Is it an entire database of your travel history and criminal record and how do immigration officers use it to determine if you can enter or leave a country? What red flags can pop up from your passport photo/bio page? Cheers!
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The officer scans your passport to see basic info: Name, date of birth, country of citizenship, etc.
The passport page containing that basic info also shows a ‘code key’ that, when scanned, grants access to the chip which contains the same info. This helps the officer verify that the info shown in your passport is valid, and not a forgery.
For U.S. borders, once your basic info is in the computer, it can then be cross-referenced with various databases:
* Terrorist Screening Database (FBI)
* Border Crossing Information system of records
* Interagency Border Inspection System
* Other databases, including some created by other international organizations
Other nations do similar things at their borders. They’re checking for any red flags. If there are none, and the officer has no reason to suspect foul play, you’re granted entry.
Similar checks happen on the way out. Did you overstay your visa, or the permitted visa-free period for visits? Did you commit any crimes during your stay, and there is a notice stating that you should be detained? If not, you’re allowed to leave.
I have work with a company that handle border control automatically, from the passport there is very little information, little more that’s already written.
The kick it’s the passport number and boarding number, this info is crossed with DBs around the world to check if you have a warent, plus your travel comes from the boarding pass.
I had little interaction with our clients in the USA, but in Europe and Asia no extended travel itinerary was recorded/access por privacy reasons, but some information it’s used like current trip, this was very important during covid.
yep it changed in the uk around 10 years ago.
we know coz my lad was arrested at gatwick and had been in and out of the country many times.
but this time, with the new system he pinged
when i arrived at german border control, the guard seemed to know how long i was entitled to stay too quickly to have calculated from the previous date stamps in my passport so i assume there is some sort of local file that records whenever a passport crosses the border.
strangely, they seemed very confused last time because id arrived in france and left from germany – both in the common shengen visa zone – so i dont think all shengen countries share records.
In US passports the chip and the machine readable zone on the photo page only have information already printed visible in your passport. I believe entering the US the scan will query your photo based on the passport number so they can look at you, the printed photo, and the queried photo on screen.
I enter Israel fairly often and I have been asked “You seem to come here a lot, why?” after they scan the passport. So they must be able to see all the previous entries and exits.
FWIW, my wife is Israeli, when I tell them that they just give me back my passport and send me on my way. So I gather that comes up as well.
This was before scanners etc, but I remember being on the way back from visiting my then-partner’s family in Martinique, a French island close to the coast of Venezuela. I was flying into Paris and transferring to Amsterdam, where I lived at the time.
As I came down the airgate, a trio of armed French cops looked at me, down at a clipboard, and back at me. One then released the dog he had on a leash. Dog came up to me and sniffed me before trotting back to the cops, who clipped the leash back on and left.
Realised after that a lone male travelling that route must have set off a red flag, cos those cops definitely had a copy of my passport photo on that clipboard and thought I might have been carrying drugs.
Long time international traveler here.
Back in the day you used to have to fill out a customs form. It had the basic info like your flight, name, etc. If you had declarations, it had that.
Now with the advent of post 9/11 passports that are RFID equipped? It’s all embedded in that. When you book your ticket, they log your passport with the flight and in the US confirm your passport before you get on the flight. That starts you in the system.
I’m also a “known and trusted traveler” so it contains a lot of my past travel information. Once entering Canada, they asked when I’d last been there. “Hmm, like 3 months ago?” I forgot I was in Montreal not in Toronto. I got sent to immigration and we rehashed all my trips to Canada.
Another time, I got flagged and immediately sent to immigration and the guy asked me, “Do you still live at [old address]?” Again this was Canada.
“No”.
“Yeah our system flagged you, we need a new address”
I had to get some stuff done for my Nexus card and I was in Canada for like 10 minutes once. The US CBP asked “Why are you back so early?” I had crossed at one bridge and went back across the other (Bridge Ave and Rainbow Bridge). It’s a pretty common profile for drug runners and I immediately popped. It’s also common for what I was doing (retina scan).
So depending on the level of traveler you are, they may know a lot about you.
At the very least they know what flight you came on, what airport you originated out of. As far as US Canada relations go, they share criminal records across borders and many an unsuspecting traveler has been popped trying to go into Canada with a previous DUI conviction. I had a colleague who had a minor weed offense. Every time he went to Canada, he got sent to secondary immigration. EVERY. TIME.
So it depends, but probably a lot more than you think.
asking for a friend…
got busted in Canada for pot possession in mid ’70s, $100 fine, pardoned a year or so later. Been across to US dozens of times since, both for personal and business travel,
Never had an issue
Is there any mechanism i.e. freedom of information where he can pull up details of his file- thinking of applying for diversity visa and doesn’t want to gum up works so thinking of not declaring the bust
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