stolen].

However, US Customs actually works on an honor system. You fill out a declaration on the airplane and then go through the "nothing to declare" line. I have always been waved through the customs inspector after dropping off the declaration. [BTW, the Immigration Inspector, who you see before picking up your luggage, will stamp the form].

Nutmegger

Doesn't that depend on the airport? I always enter at JFK and everyone goes through the same line and they read your form and decide if they are going to make you open your bag -- there is no "nothing to declare" option like the one available when I fly into Manchester. In all the years I've flown in there, I've only had to open up once, and it was done right there at the desk.

S Folinsky

I have entered via JFK and I really don't remember whether there was one line or two. But I still have not had an actual customs inspection -- the laptop never came out of the bag.

BTW, I have had thorough searches at departure from Heathrow and Ben Gurion.

anuny

JFK is not a single terminal or Immigrations processing point. Each terminal has its own. Terminal 1 is AF/Alitalia/JAL/Korean Air etc. Terminal 3 is Delta
Terminal 4 is kazzillion airlines Terminal 9 is AA Each have their own Immigrations and Customs handling.

Atlanta on the other hand has 1. Terminal E as it is called; where all international flights are assigned gates. (except Bahamas, Aruba where pre-clearance happens in the Island airport itself)

Nutmegger

Good point. I should have specified that I have entered at the BA terminal in JFK for many years, and they have no "nothing to declare" line, everyone goes through the same exit, which is why I felt folks should be aware that their mileage may differ.

anuny

Correct. A small anecdote - Last month a certain pax in my flight back had bought a ticket from an airline which had put had a codeshare, but was a DL metal. Her pickup was awaiting in the wrong terminal as DL and that airline do not have same terminals. Needless to say the pax was totally stressed out. For an occasional traveller this can become very confusing. Delta, (old Northwest), Alitalia, AirFrance are spread over terminals 1,2,3,4. With terminals 1,3 & 4 capable of handling immigrations and custom separately.

Bob

Just curious, but who bothers saving up porn these days when the "internet" is about?

Anyway, might get asked to boot up the laptop, but that's about all they'll realistically do, just to see it's a working bit of electronics.

Giantaxe

I always list food items as something more specific (e.g. "candy") and have never had my bags inspected despite doing so.

Nutmegger

I've been bringing in Wensleydale cheese for a few years, always list it, and have also never been asked to produce it. But I've seen folks with a bag of tomatoes from the old country that was immediately confiscated.

Jscl

We come through SFO and always list "chocolate" and/or "biscuits" on the customs form and the value, which is usually only $10-15 or so. Usually when we get to the final customs person he usually just says "what food do you have?" and I say "chocolate" and he waves me through. Once we had a "random" check and they put all our luggage through an x-ray machine, gave it back to us, and that was that. Not sure how random it actually was but it only took about three minutes.

We even had one guy ask us if we had marmite, and I laughed and said no, and he said something like "you guys" [presumably that's Brits] "always have tea and marmite." I think they don't really care unless it's meat, fruit, nuts or anything that could potentially hold bugs.

We've never had to turn on a laptop at either end.