That is only the first of many questions I have been asked when re-entering the U.S. after my month-long stay in Germany. When passing U.S. immigration, besides leaving your fingerprints and a photo, you also have to answer a few questions about the purpose of your trip. If your answers don’t add up to a convincing story, you get the ‘special treatment’. No, not that special treatment but a complimentary Q&A session at the Customs and Border Protection. According to their website the CBP is the largest component of the Department of Homeland Security with a priority mission of keeping terrorists and their weapons out of the United States.

But I was well prepared, ha! With my crazy itinerary I was almost expecting to be questioned. When I crossed the Canadian border last month by foot I already got weird looks and plenty of questions. Plus, this wasn’t the first time either to meet the CBP guys. In preparation, I had deliberately booked my flight so that I would have no stopovers within the U.S. – and thus connecting flights I could possibly miss.
An officer escorted me to the CBP office. Besides me there were about six other people waiting for their judgement: entry or no entry to the United States. While waiting for about 20 minutes, some of my companions in misfortune were questioned by an officer. There was the Latino/Mediterranean guy who apparently was arrested before being brought here. Given that fact he was super calm. Must be a professional. I see, I got lots to learn… Something with his papers seemed suspicious to the CBP. Then, there was the former diplomat from a middle Eastern country who wanted to enter on a tourist visa waiver to visit his wife who is living in the United States. The fact that his wife lives here and he had lots of luggage made the officers suspect that he might stay in the U.S as an illegal immigrant. And that’s the whole deal about the CBP. It’s not so much about terrorists as it is about illegal immigration. Finally, there was the elderly lady from Lebanon with her husband. They spoke little English. While her husband didn’t say a single word the entire time, his wife was quite vocal. Apparently the two wanted to visit their daughter who lives in the U.S. While sitting with us in the waiting room the lady explained to random officers passing by ‘I just want to visit my daughter’. They didn’t pay attention to her case. After a while she got desperate and changed her strategy. ‘Please, please!’ she begged in a loud voice. But that didn’t help either.
Now it was my turn. Unable to pronounce my surname the officer called me up to the desk by my forename. By that time I had rehearsed the story I was going to tell them a few times in my mind. They asked when I was last in the U.S. (a month ago) and for how long (two months), for what purpose (research) and why I was coming back this time (backpacking). I started to explain my story, about how I recently got my PhD, was visiting the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (‘What’s a National Lab? Did they pay you?’) and now taking a year off to backpack across North and South America. ‘Why do you want to stay in the U.S. for two months?’ I explained them about the F5 festival I was going to attend in New York and about my plans to go to California. Every question I answered triggered a bunch of more questions. ‘What do you mean you are going to California by bus???’ ‘Look, that’s the whole point of backpacking…’. I had the invitation letter from my last visit at the Oak Ridge lab, a copy of my PhD certificate, the ticket for the festival, plane tickets and much more papers with me. I also had statements of my bank account ready when the asked me how I am going to pay for all this. I offered them to have a look at my travel blog. Later though, I realized how that was not so smart. Blog post titles like ‘Holidays in Germany’ could have indeed given the impression that I live in the U.S. on a tourist visa and only leave for short times when it expires. And that is what the officers suspected. The plane ticket from Los Angeles to Mexico City in two months that I bought last minute didn’t help my course much. After telling my story and producing all those papers to prove it, the CBP guy had one last question:

‘Why are you so well prepared?’

I was about to answer ‘Sir, I am not well prepared…I am German.’ but then I thought this kind of jokes might not be appreciated.
Next to me, an officer was finally dealing with the case of the Lebanese lady. After explaining and begging seemingly haven’t brought her what she wanted, she had switched to a different strategy. Just as I was standing next to her she got out a bundle of Dollar notes and suggestively played with those in her hands. I couldn’t help myself but to laugh at the sight of this elderly lady trying to bribe her way into the United States. The officer was not offended but very clear: ‘Put those away right now!’. Perhaps people try this frequently in here.
After waiting for another ten minutes I was called to the front desk again. The officer had decided that my story was convincing enough. As he typed details from my PhD certificate and other papers into the computer he explained to me how this is all about circumstantial evidence. A return ticket alone is not sufficient. Also, there is no actual rule about how long one has to have left the United States before returning on another visa waiver. As long as you can convince CBP that you are actually a tourist and will leave the country when the visa expires, you get in. The message I got was that I would have a lot more explaining to do if I wanted to return to the United States one more time in the near future…

P.S. The Latin guy was lucky and despite the irregularities in his papers about a previous visit they let him in one more time. The Lebanese couple was less lucky. I overheard one officer saying to another that they would be put on a plane back home the next day…