SFO was the only airport where i had to wait in the security line starting from inside the plane. took 2.5hrs to reach passport control.
went again in february this year. 3 guys checking passports of hundreds of travellers. another 1.5hrs wasted.
meanwhile back in london i just scan my passport and go thru the automated gates. why can’t the US solve this issue? is it unions? is it federal government? what’s going on?
Passport control is CBP (a part of USCIS) and doesn't really have any relation to TSA, which is security checks to go from the "unsecured" (curbside) part of the airport to the "secured" (planeside) part.
> back in london i just scan my passport
Presumably your passport is a UK passport? Generally it's much quicker for a country's nationals to enter a border than foreigners.
>Generally it's much quicker for a country's nationals to enter a border than foreigners.
The UK is somewhat unusual in letting nationals of a number of countries, including the US, simply scan their passports at an electronic barrier and pass through without speaking to anyone, essentially the same as their own nationals; it usually just takes a few seconds. Many EU countries do this for EU and sometimes other European nationals, but rarely for the US.
The US is rather unusual in having their own nationals need to go through a non-trivial border control process, even with Global Entry. However, this is in part because many European countries have separate border control and customs processes, with border control before baggage reclaim, while the US tends to have them combined.
My son just back to the US after a trip to the UK. He was amazed by the automated scanning going into the UK. Then he got home and was treated like a criminal by the US border people.
went again in february this year. 3 guys checking passports of hundreds of travellers. another 1.5hrs wasted.
meanwhile back in london i just scan my passport and go thru the automated gates. why can’t the US solve this issue? is it unions? is it federal government? what’s going on?