International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees • Hacker News Board

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#361

Post by plandis » Wed, May 03, 2017, 4:48 PM UTC

submeta wrote: post #242

briandear wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did the travel ban affect you? Are you from one of the six affected countries? I read a lot of commentary about how the travel ban has influenced travel decisions, but I'm not seeing much practical impact to the vast majority of travelers. Everyone has a right to vote with their euros of course, but I am curious if a single traveler has avoided France because of their policies in French Guyana, the Magreb or Sub-Saha…

I think it has mostly to do with how the TSA treats us non Americans. We don't have to be from one of the banned countries. Every non American has to fear being asked to hand his laptop / cellphone and whatnot.

TSA are not the people who would ask you for your cellphone and laptop.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#362

Post by praneshp » Wed, May 03, 2017, 4:58 PM UTC

StavrosK wrote: post #55

SCdF wrote: post #20

Just don't travel there. I'm sure I'd be fine: I've been fine a dozen times before. That was before they decided that it was OK to demand passwords and so on. Maybe now it would be worse. Or maybe my skin colour lets me off the hook. Regardless, I'd rather just not waste jet fuel on flying to a place that treats anyone this way. Your phone/tablet/laptop is, for better or worse, a gateway to your entire life. It conta…

People who have recently travelled to the US, what's the probability that you will be asked to unlock your stuff and have random employees search through it? Is it something that happens a lot?

My wife and I have entered the US twice since President Trump came took charge. We're Indians, I'm on H1b and wife's on F1. The second time was a breeze, the agent was in a great mood and we just chatted about how she loves my company's product while she did her stuff.

The first time was more difficult, because I said something (technically correct) about my documents that confused her (understandably) for a while, so she had to lookup some extra stuff. She also asked my wife a lot of questions, because she was under the (wrong) impression that her school was blacklisted. That was seriously incompetent IMO, but she apologized after her supervisor (or some other superior) explained things to her. She also marked that we needed to go through customs, which the first time I've had to do that in almost 10 entries. I chalked this as a negative experience because of the customs thing, we felt she did that just to inconvenience us in some way. I cannot link this in anyway to President Trump, however.

Both times, we were one of the first people to be off the plane's economy section, but the wait before we got to the counter was 1+ hour. SFO is ridiculous.

My worst experience came when entering during President Obama's tenure (but nothing to do with his policy) in 2016. The agent went through my entire 9-year old passport, asked me why I had visited country X in 20YY, why I lied to my visa officer back when I got a F1, etc (that I'd go back home after studies. I did not lie, I happened to get a job and the employer happened to want to apply for a H1. I did not even know back then that there was a real or fake "shortage" in tech workers).

Hopefully more anecdata helps. If you're on the fence about visiting the US as a tourist I hope you end up deciding to come!

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#363

Post by plandis » Wed, May 03, 2017, 4:59 PM UTC

pg314 wrote: post #182

kyrre wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Judging by the narrative the media is putting out one would think that Poland is a nightmare patriarchal state where rape victims are denied abortion and politicians agree that woman should be paid less because they are too 'small, weak and unintelligent' for equal pay. Be more critical. Traveling to the US is a breeze for Europeans.

> Traveling to the US is a breeze for Europeans. No, it isn't. I am European, travelled twice to the US last year. Each time multi-hour wait for the USCBP check. From take-off in Brussels to landing in NYC took less time than getting from JFK to Manhattan. If I can avoid it, I will not be travelling to the US any time soon.

Yeah, I'm going to call bullshit on your 8 hour wait to get through customs.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#364

Post by praneshp » Wed, May 03, 2017, 5:04 PM UTC

martinko wrote: post #169

paulajohnson wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lying to them is a serious criminal offense carrying (IIRC) up to 5 years in prison. Even a harmless fib counts.

Jesus. I will seriously try to avoid ever having to travel to the US in this climate.

Where will you travel to that allows lying to agents at the border?

