A European travel update

One of our members wrote us to tell of their recent journey to Europe. With their permission, I am posting here for others to see. (minor editing to make it easier to read and to remove their name/id)
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I did go to my Police station and showed all relevant information for my 10-day international trip to Amsterdam and Croatia. I register once a year so I took the copy of my sex offender registration paperwork they give you and asked it to be signed by the officer so I could show immigration that I notified them 21 days prior to leaving the country for Megan’s law purposes.

I was traveling with my fiancé, who was in a wheelchair, so I do not know if that helped but had no issues at Amsterdam, or Zagreb, Croatia airports when going into those countries. Coming back was easy in Europe since I was already in the Schengen zone, I did not have to go through passport control in Zagreb, but in Paris I did because I was flying back into the US(JFK).

At JFK you WILL BE asked to go with an officer to a holding area and questioned about your trip. It would have been easy, but we declared tulip bulbs that did not have an inspection stamp, so they confiscated them. I would say that if you are bringing anything back that may constitute declaring; DO IT. Please note: JFK is very time consuming getting to different terminals. If changing terminals, you have to go through TSA again. So, if you’re connecting to another domestic flight allow at least 2.5 hours minimum. In short, look at the International Sex offender matrix to see if you are allowed in that country, don’t get into trouble, be polite at immigration points, and don’t fly into JFK if possible. But be prepared when coming into the USA to be pulled out of line and questioned. Thanks

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