MUST KNOW Immigration Questions at the Airport (+ Answers)

Ever find yourself standing in line at airport immigration, palm sweaty, wondering what types of questions they're going to throw at you this time to try to trip you up? Whether you're entering the U.S. or another country, it's important to know these customs and immigration questions that you could be asked in order to get through smoothly and avoid intense interrogations. And it's even more important to know the right way to answer them. Let's start with immigration's favorite questions to ask, and then we'll move to some off-the-wall questions that they sometimes ask to catch you off-guard. Some of these questions may seem obvious, but they're looking for certain things in their answers. The first question is, what's the purpose of your visit? The number one rule when answering all immigration questions is to be friendly, confident, short, and sweet. You do not need to share your whole life story. Just give them the information that they need and nothing more. In this case, they're trying to determine if your plans match the type of visa that you have. For example, you shouldn't be doing any in-person work in the country unless you have a visa that allows you to do it. So if you start to mention work when you're on a tourist visa, this could raise some red flags which you do not want. Next, how long do you intend to stay? Again, no need for too much information here. If you're staying for around three weeks, just answer three weeks. If you're not exactly sure, pretend you're exactly sure and give your best guess. All they want to know is if your plan fits within the allowed time that you have in the country. Most travelers know exactly how long their vacation is going to be. But if you're like me and have a lot of different open-ended plans and like ten different flights coming up, this question can throw you off. Speaking from experience, it looks kind of suspicious if you have to stop and actually look up how long you're going to be in the country. It's better to know your answer beforehand, even if you may change plans. The next logical question is to ask for proof that you're going to leave when you say you're going to leave. This is something that the airlines will normally ask you before you board the plane, especially if you travel on one-way tickets like we do. But it can also come up in immigration as well. And if they ask, you want to be prepared. That means having a physical or a digital copy of your tickets showing that you're leaving the country as well as the date. Plane tickets are your safest bet, but depending on the country or the border or the specific officer that you get, you also may be able to get away with bus tickets or even hotel reservations in the next country that you're visiting. If you're traveling open-ended on one-way flights, there are websites that allow you to rent proof of onward travel. These have worked for us several times in the past, but one time my wife ran into problems. So nowadays, I feel more comfortable just paying for a fully refundable ticket with a reputable airline. Whichever you choose, there's one easy to make mistake you want to avoid. If you don't actually plan to travel on the date of your rented or refundable ticket, it's easy to forget and let it slip your mind of the date of that actual ticket. This looks suspicious, so make sure that you have your plan and details straight before getting to the front of the line in immigration. Just to be clear here, these recommendations are to help you stay flexible with your plans. But you should definitely not overstay your time in a country. Next, where will you be staying during your stay? Always be ready to share the first place that you plan to stay, whether that be a friend's house, a hotel, or an Airbnb in X neighborhood. If you're like me, you may prefer to go with the flow and not have your entire trip locked in, especially if you plan to travel all around the country. But I would highly recommend not trying to enter a country without a place to stay lined up. Even if you like to go with the flow, it's always better to answer with a confident plan. A plan that you can always change later on. Instead of saying, I plan to stay at X place and then we'll see where I go from there, answer with, I plan to go to X, then Y, then Z. If they ask for reservations beyond your first stop, there's nothing wrong with saying that you're not sure of the exact dates yet, so you haven't made the reservation. But again, you only need to say this stuff if they specifically ask for it. The more you run your mouth, the more likely you are to say something that raises a flag. Also keep in mind that certain countries do require that you have your entire itinerary planned out, so make sure to research that beforehand. As far as proof goes, I always like to screenshot my reservations and exit ticket and everything so that I have it handy on my camera roll. That way, if my data or Wi-Fi isn't working and I can't access it, I won't start to panic. By the way, this is one reason why it's handy to buy a travel eSIM. You can set your data plan up on your phone before traveling so that it's ready for you the second that you arrive. This prevents sticky situations without internet and I'll link to some of my favorite eSIM companies below. Next, what's your occupation? Here they could be looking for a number of different things. They might be checking to see if your occupation matches the amount of money that you're bringing into the country. But as with a lot of these questions, they're probably less interested in your exact occupation and more interested in how you answer the question. If you're hesitant, red flag. If your work situation is complicated, make it uncomplicated. And if you're unemployed, just be honest. There's nothing wrong with traveling while being unemployed unless maybe you're traveling while being unemployed while having $10,000 in cash hidden in your socks. Answering that you're unemployed may prompt follow-up questions, but that's perfectly okay because you have nothing to hide. Next, how much money do you have? Depending on how they ask this question, you may not know exactly what they're looking for. Do they want to know how much cash you have right now in your fanny pack or do they want to know how much you have in your bank accounts? This usually means how much cash you're carrying with you because countries have different limits with how much undeclared cash you can bring into the country. They also could be trying to determine if you have enough money to support yourself for the duration of your trip. Many countries have financial requirements to enter and while a lot of times they don't ask for these, it's good to be prepared. My wife, Diane, learned this the hard way when she was flying into Spain alone. Apparently, their