CBP questioning

[Precisely 95]

22 hours ago, iranianspouse said:

My spouse is an Iranian citizen who lives in a middle eastern country that has OK relations with the US. This is my third trip and something interesting happened as I flew out of the US this time. I was taken aside as I was about to board the plane by CBP and was asked the following questions

1)      Purpose of visit : Visit spouse

2)      spouse name

3)      spouse occupation

4)      How long

5)      spouse address

6)      spouse citizenship

7)      My Countries visited

😎      My social media handles

9)      How much cash I was carrying : 5000

10)   Is that all I have? Yes

11)   My address

12)   My occupation

13)   My phone numbers and email addresses

I truthfully answered everything, and even told them that I have already filed I-130 and all of this information is already on there. She wrote down all my answers on a notepad with a pen.

Now I am in a bit of a dilemma. We are having a wedding reception in a couple months, and I was carrying around 5000 USD for this purpose (I knew there is a 10K limit before I had to declare). The office simply asked was that all I had, to which I answered truthfully, yes. They did not ask or search anything in my bags. I did not volunteer why I had that much money on me, and she did not ask.

My spouse is Iranian, and Iran is sanctioned, but none of the money is going to iran (we will spend it for our wedding here) for things like wedding dresses, jewelry etc. I am trying to put as much of it as possible on my card, but jewelers, DJ’s, photographers here only take cash.  Is any of this going to be a problem?

To be fair, the questioning was extremely professional, and I never felt threatened. It was over in less than 5 minutes. I suspect, since it was my third trip to a middle eastern country that I don’t belong to, they just want to ensure Im not insane.

 

Am I being paranoid? Anyone else been through this? 

I'm from the UK and have been stopped on both of my visits to the states. I think it's random checks or some unknown reason for being singled out, perhaps my Russian surname, but it shouldn't cause much concern. The fact that you said you were visiting your spouse makes it only logical that they would ask further questions about him, and I doubt that they have been keeping tabs on your relationship to be flagging him as an issue!

Edited November 22, 2018 by Apelcina

[Michael2017 368]

It seems like, that some software has flagged you. It is NOT normal to be questioned before flying out. I made more than 500 airplane trips in my life and this never happened to me.

Edited November 22, 2018 by Michael2017