My husband and I will be going on our honeymoon on Friday. This will be the first time I use my AP. We are going on a cruise. When the cruise ship gets back to Tampa (which i presume is where we will clear immigration) what should we do...
a) me go through non-citizens my husband through citizens
both of us go through non-citizens together
c) both of us go through citizens together

This is probably a dumb question, but I just want to do the right thing. Thanks for any helpful input.

A non-citizen or non-Us PR must always use to non-citizen line..

A USC or PR has the option of using the citizen or non-citizen line.

So if you want to go through together, both of you should use the non-citizen line

I havnt been on a cruise since 9/11, but before there was never any immigration to clear. The ship would dock, and you would just sit around for 45 minutes or so while immigration came aboard and went thru the ships manifest since the cruise line checked out everyones status before boarding. After about 45 minutes or so, they would announce that the ship has been cleared and everyone is free to go. Maybe its changed...would surprize me.

Hi DF,

Sadly (or 'thank goodness', depending on one's point of view) it looks as though things have changed a lot already and are continuing to get more complicated ... I 'Googled' and immediately found This link to a page at Cruise Direct with all the relevant info. The gist of it is that you would need to have the right ID with you these days. So it seems the OP Claire is right to think that she will need her her passport and AP document, even if they never actually get looked at!


As to which immigration line to use, Claire ... the advice offered by zyggy seems sound to me and I hope you have a wonderful honeymoon!

All the best,

Sheila

Thanks for all your help. I hope I don't get too many blank faces when I present my AP!!

zyggy,

When my wife came in on her K1 visa, and again using AP, both times we were directed to the citizen line by the USCIS staff 'working the floor'. Two different airports - JFK and DTT, if I recall correctly.

May depend on the POE and the conditions at the POE at the time.

Yodrak