BajaNomad - Possible cause of delays at the border???

Possible cause of delays at the border???

Debra - 6-4-2005 at 09:28 PM

We (Brendan, myself and a newbie Baja traveler) pulled up to the line at 10:07am Tuesday morning......"Okay, we start the count now" I say....."I have to give a crossing report on Nomads when we get back."

I'm driving and have passports ready in hand and ask my travel buddy for his Drivers License, we get to the border agent at about 10:35am.....I hand the documents over, "Where have you been?, How long? Where are you going" I answer the questions then he looks at our documents and notices my friends address on the license....."Oh, you are from Port Orchard" "yes" I say.....he says, "I was stationed in Bremerton for about a year and a half in the Navy,. then went back to Guam for awhile" We chat for about 5 mins. (maybe more) He asks about how things are going up here, what I think might happen with the latest round of base closers (do I think Bremerton or Everett might be closed......"Not if Norm Dicks can help it" I assure him, (Senior Senator from our state Congress) He tells me that he would really like to come back to our little part of the world (I'm thinking that if the people behind me know what is going on they would really be PO'ed! :lol:

All in all the crossing took about 40mins. (not bad with the chating session and all)

I can't help but think (and I mentioned this to my travel buddy even before we got up to the booth) that it must be the second most boring job in the world, next to gate agents at the airports.....although they have to have it worse, they must get so much caca! (gate agents I'm meaning)

Anybody else have chatty border agents?

pokey - 6-4-2005 at 11:12 PM

Not me but after waiting in line I'm usually eager to get on with my day so I avoid any chit chat. My conversations with customs usually go like this: citizenship? U.S.... Truck yours? Yes.... Have a nice day. You too.

oladulce - 6-4-2005 at 11:33 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by pokey
Not me but after waiting in line I'm usually eager to get on with my day so I avoid any chit chat. My conversations with customs usually go like this: citizenship? U.S.... Truck yours? Yes.... Have a nice day. You too.

Well that doesn't sound very pokey at all.

yankeeirishman - 6-4-2005 at 11:43 PM

....."Oh, you are from Port Orchard"
Did you know that they are testing you? They already pulled up your data on the computer on you (history and profiles), to ask questions. Not chatty agents..they are doing their jobs!

Just chatty?

John M - 6-5-2005 at 05:44 AM

Yankeeirishman has it about right. They also are watching for your body language, nervousness, voice inflection, and that of others in your car.

On one of our many trips to secondary inspection, an officer one time told us that a number of the people sent to secondary is just because of a hunch, or "feeling" the officer had when talking to you.

I suppose there may be the occasional chat, just to chat, but it would be rare.

pappy - 6-5-2005 at 09:04 AM

one time, when asked what i had to declare coming back , i told the truth-i have nothing- (i didn't even have a leftover beer or two, iwas literally empty).bam! straight off to secondary.wasn't too long of a wait.the officer asked waht's up, i told him.he looked in my ice chest, (which only had some ice left) scanned the back of my truck and shook his head, laughed and said get outta here.he aslo gave me a good tip-at least say you have a bottle of booze or something.apparently saying you have nothing is an open invitation into secondary.the thing was it was the first time i told the truth!(usually we would bring back a little more beer/booze than allowed, so we were always a bit worried about dealing with that)since that time i always make sure i have a couple beers in the cooler so i will be legit when declaring " a couple of leftover beers"

as you drink that saved beer....

yankeeirishman - 6-5-2005 at 09:34 AM

here's a link for time factors on crossing the border.
http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/general/times/menu-e.html

comitan - 6-5-2005 at 10:11 AM

The link below is for wait times for all USA borders. You will see that the wait times for San Yisidro and Otay Mesa are consierably longer than any other crossing WHY???????

http://apps.cbp.gov/bwt/

pokey - 6-5-2005 at 10:46 AM

Busiest border crossing in the world?

comitan - 6-5-2005 at 11:18 AM

After going back to that site I find that right now they have 21 of 21 lanes open 90 min wait, they have more lanes than any other crossing. Therefore are the busiest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tucker - 6-5-2005 at 11:31 AM

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? I gather that a big race is going on up north of here today, could account for the heavy traffic. Read Hose A's earlier posts.

whatever you do...

eetdrt88 - 6-5-2005 at 01:02 PM

dont try to bring any oarnges across the border...i accidentally did this once and got very chewed out by the border cop...didnt matter that i had purchased the oarnges in the u.s.,that actually made it worse.....i guess the lesson here is,eat the damn oarnges while youre in baja :lol:

Debra - 6-5-2005 at 04:37 PM

I suppose you might be right about "testing" but, in this case the guy talked more about himself than asked questions about us.