Traveling with a Baby/Infant: Going Through Customs and Immigration
If you are traveling internationally with your baby/infant/newborn, as we have been recently, you will find yourself having to go through Customs and Immigration. You will certainly have to go through Customs and Immigration when you enter a new country; you may also have to go through Customs and Immigration when you leave a country. It depends on where you are traveling to and from.
I’ve gone through Customs and Immigration a few times now with Adventuring Akiva and overall it has been a good experience. As I mentioned yesterday, you generally get to skip the security line when traveling with a baby or infant; it is just the same with immigration. Entering a new country today, we saw the security line was so long it almost overflowed out of the Immigration area and back into the regular part of the terminal! It was a huge relief when a security guard spotted us and directed us to a short line specifically for the disabled, pregnant women, or families with infants or many small children. This probably saved us waiting a couple of hours!
Going through Immigration with a baby is easy because they usually have a "priority" line and other people waiting in line are generally very happy to play with and help entertain your bub!
Of course, waiting in line with a baby is extremely unpleasant if your baby is crying, both for you and for others around you. Fortunately, Akiva is a real adventurer and has never cried at Immigration (and only once at Security, for that matter!). This is great because then the other people in line are happy to help entertain your bored baby and everyone around you is full of smiles.
It’s also nice going through Immigration with a baby because it tends to cheer up the immigration officer; well, at least if you have a cute, happy baby! I like to make jokes with the Immigration officer and make Akiva “say hi” or smile at him/her. It’s nice when you see a stony guard crack a reluctant but unsuppressible grin. Going through Immigration with a baby has been very easy for me!
I actually do not know much about going through Customs with a baby because, although I have gone through Customs a couple of times with Akiva, I have never had anything to declare and they have never randomly stopped me. Maybe they think randomly stopping a tired and harassed mom dragging luggage and pushing a pram is not worth the hassle!
Anyway, at least you do not need to worry about going through Immigration with a baby. As long as your visas and documents are in order, it’s a breeze!
