also called border control booth · passport control
The physical station where an officer inspects your passport and decides whether to admit you.
The immigration checkpoint is the booth where an officer inspects your passport and decides, then and there, whether to let you in. It is worth separating from the point of entry, which is the airport, seaport or land crossing where you arrived. The checkpoint is where the decision is made; the point of entry is the place, and some visa rules turn on which point of entry you used.
You read that a certain visa route only works if you enter at particular airports, and you assume any officer's booth counts. But the rule is about the point of entry, the specific place you arrive at, not the checkpoint itself, so choosing the wrong crossing can quietly disqualify you before you reach the officer.
The checkpoint is the booth where the decision happens, while the point of entry is the airport, port or land crossing you arrived at, and visa rules can hinge on which point of entry you use. Nomads conflate the two and misread rules that only apply at specific entry points.
The difference is the whole point, so here is each one in a line.
These are the parts of clearing a border.
The point of entry is the airport or crossing where you formally enter, and the immigration checkpoint is the booth where an officer inspects your passport.
An entry stamp records the date and terms of your admission, and an exit stamp records that you left, which later proves you did not overstay.
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