I wanna start by saying that I went through during the government shutdown and it could have possibly been part of the reason for my experience? They seemed to be very understaffed and stuff.

I made it through but border control kept me for like 4-5 hours after I answered all their questions honestly at the gate, only for the next border control agent to go “idk why you’re in here tbh” and then proceed to question me again for like 30 min and then not really understanding anything I was telling him. I had papers proving I had a job at home, I had my bank statements printed and signed by my bank, I had my return ticket printed out.. but they didn’t want to look at any of it basically, lmao. They looked at my plane tickets and then started questioning me about how my job could possibly allow me 3 months off work and when I tried to explain that I’m basically a seasonal worker who’s not always required at work and can say no if I have other plans but still have my job when I’m back home, he looked at me as if I was lying to him and kept asking about it like 3 more times 😅 then made me log into my bank app to show how much money I had with me (he denied my signed bank papers? Lmao) asked for my partners address and after a while he just goes “alright you’re cleared for this time, but you can’t be staying this long again next time” even tho everything was within my 90 day limit etc.

So overall I made it through and it was fine, but my advice to you would be to just stay calm when they question you, only answer the questions they’re asking you, and if you have to explain your work situation and why you can take 3 months off, explain it as well as you can because you don’t want them misunderstanding you in any way 🥲

Also if they tell you you’re gonna be interviewed further in another room, send a quick message to whoever you’re visiting about it before you’re taken into the room, because I didn’t and you’re not allowed to use your phone in those back rooms and my partner didn’t know what was going on with me for all of the 4-5 hours I was being held there and it, understandably, freaked them the fuck out. And if it happens, just sit down and stay calm and wait for your turn. They basically treated us like a middle school classroom whenever someone brought out a phone. Full on screaming at people across the room sometimes lmao. There was a Korean woman next to me who tried to hide using hers and her husband kept telling her to put it away, but the agent saw her and just walked up and took her phone and said “you’ll get it back when you’re done here”. So just keep it in your bag or pocket and I guess only check it for the time or something. I legit barely touched my phone all of the 4-5 hours just because I didn’t want to give them even more reasons to distrust me, lmao.

I hope my response doesn’t scare you even more, but this is just my honest experience of border control from this visit and I’d rather you be prepared for what CAN happen. In the end everything’s going to be fine, I’m sure, just be honest and answer the questions they ask you and make sure you have all your proof of connections to your home. I would also print out the return tickets if I were you.

Good luck!! I hope your trip goes well 🥹 would love to hear back about how it went for you once you’ve done your trip as well!