Can you go through US immigration with others?

Passing through US immigration is often a source of anxiety for first-time visitors to the United States. To help you prepare and feel more confident, you can find on my site CNEWYORK a list of questions asked by US immigration officers as well as my tips for getting through US immigration without speaking English.
Even if you’re well prepared, you might prefer not to face the immigration officer alone. Good news: that’s entirely possible. Here’s when you can go through together and when you cannot.

When you can go through immigration together

• If you’re traveling as a couple—married or not—with or without children, your entire family can present yourselves together to the immigration officer. You form a single household, so the officer can verify and process everything at once.
• If you’re traveling with your grandchildren or children in your care for the vacation, you can also go through together. Children never go through immigration alone.
• Generally, if you’re traveling with a family member (brother, sister, aunt, and so on), you can ask to go through together. Just tell the person assigning you to a counter about your relationship. This is handled without any problem.

When you cannot go through together

• If you arrive with your entire extended family (parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and so on), each household must go through separately. Parents together on one side, then grandparents together, then the uncle with the aunt.
• If you’re traveling with a friend or as a group of friends with no family connection, you must each go through in turn.
• If you’re part of an organized tour group, you also must go through individually. There is no group processing, and your tour guide, even if traveling with you, cannot assist you during immigration.
• Finally, if you don’t speak English, you cannot ask another passenger in line to go through with you. As I mentioned earlier, you need an actual connection to the person accompanying you. If communication becomes truly impossible, the immigration officer will call over another passenger to help. One thing I often repeat on my site and on my Destination New York Facebook group: every tourist with a valid ESTA or visa who comes to the United States for a vacation will sleep at their hotel that night! 🙂 If you have questions, feel free to comment below or find me on the New York forum, the site’s discussion board.