> The systems in EU are much better than the weird amalgamation that TSA has cooked up for us. With a EU passport traveling from the US I can sometimes just go through a gate that scans my passport and takes a photo and does a biometric verification in 10 minutes total. When traveling back to the US I always get to stand in a line for at least 30 minutes no matter what things I use and then talk to the friendly CBP officer

Huh? We're talking about passport control, which is completely separate from TSA.

The experience you're describing, by the way, is exactly reversed for people traveling on a US passport. When traveling with a US passport to Europe, I have to stand in the longer, non-EU line. When traveling back to the US, I go straight to an electronic kiosk that scans my passport, and it takes about five minutes.

As an American traveling to Europe I find that when there is a line the EU gate attendants will see my US passport while I'm heading to the line and send me through the EU only line. Even in the non-EU line they glance at my passport and stamp it - it takes less than a minute to process me.

When I travel back the to the US I wait in very long lines, often for an hour, and then they ask a bunch of questions. I hate travel because getting back home is so hard.

> When I travel back the to the US I wait in very long lines, often for an hour, and then they ask a bunch of questions.

Agreed. I am getting progressively more upset at the quantity of questions I get--and I'm not the only one; it is trivial to hear what is being asked of others at the same arrivals hall in the citizens-only line--asked when returning to the United States.

I realize this is probably not a controversial opinion around these parts, but since, as a US citizen, I am guaranteed the right of entry into my own country, I believe the questions should be limited solely to establishing my identity. Where I went, why I went, and what I did while I was there are none of my government's business, absent being accused of a crime.

One time I got asked why I claimed to have gone to a place on vacation but my spouse wasn't traveling with me. That seems very out of line to me.

Once, when returning to the US, I was asked why I was wearing a coat. Because it's December and I just flew in from Frankfurt, you dunderhead...

Weirder were the two times an agent suggested that with my background I should join an intelligence agency. I was working on dual CS and international relations degrees at the time, which I did not mention to the agent. I should really file a FOIA request on myself to find out what was in my file that prompted those questions.

This has gotten piles better in the last 3 months at Schipol at least. US passports now go through the automated EU lanes and at the end you are diverted over to a little booth to get a stamp. It's wildly faster than it used to be (and I always felt that Schipol was pretty on their game already).

> This has gotten piles better in the last 3 months at Schipol at least. US passports now go through the automated EU lanes

That was not my experience the last two times I passed through AMS this summer.

The sign doesn't say US passports, but the e-gates take anything with the RFID chip in them.

I spent almost 3 hours in line at JFK, with an European passport. That is actually one of the main reasons why I probably won't come back anytime soon.

> I spent almost 3 hours in line at JFK, with an European passport. That is actually one of the main reasons why I probably won't come back anytime soon.

Right, we've established that queues for people traveling on foreign passports are longer and more frustrating than queues for people traveling with the local passports. That's the problem this article is talking about: queues for people traveling with foreign passports.