I have been waved through U.S. passport control in the past 10-15 years. This was before the facial-recognition cameras. They apparently had an RFID reader to scan the chip in my passport (which was in my pocket), because I saw my passport photo displayed on the agent’s screen as I walked by.
It’s not clear to me that the discussion is sitting on top of an established fact yet. Not saying it isn’t, but two cruises don’t constitute a data set. Quick Googling leads me to believe that cruise disembarkation has longer typical wait times, but I didn’t look into it beyond a few sites.
If I throw my own anecdotes on the pile: I’ve taken two cruises, and they were “bad” and “horrendous” in terms of disembarkation experience, mostly with CBP queues. I’ve taken too many international flights to count, and the experience varies wildly, but does include plenty of “just walk through” cases (and, to be sure, many “horrendous” cases as well).
It seems to me that there’s too much variation in cases – which air- or seaport? on what size vessel? at what time of day? in what era of biometrics? – to support the definitiveness of the speculations, and if someone told me that cruises actually had the worse range of CBP wait times, I wouldn’t be surprised either (and my very few spot checked sites pointed that way, but who knows. Well, someone maybe does, but I haven’t seen it here yet.)
To be fair…we took our time disembarking. We did not queue in the massive line waiting for the ship to open its doors. Instead, we went to the onboard restaurant and had breakfast. Our flight was four hours in the future so no rush at all. Enjoyed a nice meal and when we walked off the lines were minimal.
Which is to say, you can choose the crush or avoid it.
FWIW our ship has a capacity of 3,900 guests so quite large. Of course, it was nowhere near full capacity but I heard someone mention there was around 2,500 on board. (give-or-take)
We have Global Entry and both times we’ve used it, it has been seconds to get through. Well worth it.
This is an ancient memory from the only cruise I’ve ever taken (more than 25 years ago), but doesn’t a lot of the Customs workup get done in advance aboard ship? There’s plenty of time, plenty of space, and plenty of people to do it.
I distinctly recall doing declaration paperwork long before disembarkation at the end of the cruise.
The longest I’ve ever waited at passport control was when i took a boat (more an overnight ferry than a “cruise”) to St Petersburg, from Finland. The shortest was once in pre-Shengen days when i was on a train crossing some European border, and the passport control people came onboard at the last stop in the court we were leaving, and walked through the train, checking passports as they went. When we arrived, we all just walked off the train. They came to us, and we were briefly interrupted from staring out the window to hang them our passports.
I’ve flown a lot, and with global entry, i used to stop by a kiosk, have my photo taken, and then get waved through (with no line for either, typically.) This time, they’d removed the kiosks and asked us to walk to the agent with no glasses on. Well, i don’t walk around in public without my glasses, and didn’t see any kiosk, so i just made my way to the agent, who had me remove my face mask and glasses, and chewed me out for not doing so before i got to him. I pointed out that i can’t safely walk in a public place without my glasses. He told me to take them off next time, and waved me through.
If the OP has global entry and there were cameras, i think he did the new global entry thing. I’m going to have to figure out how to cope with it next time i enter the country. Probably, i should look for the cameras, (no longer at handy kiosks), face one, take everything off my face, then put everything back on and proceed. I prefer the kiosks.
FWIW the camera has no problem with me wearing glasses. It can discern who I am with them on or off. I guess the tech is better now.
I will say the TSA Precheck touchless (with camera…whatever they call it) is waaaay faster than even “normal” TSA Precheck (which is faster than standard security screening). I know some people bristle at having a camera scan them but, honestly, they already have your photo and you are on camera the whole time you are in an airport (probably not the bathrooms). I choose the easy and fast way. YMMV.
I don’t think this has anything to do with Customs. It’s not like the ship’s security officers interview you to determine you bought a watch and a design per purse in St. Martin that you are importing to the US on your return to Miami.
When I did the crossing from New York to Southampton on the Queen Mary I flew back through Iceland (spent a few days there) and then back to Chicago.
