US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile

...Before the US trip, I was tired from 2 other trips and had very little sleep. Please note the words below may not be exact, but representational...

Officer: some questions...

Me: some answers....

Officer: "Are you carrying any banned substances?"

Me: "No, just regular stuff"

Officer: "Is it banned?"

Me: (confused) "No"

[At this point I was perplexed at why she was asking this question. I was carrying two packets of packaged food items - was it banned? I didn't know]

Officer - doing something on the computer

Me - Just waiting(standing)

Officer: "Sir, how long are you going to stay?"

Me: "My work will be done in 2 weeks"

..pause.. I realized they would stamp an exit date...

"But this is my first trip to the US. I would like to have a couple of weeks extra so that I can visit some places around and meet up an old friend"

Officer: "So you don't know how long you are going to stay"

Me: "I didn't say that"

Officer: "First you said 2 weeks, and now you are saying a few more"

Me: "Sorry for the confusion. I'd like to stay for a month, my official work would be done in first 2 weeks"

Officer: "You just don't know how long you are going to stay"

Me: [Didn't say anything, but kept thinking - Is she annoyed, or not too bright, or did I say something wrong?....]

Me: (waiting) ...

I recalled a particular question on application form - "Are you a member or representative of a terrorist organization?" And some similar questions on that form that I would consider stupid questions.

Me: (giggled)...

Officer: "What?"

Me: "Nothing" (still smiling)

Officer: "What's so funny?"

Me: "Nothing important, I recalled a stupid question on the visa application..." and then I told her the question and continued "...Why would any terrorist check that box?"

Officer: (blank face), got back to her computer and after some time: "Please come with me"

She took me to a room where I was waiting for 40 minutes. Then another officer came and let me go saying they had to check my bags. When I asked "What was wrong", he said "Nothing". I just wanted to leave and crash at the hotel.

Once I travelled the US, I felt that the security situation was so lax within (I may be wrong). That is why the port of entry becomes such an important barrier.

While returning back from US, via Amsterdam - the Amsterdam authorities questioned me as if I was travelling from some seriously-troubled-war-torn country. Might have been a one-off incident

After that trip which was more stressful and a bit frustrating - I kept refusing any other trips to the US. And the situation seems to be a lot more worse now.

Also — you left your home country SIM at home because you don't care about the roaming charges back home getting to/returning from the airport?

So you have to change everything + the master password, that is 1 more than you would have to change, had you not used it. Without a password manager, you could just give them the passwords they wanted, if you remember 20+ different random passwords. Otherwise you are reusing your passwords and so have to change most of them anyway.

>If you were dealing with a reasonable system

That this could seriously be described as "reasonable" shows just how much things went wrong.

But there are many, many connecting flights through DFW, Houston, LAX, and SFO. The direct flight costs upwards of $500 more, often a 60% or higher premium. That's the value of avoiding transit through the USA and the visa and CIS procedures involved. (Actually, the first $100 could be the usual price for a direct flight over a connection, but the same $500+ price increment seems to apply to connecting flights.)

Aeromexico is not known for its excellent seats, service, or food (though they're fine as airlines go). It's all about avoiding US officials.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/09/us/california-farmers-bac...

If anyone were serious about this problem, E-verify would be in force everywhere and the working population that supports 12M undocumented immigrants would be out of work tomorrow, and out of the country the next day.