This will probably be one of the most anticlimactic posts on this blog. It is about how I arrived at San Francisco International Airport for the first time and then entered the United States with my H-1B visa.
It will also be a rather short blog post because it really was not a big deal and went as smooth as I could have hoped for. I do want to write about it here though, just so that everyone reading this has a full picture of relocating to the US. But let’s start at the beginning.
Departing in Frankfurt
I had my flight booked from FRA to SFO. Since I took all my technical equipment with me in my carry on bags, I arrived a lot earlier at the security as I usually would as I expected this to take a lot longer than usual. When it was my turn I was up front with the security agent and told him that I was relocating and hence had a bag full of chargers, cables, a HomePod, two MacBooks, iPad, iPhone, Switch, and a whole lot of other stuff.
They asked me to open the bag even before it went through the x-ray, looked through it and then told the person that operates the x-ray about this. I believe this made it a lot smoother and the only thing they wanted to check were my Apple Watch bands as I had put them in the back in a big stack on their side (yes, I own too many watch bands). This made them appear as a thin line on the x-ray so they were just curious what that was. They verified that it was just the watch bands and that was it.
The only thing that took some time was the fact that I got lucky and got picked for a wipe test where they look for either drugs or explosives, I am never sure what it is. When they do that, they usually do that with all your bags though, inside and out. So when you travel with a bag, a bag pack and a guitar, this takes some time; nothing I hadn’t planned for though.
Other than that, departure in Frankfurt was pretty smooth and I had no problems. Make sure though that when you book your flight to call the airline or let your travel agent know about the fact that you are traveling with a visa. If you don’t, an old ESTA that has not expired yet might show up in your flight data, which could lead to problems.
Side story: I had a moment of confusion when I flew to the US in December on an ESTA for a short time trip even though I already had my visa. This is perfectly legal and in fact the immigration lawyers advised me to do it like that as I wasn’t relocating yet, but apparently the ESTA shows up in the flight data during check, even though you get an ESTA directly from the US immigrations website. The agent at the check in desk was very confused when they saw my H-1B visa in my passport. So make sure that when you are actually flying with your visa, to let the airline update this fact in their records.
Arriving in San Francisco
I boarded the plane without any issues. Filling out the customs declaration was a bit of a guessing game as I did not know whether I had to declare all the stuff that I was bringing in to the US since it was supposed to ‘remain in the US’ like the form states.
I did not declare anything but again was very upfront with the agent during immigration in the US: I told them I was not sure whether I had to declare that. They told me that everything is fine and that you do not have to declare the things that belong to you and that you do not plan to sell in the US any time soon.
When you live in a country where you can enter the US with an ESTA you are probably used to using the kiosk systems they have set up for immigration. If you are traveling with a visa, unfortunately you can not use these systems, at least not with an H-1B. That is a bit annoying since you need to get in the slow line where everything is processed manually. I needed to wait in line for about an hour, which is not too bad for San Francisco International.
I had all my paperwork prepared, my visa, all the forms that proof that I really was entitled to hold the visa, my work contract and everything else I thought might be relevant.
When I got to the immigration agent that would decide about my fate I was a bit nervous of all the questions that might come.
The agent looked at my visa, looked at me, stamped my passport and said ‘welcome to the United States’.
I walked out of the airport, picked up my rental car and, for the first time in a new country, drove home.
— The End
P.s.: I know a lot of people have way worse experiences when immigrating and the news are full of it. But I want to show you that it can go a lot smoother, too. The agent I talked to was super friendly and I felt welcome here.