I stood in a line for an hour and the official I had to talk to absolutely asked me what I bought. I was right on the edge of “no taxes” limit. In fact, I think I was a bit over but only barely. He let me through. But I was quizzed about it.
I remember back in the “old days” airline crew would hand out a card/paper where you would list your purchases before landing so you would be ready for the customs part but I have not seen that again in decades.
In the case of a cruise ship, passport control might have a week or more to process the passenger list for red flags. Airports have mere hours assuming they make that attempt at all.
Japan has three lines for passport control: Japanese citizens, other residents and nonresidents. They are not automated but the lines are short for Japanese and residents.
You can register online for the customs part and that’s automated, but you can also fill out the paper card and get in line to talk to a customs agent.
I’m actually planning to go to Japan next year. When I booked my ticket, it said I need to fill out some form:
Do you know what is involved with this? I was surprised that I’m being asked to complete a customs form before I can even check in for my flight.
I do, kind of, because i filled it out a year ago when i visited Japan. I don’t think you are declaring what you are bringing, but mostly stuff like where you are staying and when you will leave.
I printed out the resulting CR code, which was handy at the airport. They had some backup system for people who hasn’t filed it out, like, tables and pens or something. But it was much better to arrive with it ready.
Ok, thanks! I know all of that now, so I guess I’ll go ahead and fill it out.
When I get off the cruise ship at a port and get back on, they have no idea what I bought in port. Sure, they scan my card and make sure the photo that comes up matches my face. They put any bags through the same sort of scanner as when I originally boarded. But the only thing they pay attention to is alcohol, which they take until the last night.
They might notify Customs if someone exceeded the duty-free allowance in the onboard shops by a lot.
I haven’t needed to do that in years - since maybe 2017 and I’ve been on 16 cruises that ended in all different ports. The port I normally use still has the stations but there are no agents there. The agents are handling the line for people traveling with a birth certificate and providing assistance. No forms are even distributed on thee ship. I think there’s usually a note in the disembarkation instructions that you are supposed to notify Customs if you exceed the duty free allowance. After 2017 or so, the only time I was asked about liquor and cigarettes was in Galveston because Texas imposed it’s own tax on every bottle or carton of cigarettes. Which they stopped collecting last week, probably because people were avoiding that port.
I only went through customs at an airport once- it took maybe 15 or 20 minutes at JFK.
When I’ve cruised they’ve scanned bags as people gave returned to the boat, and passengers go through a metal detector. But I concede that my experiences are limited and on further thought that’s not the same as actually knieing what has been purchased, so I withdraw my explanation.
Last time I went through immigration/customs at an airport was in Chicago and the line was easily an hour wait or more. Maybe lots of planes landed all at once. I dunno but it was awful. My sister had Global Entry (I only had TSA Pre-Check) and she walked right through in a minute. My TSA was expiring this October so I renewed and now have Global Entry (which is also TSA Pre-Check).
The Global Entry was a weird process (think the “interview”) but overall pretty easy. Especially since I already had TSA Pre-Check which they said they had all the data and would just move it over. The interview was a few questions like have you been convicted of a crime (no), have you violated customs rules (no). Ok…bye. A little more than that but not much and I had to do it in person.
Yes, it’s really easy. They just ask you the basic questions such as if you are carrying cash equivalent to more than ¥1 million, etc. as well as the details of the trip.
As @puzzlegal says, it gives you a QR code.
Smugglers, murderers, thieves, saboteurs, cat torturers etc. usually want to spend as little time as possible out in public being examined by the long arm of the law, so taking that slow boat to China just isn’t an ideal idea for them. They just want to do what they do in as short a time as possible, and disappear.
FWIW, many countries now have similar processes.
You give your info to their website before departure & you get a QR code which amounts to an electronic visa attached in their computers to your passport number.
The EU will begin this process later this year. Some EU countries have their own now which will be replaced by the EU-wide system.