government website says that you need to be able to show $120 per day of your trip with a minimum of $1,100. Neither her or I have been asked to show a bunch of cash in immigration before and we always just use credit cards and withdraw from the ATM after we arrive. Technically, she should have been able to pull up a credit card or bank statement on her phone to show the officer. Another reason to have an eSIM, by the way. But in this case, I think the officer just had what Colombians call Garejo, which stands for ganas de joder or they're just in the mood to frick with people. The officer told Diane that since she didn't have cash or printed statements to show that she was lucky to be allowed in the country. Long story short, it's not a bad idea to Google financial requirements for whatever country you're traveling to before you travel there. Tap the like button if you're finding this video helpful so far. Next, did you pack your own bag? This is a question you're more likely to be asked by airline workers when you're checking a bag or before you board the plane. But you may get it when entering the country as well. They essentially want to know if you're aware of everything that's inside of your bag. If you are, say yes. If someone helped you pack it, tell them who helped you pack it, like your wife or your son or whatever. If you just say no without any explanation, they're probably going to ask you some more questions. Next, are you traveling alone? Just state the relationship of who you're traveling with, if any. Again, these aren't trick questions, but the officers are using every little piece of information you give to piece together your story to make sure it makes sense. When Diane used her U.S. tourist visa to enter the U.S. to come visit me and my family, I was always worried that the officers were going to give her problems if they thought that she wanted to stay illegally or something. Even though we clearly have our lives set up outside of the U.S. Because of this, we didn't know if it'd be safer to say that we were traveling alone or together. The answer is to always be honest, and that goes for any of these questions. Do some people get denied entry unfairly? I'm sure they do. But inventing stories is not the answer. Immigration is good at sniffing out B.S., and you do not want to get caught in a net of lies. Next, do you have family here? This helps them understand why you're visiting. There's nothing wrong with having family where you're traveling, as long as you're not planning to violate your visa or overstay. Answer truthfully and don't be scared. It also lets them know you have a support network if needed. If you do have family, be ready for some follow-up questions, like their name, address, and contact info. Next, have you been here before? Here they're still just piecing together a picture of your history and looking for any red flags. It's good to have at least a rough idea of your last visit, just in case they ask. This could be as simple as last summer or about five years ago. There's nothing wrong with not remembering exact dates, but not knowing how to answer something just adds to the stress and can make you nervous and over-talkative. If you have answers ready, you'll be less nervous and less suspicious. Next, where did you come from? They can clearly see where you came from by looking at your passport and boarding pass, but they want to see how you answer the question. If you have unordinary flight patterns like I do, this could lead to further questions. One time after entering the U.S. after being gone for over a year, the officer pulled me to the back room for an intense interrogation and a full bag search. He basically made me tell him my whole life story as he wrote everything down in the computer. This is unlikely to happen if you just are going on vacation for a month, but I had been flying all over the world on one-way tickets, including Egypt and Israel and Colombia, multiple times, so I guess I can't blame the guy. Do you have any items to declare? I recommend always checking what the country's rules are because if you don't declare something that you should declare, it's illegal. If you travel with normal travel stuff, you shouldn't have anything to worry about. But after watching some of these airport TV shows where people think flying around the world with 50 pounds of rotten fish isn't at all out of the ordinary, I don't want to make any assumptions on what people think is normal. Before getting into some weirder questions, make sure to grab my free long flight survival cheat sheet down in the description. It includes a quick and easy list that you can follow to have a smooth and enjoyable flight. So depending on your gender and which countries you're traveling in, you may also get some other questions that throw you off guard. I asked a big Facebook group of travelers and a bunch of solo female travelers spoke up. Many have been asked where their husbands were or why their husbands were allowing them to travel solo. This is most likely to happen when traveling in and out of Islamic countries. Other women have been asked if they have a boyfriend and if so, how long they've been together. This particular woman was later told that this question was to make sure she wasn't flying to this country to look for a husband. As frustrating as these questions and assumptions can be, I recommend trying to keep your cool. Since several of these immigration questions require proof or you may need to reference things, it's extra important to always carry around a power bank with you in case your phone dies. You can also just print everything out, but this is usually unnecessary unless you're specifically instructed to do this by your airlines or visa application or somewhere else. And if any of your answers makes the officer suspicious, they may take you to the back room for a thorough search. Obviously you never want to have anything illegal for the country that you're arriving in, but less obviously, you won't want to pack anything that may lead the officer to believe that you have different intentions for your trip. Like packing textbooks if you're not on a student visa. Or packing work equipment or a stack of resumes if you're not on a work visa. You may not intend to break any rules, but having this stuff makes you look suspicious and doesn't help your case. Keep in mind that immigration is only one of the two big intimidating areas that you need to pass through when flying. Before leaving, you'll also need to survive the dreaded TSA or airport security line, which can be a nightmare if you make certain small mistakes. To discover exactly what things you need to avoid, watch this airport security line mistakes video next. Follow Project Untethered on TikTok and Instagram for more bite-sized travel tips, and we'll see you in the next one. Bye bye!