hey student, in this English video I am going to show you how you can speak English more
confidently at Customs & Immigration.
This is another English at the airport video.
Make sure to stay until the end.
Hey student, teacher Prix here to help you talk to anyone anywhere anytime in English.
Thank you so much for watching this video.
Traveling abroad is something that many of you want to do or maybe have to do at some
point in your lives so in this video I am going to be giving you some ideas, some strategies
so that you can feel more comfortable when you are at Customs answering important questions
to the immigration officer ok?
With that in mind, the first tip that I would like to give you in this video is prepare
yourself in advance.
Even though the questions the officer will ask you are very simple, it is important to
have some kind of preparation and you can do that now by watching this video and studying
and when you have a trip, you know scheduled, booked then it is a good idea to start preparing
yourself for that situation because it is going to happen.
For some people it is going to be a very quick interview for other people like me for example,
the last time I traveled, I spent quite some time with the officer, answering questions
and having a very nice conversation with him.
So it is important to be prepared for that situation.
The second tip I am going to give you and stay until the end because I am gonna show
you some important questions the immigration officer will ask you and also weird questions
that the immigration officer might ask you.
The second tip that I want you to take into consideration is accept that you may not understand
some words at the time you have the interview, ok?
This is going to happen to all of us whether you are a false beginner, a pre-intermediate
speaker, an intermediate speaker, an advanced speaker, a fluent speaker, especially due
to the emotions we are going through, we are feeling at that moment.
Some of us get very nervous, very anxious, very worried.
Some of us are super excited so all of those emotions may impact your comprehension.
Not to mention there is a lot of background noise, people talking, things happening so
that may impact your listening comprehension.
And if that happens, and it is going to happen, ok so it is just a matter of when that happens,
ask the officer to repeat.
They know English is not your native language.
Prepare yourself and accept the fact that you may not understand everything they say
and then make sure that you express that politely and calmly.
I am sorry can you say that again?
I am sorry can you repeat that please?
My English is a little rusty.
It is completely natural to misunderstand immigration officers and they are trained
for those situations and remember you are a good person visiting America, or visiting
Canada, Australia or another country, there is no need to feel like you did something
wrong.
So it is important to calm down cause the more anxious you feel, the more nervousness
you show, the more questions the officer may ask, ok, depending on your body and facial
expressions, ok?
Now, tips number 3, there will be specific questions they are going to ask you, ok?
So, it is important to know how to answer those questions immediately and to do that,
you need to prepare, that's why in tip number 1 I say prepare yourself because they're going
to ask specific questions so a few examples of those questions are.
What's the purpose of your visit?
Basically they want to know why are you here?
Are you on business?
And be prepared to answer more questions if you're going on business.
I am on vacation, I am a tourist.
They may ask you where you're going, why, how long you're staying, ok so, for pretty
much any tourist, they may ask those kinds of questions.
I am a student.
I am going to study "blah" at "blah blah".
I am going to study English at this school.
I am going to take a certification at this place.
I am going to participate in an Academic Conference at that university.
So it is important that you prepare that part of the answer because only you know the reason
why you're visiting that country, but teacher, I am going to America because I want to find
a job, be careful!
Because there are legal ways to do that and you need the right documents, you need the
right visa to be able to do that.
I get a lot of questions asking me that.
Teacher, I wanna find a job in America, guys there are proper visas that you need to apply
for before going to America if that's your goal.
It is actually very complicated to do that.
In many cases when people contact me asking that question, it is because they intend to
go to another country and find a job illegally and that I cannot help you with.
Another thing you can say is I am visiting a family member.
You will need to answer more questions.
They may ask you who that person is, if that person is legal, of course that person should
be legal, what the person does, you know, is that person married, where they live, they
will ask you more questions depending on your goal, ok.
Important advice here: never lie.
Be as honest as possible.
There is no reason to lie, ok?
Next question is pretty much connected with the first.
They wanna know, ok, you're gonna be here as a tourist, how long are you going to stay
here?
A week, two weeks, three weeks.
They may ask you the same question but in a different way such as how long are you going
to stay here or how long do you intend to stay here but at the end of the day, that's
basically the question they are going to ask.
I was asked that question the last time I went to New York city.
And I just said, well 7 days, no, 8 days.
I stayed there for 8 days.
You don't need to give a very long answer, just say the number of days that you're going
to stay in that country.
Next question, what do you do?
What do you do means what's your occupation?
What is your job?
What do you do?
When I was in New York city, the last time I was in New York city, I answered this question.
I am a teacher.
Oh my God, he asked me a lot of questions about my job.
Oh are you a teacher? and then I remembered, oh man I used the wrong word.
I shouldn't have said teacher because usually they connect the word teacher with a school,
you know, elementary school and I had to explain and then I was like, oh my God, I am a private
tutor.
When I realized what he wanted to know, I was like, no no, I am sorry, I am a private
tutor, ok?
I teach English on the internet to adults and he was like, oh ok!
So that's why you can travel, because you are online and I said yes, yes, that's why.
So be careful with the way you answer the question what do you do? because they will
ask more questions especially if you look friendly they will want to make conversation,
depending on the officer, ok?
In my case for example, he asked me a lot of questions, with my friend he didn't ask
so many questions.
My friend got another officer, not the same as I did and his interview was very fast.
Actually my friend was worried about me because I was there talking and talking and having
a conversation and my friend was like where were you, what happened?
I was worried about you and I was like, dude, I am fine.
We were just, you know catching up.
I have the time of my life when I am traveling so for me, I was really enjoying the conversation
actually, to be very honest.
Now, the next, oh ok, so as I said, depending on what you say that you do, they may ask
a few more questions.