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#365

Post by praneshp » Wed, May 03, 2017, 5:10 PM UTC

jbb67 wrote: post #129

Most of the posts on here are ridiculous. People saying they are not going on holiday to the USA because it's too much of a pain. Seriously. We applied online for the visa thing. It took under 5 minutes. Then at the airport we queued up at immigration for around 10 minutes. We showed our passport and answered one question about purpose of visit, and they waved us though. This is the experience of 99.9% of those who v…

What is this visa thing you applied for that took less than 5 minutes? Are you from a country that does not require a DS-160? There is no chance you filled that form in 5 minutes.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#366

Post by plandis » Wed, May 03, 2017, 5:11 PM UTC

kidmenot wrote: post #23

js8 wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You only need to give up passwords and such if you are unlucky. Very comforting, isn't it? Especially when this is said about a legal process.

Frankly, I find the thought of having to give my passwords away to be baffling to say the least. No chance I will ever visit the US under these conditions, because I tend to dislike totalitarian countries.

I think you misunderstand the definition of a totalitarian country.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#367

Post by street » Wed, May 03, 2017, 5:14 PM UTC

dbbk wrote: post #220

afandian wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mind sharing your story? And, though it's unfortunate to ask, can you think of any reasons why you in particular were singled out?

I was just going to the US for a convention then staying for a few weeks afterwards. The question that arose suspicion was why I'd booked to stay in a hotel rather than stay at a friend's house. Ridiculous. Anyway yeah, I had to collect my luggage and they then opened it up and rummaged through it. Asked why I wasn't taking a video game console despite ostensibly going to a video game convention. My response was of c…

Was there a moment you lost sight of your phone, while it was unlocked?

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#368

Post by plandis » Wed, May 03, 2017, 5:25 PM UTC

ksjjf wrote: post #156

>At Customs: >Here to do work? Nope! Here on business, meeting with Basecamp I never understood this. What's the difference? In both instances, money is being earned.

I've been told something similar when going to Canada (I work for Amazon and we have offices in Seattle, WA and Vancouver, B.C.)

Basically, I'm required to not work on anything not related to whatever the purpose of my visit is. For example, if I have a meeting with Team A then I'm not legally allowed to work on anything unrelated to meeting with Team A.

I'm on a business trip to meet with Team A. I'm not in Canada to do my normal work.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#369

Post by plandis » Wed, May 03, 2017, 5:27 PM UTC

DanBC wrote: post #40

shpx wrote: post #34

This is a political statement highlighting the current legal uncertainty of refusing to unlock your devices at the US border[0]. By default iphones and macs are encrypted when you completely power them down, so the right way (assuming you have a good password) is to shut down your computers at the airport and only turn them back on when you've passed the border. Nothing interesting here tech-wise, effectively just a…

When they ask you to power on your device, and unlock it, and you refuse they don't say "that's ok, in you go", they deny you entry.

If you're not a US citizen. CBP cannot legally deny entry to the US for US citizens.

Re: International Travel Guide for Basecamp employees

#370

Post by Sacho » Wed, May 03, 2017, 5:29 PM UTC

plandis wrote: post #353

Sacho wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems like those people didn't feel the electoral college was problematic. Otherwise, voting would have exposed the vast discrepancy between popular opinion and the college. Even if Hillary had won, that demonstration could be used to spur reform of the election process.

Actually no. Literally all the cities listed are in states that have agreed to a compact [1] that would award all electoral votes to whoever wins the popular vote. The thinking being that such a system would be easier than getting rid of the electoral college. It goes into effect if 61.1% of electoral votes are part of the compact. What is it with non-US citizens in this thread? Honestly, none of you seem to have a g…

But not all states are part of the compact, so they still could be convinced to join it, and a higher popularity vote margin would be more persuasive. Hillary's vote margin was smaller than Bush(2004) and both of Obama's. A 7%+ loss like 2008 would make a discussion about the electoral college more pertinent, since it's such a rare case that someone wins without the popular vote. My argument was that if people wanted to advance a position of reform, it would help highlight the college as being too far away from the popular vote.