Repeated personal visits to US - is it a problem?

Question

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.

Answer 1

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.