Hey everyone…we just got back from a 10 day trip in Europe last night and traveling around to different countries and going through immigration and customs was a breeze in our experience.
I echo the thoughts above that it is not necessary to worry too much about how one will be perceived as an American, as we did not face any hostility or really did anyone seem to hold us responsible in anyway for the policies of the federal government in the US. I suppose people can try to pass as Canadians if that would make them feel more secure, but we didn’t encounter anything negative telling people we were from the US.
Going through US customs and Immigration in Dublin before the flight was awesome, and even as a POC I did not encounter any issues at all upon return.
The funny thing is before we leaving (and probably due to my research on Google about the trip) my social media was flooded both with posts about how cities in Europe are now unsafe and tourists should beware because of the influx of immigrants into certain areas, and also how Americans abroad need to be worried about how they will be perceived due to being Americans overseas and the potential issues or harassment by government officials when retuning to the US.
I realize that our trip is only a single anecdote, but I would advise anyone who is traveling internationally to be aware and take normal precautions while visiting other countries and to enjoy the opportunity.
Both Dublin and Shannon have US customs and global entry. I travel to Dublin frequently and rarely have to wait for a global entry kiosk. The downsides are that there are few amenities in the Dublin airport once you clear customs, and if your flight is leaving from one of the ground level gates, it can get crowded. I wait upstairs if I have time to kill because it’s usually pretty empty and much brighter.
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I’d start to worry more about potential disruption to international travel after today’s closure of Heathrow due to a power outage. There’s definitely a level of concern about potential Russian (or Chinese?) sabotage attacks on infrastructure:
One thing to note is that UK/EU airlines generally have a duty of care during this sort of event (paying for hotels and meals). That’s not always the case for US airlines.
I wouldn’t worry about Europeans being against Americans - the mood is very different from 2003-2005 when all Americans were seen as complicit with what was happening in the Middle East. The mood isn’t anger but consternation. For instance, yesterday a linguist told me that last Fall she’d booked tickets for a play that took place July-December 1973 in Santiago de Chili, thinking it’d be an interesting historical play; how, leaving after the performance, she felt queasy because to her it evoked the US today. She kept repeating “3 months”.
So the new tariff rule churn did have me worried a bit about travel to Mexico. Part of my concern was over possible negative attitude toward Americans - that was fine. Part of my concern was due to my recent observations of capricious nature of US rule changes (seems to me sometimes implemented without research to untended consequences - please no followup comments which could get political)… ie small risk to some kind of snafu returning home. That was fine too, but it was on my mind. More worries prior to the trip than during because the vacation had an intentionally casual vibe, minimal use of social media.
I lived in Germany in the 1980s. We used to get teased about having elected an actor to be president, but they never assumed we were responsible. (We mostly hung around with scientists.)
My siblings & their spouses (all Asian Americans, born in US) have been traveling up a storm, including multiple international trips in the past few months (sometimes several in the same month). My S and DIL were also born in US and Asian and black. They also travel internationally extensively and have never mentioned any problems. They’ve had NO problems of any kind and continue to plan more trips. They’ve been to Europe including Greece, Canada many parts of Asia and more. They have no hesitation in flying. They are Global Entry but my sister just switched from Global Entry to a different card when she renewed for reasons that none of us could understand—it only helps for Canada/US.
My reason for hesitation in international travel is medical equipment. It’s just not as reliable as I’d like. When it breaks in the US (as it has multiple times), I am able to get replacement equipment overnight. I know I’m prone to getting ill when my equipment fails and I’m unable to replace quickly enough. If only they made more reliable medical equipment, I’d be more comfortable with international travel.
In the meantime, I’m happy enough spending more time exploring our lovely country and visiting loved ones that are far away.
I think the bigger issue is that when (and they are already) the government in other countries advise their citizens that they shouldn’t travel to our country. Will we as citizens of our country fear that there will be restrictions, regulations or retribution for visiting theirs?
We will be in Europe for 2 weeks in May. I have absolutely ZERO concerns and I refuse to let this administration impact my love of travel. We, as always, will be respectful travelers and I expect anyone that brings up politics will do so in a “I am so sorry” type of way. That is what we have experienced in the past when this “specific” political person has come up.
Perhaps I am being naïve but that is how I need to function…things are bad enough, let me at least have this!!
Just catching up with this thread as it looks like it may have been spun off from another thread? Is there really any true reason to be concerned that a US citizen won’t be allowed to return to the US? Is this a realistic/reasonable concern? I am not talking about a person with a gender inconsistency or no gender noted on their passport. I am talking about your average run of the mill citizen born in the US (or someone like my DH who was born in another country on a military base but is a US citizen) ? What am I missing?
If by “run of the mill” you mean a white, citizen-by-birth, then no—you’re not missing anything. I haven’t heard of anyone in that category having trouble re-entering the U.S., so you have nothing to worry about.
That said, I’ve heard of some naturalized citizens and dual nationals from certain countries (as well as a US born colleague whose parents are from a South American country) being subject to more extensive questioning.
For those with visas and even green cards, there is much more uncertainty.
Thanks. That’s what I assumed. But it sounded like some were thinking that the “average” US citizen was at risk. My DH was born on a US military base overseas, which is technically considered US soil so is a US citizen , not naturalized. So us run-of-the-mill travelers should not be concerned about travel and return.
Funny side story: we recently returned from overseas and used to our global entry, which is wonderful. When we were coming through the last part, they called our names one by one, and I got gently chided for forgetting to take my glasses off at the last camera (we’d been traveling for 35 hours or so, and we were pretty tired.) Oops. I apologized. The agent and asked me if I had anything to declare and I replied “yes I have to declare that I probably gained 5 pounds on my cruise“. he laughed.
