It is a sad fact that the media has painted immigration and border control in a very negative light. In almost every situation where a client has expressed an anxiety for travelling, their main source of concern is border control. 99% of the time they have absolutely nothing to worry about, they have all their documents, visas, and ESTAs in place, and yet they feel some sense of trepidation.
We have assisted various people at immigration and have found that Immigration and Border Control officers are not out to get you. On the contrary, they will do everything they can to ensure that any and all visitors enter legally into the country.
However, given their anxiety, there are those passengers, who after a long flight, get edgy and nervous, and think they have to bend the truth, or omit the reason for their visit, even when it is completely legitimate. This, coupled, with the oft-presenting problem of language miscommunication, causes a misunderstanding and suddenly there is a tearful and tired passenger fearing that he will be put back on the next flight back to his origin destination and a now frazzled border agent doing their best to both calm him down and sorting out the issue at hand.
We mainly deal with the Orthodox Jewish community. Our community is interconnected worldwide and therefore everyone knows everybody via six degrees of separation.
When we are called to assist the first thing we do is obtain as much information as possible about our client so that we are familiar with their case even before we speak to an agent. We insist on absolute honesty from our clients so that we can ensure that all issues are dealt with legally and efficiently.