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I have been a flight attendant for over 10 years, currently based in the middle east. We have free tickets to fly to any of our airline's destinations.

I have been on frequent close visits to NYC this past year.

  • Jan 2023 - 5 days for leisure
  • Feb 2023 - 8 days, bday celebration
  • Apr 2023 - 10 days visiting a relative
  • July 2023 - 5 days leisure
  • Sept 2023 - 12 days visiting a relative
  • Nov 2023 - 2 days for thanksgiving

6 visits total. These travel/stay dates are usually my "days off" from flying/work every month and I do travel to other countries in between as well.

Recent entries to the US areas follows:

  1. Jan 2024 - 10 days, my annual vacation from work.
  2. March 2024 - 10 days visiting friends, relative, leisure, shopping
  3. April 11 - 4 days, close friends birthday celebration.

The CBP officer noticed the amount of NYC entry stamps I have on my passport and commented "something's going on here" but he is aware that I am flight crew and it's my "days off" and he let me in.

I am very anxious to be travelling to the US again because of his comment. When is the safest date or month I should be travelling to the US to visit my friends or relatives again?

I do know I should wait it out. But I am planning to take my dad on a trip to NYC to visit relatives and also celebrate the fact that I've been flying/a flight attendant for 11 years now.

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    If your airline goes there, try arriving in the US somewhere other than NYC - I think the officer is suspecting you have a romantic partner there - not that it itself is forbidden, but there's some increased risk of overstay. Or a side-job that would be forbidden.
    – CMaster
    Commented Apr 29 at 8:16
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    Also, when you do travel next, be prepared to thoroughly explain the purpose of your trip (taking your dad to celebrate your job milestone). Having dates/details of where you'll stay handy can't hurt. I probably wouldn't visit again until at least late summer/early fall to give it more time and space out the trips. The officer may just be extra diligent given your frequent visits, but showing a greater variety of destinations could help reassure them.
    – Sarah Wilson
    Commented Apr 29 at 8:36
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    I wouldn't put too much importance onto a passing comment by a low level passport checker. Your story is incredibly plausible (mor plausible than most arrivals I'd wager)
    – Hobbamok
    Commented Apr 29 at 11:32
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    A lot of short visits, without ever overstaying or violating visa rules in any way, is probably better than never visiting before; it establishes proof that you're not intending to overstay in the future.
    – Guntram Blohm
    Commented Apr 29 at 14:40
  • @Hobbamok The low-level passport checker is the gatekeeper and has the legal authority to deny entry. The flight attendant probably does not want to deal with having to have a talk with the officer's supervisor, be delayed by a long interview, etc.
    – TomEberhard
    Commented Apr 30 at 17:14

1 Answer 1

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When is the safest date or month should I be travelling to US to visit my friends or relatives again?

Unfortunately, the answer is "no one knows". In contrast to most other countries, the US immigration officers have a fair bit of discretion and there are no well-defined rules around this. This being said, first-line officers bark a lot but they rarely bite: in most cases the worst that a first-line officer can do is to send you to secondary inspection. That's where are all the real decisions are made.

Chances are that if you haven't been to secondary yet, you are still fine and the officer was just giving you a hard time.

You do have a busy travel record but none of the stays were unusually long. Your ability to get free flights and having relatives and friends makes this a coherent story that most immigration officers should accept.

Partially this depends on what your citizenship is and what mechanism you use to enter the country for leisure trips: ESTA, visa (what type), flight crew, etc. However, you didn't mention this in your question.

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    The MO of US border guards is to make the situation as tense as possible and try to make you crack. Whereas more civilized places (basically all other 1st world countries) make it as comfortable as possible so that there's no reason for you to behave weird, and then carefully observe shifty behavior even when nothing is wrong. If you understand US border guards to generally be pricks, then it takes the edge off a little.
    – Nelson
    Commented Apr 30 at 1:37
  • Comments have been moved to chat; please do not continue the discussion here. Before posting a comment below this one, please review the purposes of comments. Comments that do not request clarification or suggest improvements usually belong as an answer, on Travel Meta, or in Travel Chat. Comments continuing discussion may be removed.
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented May 1 at 4:14

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