There are always possibilities of something to happen during your trip. There is a chance for every traveler to get detained in the airport. This can happen anywhere as well no matter what destination you are going to travel to. It can happen when you are on your way to your destination or re-entering your country. There are many reasons of why you get detained. Being anxious is common when you experience this. However, you need to stay calm and follow the process as instructed. Even when you have nothing to hide, it is kind of common to at least feel nervous when you have to deal with this situation.
Getting detained in the airport during your trip, what should you do?
People may have different way to deal with stressful situation including when they are in detained at the airport. Some of them remain calm and others go into a full-panic mode. Here are things you can do to deal with this situation:
- Follow the instruction of the officer and don’t joke around about it. Throwing jokes here and there when you are detained is not a wise move. The last thing you need to do is to show yourself as a threat. However, acting too friendly with the officers and make some jokes is not the right thing to do no matter how friendly they are to you. Instead of joking, you need to stay calm and answer every question clearly. This will help to quicken the process.
- There is no certainty of how long you will be detained in the airport. You can stuck from half to few hours. It usually depends on the case. For example, you may need to prolong your trip if the cause of you being detained is visa issue. To help you be more prepared with this kind of situation, it is better to do some research of your destination regarding to the custom process.
- When you are detained in the airport, there is high possibility to miss your own flights. This risk should be handled calmly even though it is stressful enough to make you go into panic mode. Remember that the officer might not care whether or not you are going to miss your flight. They are associated with it after all. The best thing to do is to work it out with your airline agent and find the best solution regarding to the situation you are currently in.
- You need to keep in mind that Customs and Border Protection officers have the authority to look through your files even if they are digital privacy. However, you need to make sure that they do their job under a supervisor. You also need to be present during the search so there is no chance for them to violate your information. You also don’t need to worry too much because it is often a shallow examination. Deeper search and examination will be performed if they find it necessary and there is reasonable suspicion.