OK may sound wierd but it’s happened to me enough where I need to mention it. Because over packing is so prevalent I swear that some customs / immigration offlcers view a single traveller like me with only carry on as some red flag… Ask questions like “you don’t have any checked baggage?”, “this is all you have?”… I’ve been selected for random searches like that enough times to think it’s not a coincidence. “you are travelling for 3 weeks and only have carryon?” answer “I use laundry service on the trip” reply “step this way”, and they proceed to pull everything out of my bag and check every crevice lol. Just a heads up 🤷 EDIT :my travel is international to the carribean and south America so the red flagging would be more likely… Domestic US or CA flights would probably be less likely to experience this
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Yup, one-bagged it to Vietnam and Thailand in 2019.
Canadian customs on my return home seemed to be trying to trip me up by asking over and over in different ways if I had any carry on, and when I said no then “why not?”. Like dumb ass, have you never heard of travelling light?
Then I got the same questions in the *step this way" room, including an “I’ve never seen anyone pack so efficiently before”! Like wtf did you expect… I’ve only got one bag, gotta pack things properly.
I realized then that customs agents aren’t the brightest bulbs in the pack.
Hahahaha on your brightest bulb comment, I’m a Washington Redskins fan (aka Commanders now) once I had on a Redskins Jersey and baseball cap coming into Miami and the Immigration officer at the kiosk where they check your passport asked me why did I have on Redskins stuff😂😂 No fucking joke… I said because they are my team… Do you know he then asked me “who is the coach” and “who is the quarterback” ?? And he wasn’t joking HaHahah i happened to know… But suppose I was a dumb fan who didn’t, would I have then gotten pulled aside for not knowing stuff about my team? 😂 😂 😂 😂
Getting shit on when returning home to Canada is super annoying. Like, they literally have to let us in - worst case scenario to Canadian jail, sure, but they still must grant Canadians entry into Canada. So if they want to search all my stuff, go for it. And I’ll answer the basic questions in a friendly manner. But if they start accusing me of nonsense my new policy is to just stop talking entirely and tell them they are free to do whatever they like, just let me know when it’s complete.
it often depends on how ticket was booked. Roundtrip with one airline is less suspicious. Booking one way with limited packed bags gets a frown. I have travelled for work and the odd things were some security guy was concerned I travelled with two lap tops, and I got hand swabbed. And had additional security screening at each change over. But I also have had the opposite a few times: 1) push this randomizer, red you go through security protocol, green you get a pass all the way through the easy route. it lit up green and the person was legit surprised and confused that it showed green. 2) there was a military funeral years ago, i happened to be in the airport most people flew out from. i am not military. But had a buzz cut and good posture. The passport screener waved me through to the nexus line. I get to there and they are like where is your nexus pass. i explained I didn’t have nexus and that person sent me here. They just took my word for it and I zoomed through. so security can be a joke