US Declaration Cards given out even though they were unnecessary
- By
- Aparna Patel
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- 11 Aug, 2023
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In my experience, every airline offers US declaration cards out to all inbound passengers, regardless of whether they need them. Until fairly recently, everyone needed them (in fact, there were multiple forms and it was all rather a mess), and the rules as to when you need them are quite confusing: are there APC kiosks at the destination airport? Are they working? Are you eligible to use the APC kiosks (and the rules on this sometimes vary at different airports, making it even worse)? Will you use the APC kiosks if you’re eligible? Are you traveling with someone who is in-eligible and want to go through together? Will they throw up some kind of error when you try to use them? Do you need to document the value of your foreign purchases because you’re over the duty-free allowance?
Cabin crew have enough to do without trying to sort through all that and interview every passenger about whether they need a form. So they simply offer one to everyone, most people fill them out, and some passengers find out they did so unnecessarily. Irritating? Yes, but I’m not convinced fixing this is high on anyone’s priority list right now.
I’ll sometimes decline the card if I know I don’t need it. A quick “no thanks, Global Entry” is sufficient. (If it’s a carrier that doesn’t operate a lot of flights to the US, it may take a couple more refusals or an explanation that you really promise you don’t need the form, thanks so much for offering. They did not seem to think I knew what I was talking about when I did this on Air India.) That said, there is some value in filling it out even if you don’t think you need it, as you might find the kiosks or the mobile app aren’t working for you, and then you’re delayed at the back of the line while you fill out a form at the airport.
Credit:stackoverflow.com‘