So it all comes down to your job, ok?
So be as specific as possible, you don't need to be, to give a very long explanation, ok?
Be objective, be specific but don't speak for too long because that's not the goal,
ok?
And hey, if you are enjoying this video, make sure to hit the like button and if possible
subscribe to my channel because when you do that, YouTube understands that this is a good
lesson, that this is a good environment and then it recommends my lessons to other English
learners like you.
And now let's keep going.
The next question, do you have any relatives here?
Do you have any family?
So this is another possible way to ask that question.
Do you have any family here?
Do you have any relative here?
And if the answer is yes, again, they will ask who they are, where they live, what they
do, how long they have been in the US or in Canada, or in Australia because these are
important questions for them, they may wanna know the answer to those questions ok?
Next question.
I was asked that question: how much money do you have available for this trip?
How much cash my friend?
Well, I answered what I had.
I had about 2000, 2500 $ in cash plus a credit card.
So I said, well about 2500$ plus a credit card and then he smiled and said wow you are
planning on doing some shopping, right?
And I was like, yes, I wanna go shopping.
I can't wait.
So be prepared for a joke, maybe they will joke about it.
Oh so you're gonna do some shopping?
Yes.
I am.
So how much money do you have available for this trip?
You don't need to give a very long explanation, simply say how much you have.
2000$ 1000$, credit card and 2000$ and that's it.
You don't need to make a very long sentence to answer this question.
Another important thing: who is paying for this trip?
They may ask you this question.
This is a weird question.
Is it your boyfriend paying for this trip?
Is it your mom?
Your dad?
Your husband?
Your wife?
So they may ask you this question but this is a weird question to ask.
They may ask you this question if you look very young, ok, they may ask you that question,
who is paying for this trip?
Ok?
Especially if you say I am a student.
Then they may ask oh ok, who is paying for this trip?
Oh my parents.
Oh my grandparents.
Oh my family got together and paid for this trip, huh nice family, so it is ok, don't
worry about it.
It's a little off the usual questions but if you are too young, if you are a student,
they may wanna know ok?
And if you are a student who paid it by yourself, then you say.
Well, I saved money before this trip, now I am taking a break and I am here to study.
Don't be afraid of giving this kind of explanation if it is true.
ok?
And then the next question Are you traveling alone?
Nowadays it is very common for people to travel alone so don't be afraid that the officer
may think you are a weird person, no!
Or in my case for example, I answered, no I am traveling with a friend and he was like
oh that's wonderful and then he asked where are you staying? which is another possible
question, so you see, there is not really a specific sequence; depending on what you
say, they may remember what kind of question they should ask.
So when I said I am traveling with my friend from college then he was like oh ok and where
are you guys staying?
At an airbnb, we rented a house.
Oh Where?
In Queens.
Oh, that's wonderful, great!
So don't worry about that, ok?
So if they ask, it is pretty standard.
On the other hand they may ask you some weird questions so what I showed you now were pretty
much standard questions that pretty much every officer may ask you, ok?
They may not ask you all these questions.
They may not ask you these questions in the particular order I've shown you here but they
may ask you.
Now these questions on the other hand are different, they may or may not ask you because
they are a little bit weird, ok?
The first question they may ask you is: Can I see your return flight ticket?
They may ask to see that.
If you don't have the copy, the physical copy, then you can show it on your phone, you know,
open the app, make sure that you have your flight ticket, your return flight ticket saved
on your cell phone that you can easily get access to because they may ask you, ok?
This didn't happen to me in New York but when I was traveling around Europe, many years
ago.
They stopped me before, not even at Customs, ok?
But I was stopped before boarding the plane and they wanted to see all my return flight
tickets from all my trips around Europe.
Was I worried?
Yes!
Was I afraid?
Of course.
But I had the freaking flight tickets, so I showed them, ok?
So it is ok to be afraid, to be nervous but be prepared, so this is something that they
may ask you so it would be interesting to have the flight, the return flight ticket
in hand or that you can easily get access to and another weird question which you should
absolutely say NO!
Are you carrying any illegal items?
I know it is weird but they may ask you.
The answer is NO!
Ok?
They are testing you!
Maybe they are just curious to see your reaction, to see if you panic and then they ask: are
you carrying any illegal items?
No ma'am, no sir!
So it is a weird question, but that hardly ever happens, ok?
So relax, you're ok!
In addition to the standard questions I've shown you, they may ask you these questions:
Can I see your return flight tickets? or Are you carrying any illegal items?
They may even repeat the question?
Hey do you know anyone here?
Do you know anyone in America?
Do you know anyone here in Canada?
They may wanna know!
So they may cut to the chase and say, how many people do you know here?
And then you could be like, well I am, I don't have any friends here, I don't know anyone.
Or maybe you are traveling on business and you can say: well, I know some colleagues
but I don't know them in person, we have conference calls, we have meetings every week but I don't
really know them in person.
This is a more unusual kind of question they may ask, ok?
Seeing your flight tickets, checking if you have anything illegal with you, you obviously
don't but they may ask and it is weird.
That's why I am saying that.
To finish up this video, we are going through pandemic, if you're watching this video in
2021 probably in 2022, you know that there is something happening around the world that
is changing some procedures at airports; security, health screening medical screening, so be
prepared for additional steps, additional questions or medical screenings at the moment
you arrive at your destination, so be prepared for additional questions connected with your
health but don't worry about it, I have some friends who have already traveled to the United
States during this pandemic and the process was pretty much standard, ok?
Other than that, share this video with your friends if you enjoyed it, make sure to hit
the like button and I will see you next time!
Bye!