Passport screening

hawkwind23

Does anyone know what comes up on the screen when you present your passport for screening at the airport?
Holiday in Mexico recently and the passport guy was staring at the screen for ages and i began to think there was a problem.
Asked in a local airport what was on the screen and they said they couldn't tell me!

Looking online its mostly American stuff where they are checking for illegals but would love to know what the security guys are looking at

Avada

Depends on the country and the information systems they use. If it was just the passport he was checking, then he would be making sure the data from the chip matches that on the biodata page. Checking UV/IR features and looking at the photo.

hawkwind23

Avada wrote: »

Depends on the country and the information systems they use. If it was just the passport he was checking, then he would be making sure the data from the chip matches that on the biodata page. Checking UV/IR features and looking at the photo.

Thanks
So nothing sinister really , just that its not a fake passport etc?
Hard to find information on it , online some are saying they see driving convictions and credit history , colour of your underpants.

Avada

You won't really find more info on it, depends on thd software they use.

hawkwind23

Avada wrote: »

You won't really find more info on it, depends on thd software they use.

Yeah guess i understand with the security etc.
damn curiosity!

andy_g

Just wear a tin foil hat, if ya dont they can see your inner most thoughts

Fred Swanson

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_Tombstone_

Fred Swanson wrote: »

Security people don't check passports. They screen people and baggage.

Only immigration/border police have the technology to access the chips on passports.

Who said otherwise?

martinsvi

hawkwind23 wrote: »

Does anyone know what comes up on the screen when you present your passport for screening at the airport?
Holiday in Mexico recently and the passport guy was staring at the screen for ages and i began to think there was a problem.
Asked in a local airport what was on the screen and they said they couldn't tell me!

good chance there was a problem, but not with your passport - maybe a network or a software glitch on his side.

As others said, they look for any signs of fakery and if you turn up on any databases they have access to as someone who is a persona-non-grata

Leaving or arriving in Schengen countries gets a bit more complicated - systems they use have the ability to do a lookup for any convictions, unpaid fines or any other trouble between all zone countries, so generally if you leave for your stag party to Slovakia, be disorderly and think you can get away with unpaid fines/ignored sentences, it might come up in the most inconvenient way possible when traveling next time to some other country within the zone

TheChizler

By screening do you mean the check-in desk? If so if you had a connecting flight he may have been making sure you had visa/ESTAs in order, a friend in Cork airport has to do this all the time.

hawkwind23

Martinsvi , thats great stuff

My only "crime" would be an overstay in the US in my youth and maybe that was seen in Mexico as suspicious.

More likely though being from NI and holding two passports and travelling on them and changing between depending on Visa charges and current diplomacy between countries.

On a personal level im concerned about how much information is being held on me and if countries visited and people/places visited within countries compiles inaccurate information that may be detrimental to future travel.
I would like this to be more transparent with the ability to offer information or explanation in case of guilt by association.

Suppose the paranoia comes from the dirty war in Northern Ireland the bewildering inaccuracy of intelligence leading to the most extreme penalties for innocents.



My query is to the immigration staff who scan passports and spend considerable time staring at the screen but refuse to tell me what they are looking at , its me and i would like to know , if anything worth questioning then tell me and ill be happy to offer explanation

martinsvi

hawkwind23 wrote: »

My only "crime" would be an overstay in the US in my youth and maybe that was seen in Mexico as suspicious.

On a personal level im concerned about how much information is being held on me and if countries visited and people/places visited within countries compiles inaccurate information that may be detrimental to future travel.
I would like this to be more transparent with the ability to offer information or explanation in case of guilt by association.

no, it is very difficult for countries (non-Schengen) to exchange any type of information "on-the-fly" unless special agreements are in place. Basically for a Mexican border guard to get any information on you from any other country they would need to send in a request either through law-enforcement agencies or, in some cases, diplomatic channels if relationship between countries involved is difficult. This can take days if not weeks.

All they can check instantly is whether or not you come up as a baddie in Mexican databases or is Interpol looking for you.. that's it.. they can't even tell if, for example, the passport you're using is marked as lost or stolen in the country of issue. So they might pretend that they're cool and powerful with their gadgets but in reality they're too embarrassed to tell you that their looking at pretty much blank screen

Dial Hard

hawkwind23 wrote:

My query is to the immigration staff who scan passports and spend considerable time staring at the screen but refuse to tell me what they are looking at , its me and i would like to know , if anything worth questioning then tell me and ill be happy to offer explanation

I highly doubt the Mexican border police are reading Boards.ie, dude.

hawkwind23

now this is where it opens up debate!

going by what you have said this is where it gets frustrating.

I have no issue with information being shared globally in the interests of security providing that information is held securely, is exact and most importantly has effect.

I am of the opinion that it is yet another useless waste of money and a gross misuse of personal data as it appears unfit for purpose!

This whole taking your shoes off and personal intrusion through airport security is under the same umbrella , basically useless , a waste of money and resource and an intrusion of privacy with no concrete results.
For the regular traveller a frustrating and demeaning exercise.

To then hear that the people you would imagine to have their finger on the pulse at immigration dont even know if a passport is marked as lost is a failure.
Its a front to look like its working and that the governments are ahead in the fight against terrorism.

To take the initial security as an example , a metal detector is ample as it detects guns , all this liquids and shoe nonsense is a front.

It would appear that the immigration is similar.

Another delay and another front pretending to have our security as a priority.

Fred Swanson

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Fred Swanson

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goingnowhere

If its the US, they can see which flight you are on, when it was booked, how it was booked, credit card used, return flights, hotel etc. Thats from the ESTA, API and ticket information. They also have your past history of entry/exit. Even had a CBP officer give a smile when seeing I had been upgraded to business class.

Very few EU countries actually record entry and exit in detail so if you arrive in Berlin and leave from Paris, they won't know you entered via Berlin in Paris unless you are non EU.

The real check is
1. Visa in passport for entry is valid (if visa needed) check the computer
2. Passport isn't on the Interpol or other agency list check the computer
3. Passport is real, so no alterations, not forged, RFID info matches etc, visual and UV check
4. Past travel, any 'dodgy' locations e.g don't try Israel with a stamp from any Arab country, flick through while waiting for the computer

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Yamanoto

goingnowhere wrote: »

If its the US, they can see which flight you are on, when it was booked, how it was booked, credit card used, return flights, hotel etc. Thats from the ESTA, API and ticket information. They also have your past history of entry/exit.

You can access your own I-94 entry & exit history on the CBP site.

https://i94.cbp.dhs.gov/I94/consent.html