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Denied Entry

daniel.haxx.se

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Re: Denied Entry

#51

Post by nippples »

PostOnce wrote: post #32
CaliforniaKarl wrote: post #11

Something that I was curious about, and which others might also be: >Sorry, you’re not allowed entry to the US on your ESTA. "ESTA" stands for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, and is a program administered by US Customs & Border Protection (part of the Department of Homeland Security). It's used by people in Visa Waiver countries to submit information about themselves & their travel plans, before they…

The whole point of the visa waiver program is to make travel frictionless, you just get on a plane and go -- and then here comes ESTA, wasting peoples time and money with fruitless bureaucracy again. I wonder how many Swiss and Japanese terrorists have had their plots foiled due to the life-saving shield of ESTA. How is this not a violation of whatever agreements all these other countries signed to let us in without…

The meaning of "Swedish", "German", "French" and "British" for example isn't so clear any longer after EU's happy unlimited-immigration-with-no-questions programme was enacted by Merkel.

Globalism is a great thing. You just have to be more attentive as a pedestrian.

Re: Denied Entry

#52

Post by idkfa »

People coming to unstable states like US or Ukraine, balancing on the edge of government collapse, should expect such things to happen with pretty high probability. I really can't see why this could be surprising at all.

Re: Denied Entry

#53

Post by detaro »

nippples wrote: post #51
PostOnce wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point of the visa waiver program is to make travel frictionless, you just get on a plane and go -- and then here comes ESTA, wasting peoples time and money with fruitless bureaucracy again. I wonder how many Swiss and Japanese terrorists have had their plots foiled due to the life-saving shield of ESTA. How is this not a violation of whatever agreements all these other countries signed to let us in without…

The meaning of "Swedish", "German", "French" and "British" for example isn't so clear any longer after EU's happy unlimited-immigration-with-no-questions programme was enacted by Merkel. Globalism is a great thing. You just have to be more attentive as a pedestrian.

Passports are a thing and border controls tend to look at them.

Re: Denied Entry

#54

Post by ubernostrum »

PostOnce wrote: post #32
CaliforniaKarl wrote: post #11

Something that I was curious about, and which others might also be: >Sorry, you’re not allowed entry to the US on your ESTA. "ESTA" stands for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, and is a program administered by US Customs & Border Protection (part of the Department of Homeland Security). It's used by people in Visa Waiver countries to submit information about themselves & their travel plans, before they…

The whole point of the visa waiver program is to make travel frictionless, you just get on a plane and go -- and then here comes ESTA, wasting peoples time and money with fruitless bureaucracy again. I wonder how many Swiss and Japanese terrorists have had their plots foiled due to the life-saving shield of ESTA. How is this not a violation of whatever agreements all these other countries signed to let us in without…

As I said in the prior thread, I'm still betting on this being a clerical error.

I -- US citizen -- was once almost denied boarding of an international flight because the airline's system had screwed up my passport information, and they thought I would need a visa to return to the US (and of course I didn't have a visa). I found this out at the airport. Luckily I was able to get it resolved in time by showing the airline agents my passport, and a supervisor was able to override or correct something to let me get a boarding pass, but relying on the kindness and competence of front-line airport staff is risky at best. I might just as easily have encountered someone who would tell me "The computer says no, and I can't do anything for you when the computer says no".

Re: Denied Entry

#55

Post by ubernostrum »

YZF wrote: post #38
projectramo wrote: post #36

I think the reason for the denials is a change in the interpretation of the rules. ESTA used to be for short term visits for any reason. I think some people in CBP now interpret it to mean a short stay that is not "work" related. You can look up all the academics -- which were definitely covered by ESTA -- who have had issues because some people at the border were not sure on how to interpret them. They are not alone…

The boundary between "business" as covered by B-1 visas and "work" can be fuzzy. If you are employed by a US company and you get paid by said company while in the US (i.e. you're not on vacation) then your trip can be interpreted as working in the US. It's not clear which Mozilla entity is Daniel's employer but I've seen similar situations. Companies that have a lot of international employees traveling to the US typi…

Back when I worked for Mozilla, I often had to travel to the Toronto office for team meetings (most of the team I was on was remote).

I always had to carry a letter to give to CBSA at the Canadian border, explaining the difference between Mozilla US and Mozilla Canada, that I was an employee of Mozilla US and would not be paid by Mozilla Canada, that I would not do any work for Mozilla Canada, and in fact (I loved this bit) that I would not be "working" (whatever that legal term meant) at all while in Canada, only attending meetings. We used to joke that we couldn't fix bugs while at those gatherings, since that would be work and put us in violation of what the letter said.

Re: Denied Entry

#56

Post by sapphire_tomb »

lucb1e wrote: post #20
prawn wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

International conferences should be considering this also. I'm a plain white guy with nothing dramatic to hide and I was apprehensive on my recent visit to the US. I can imagine people working in tech security, or with backgrounds/family from particular countries, would be more nervous.

I work in tech security and indeed, I've thought about this topic and I'd be nervous as hell. Then again, needing to put my laptop in check-in luggage (with a backdoored lock? Is that really a thing? I only saw "TSA-approved locks" mentioned somewhere and am only inferring the existence of backdoored locks here) is a no-go in the first place, so I'd need to (1) want to go to the USA, (2) not take a laptop and (3) pro…

You don't need the backdoored lock. The TSA will helpfully use bolt cutters on any locks they don't have a working key for.

Source: Me and my suitcase a couple of years ago. (Which had a TSA approved lock on it!!)

Re: Denied Entry

#57

Post by jonnybgood »

jacquesm wrote: post #26

Someone asked me today when I was going to visit the US again. I told them never . That is, not until this madness stops. The US now treats citizens from allied countries as enemies and that's just plain rude and not called for. There isn't a shred of evidence that any of this has made America safer in any way and it would be pretty easy to argue that it has made America less safe on account of pissing off large numb…

> The US now treats citizens from allied countries as enemies and that's just plain rude and not called for.

Alliances are made between governments, not the citizenry. What if the US thinks there's a threat to it within the citizenry of an allied country? What should the US do?

Re: Denied Entry

#58

Post by matthewmacleod »

nippples wrote: post #51
PostOnce wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point of the visa waiver program is to make travel frictionless, you just get on a plane and go -- and then here comes ESTA, wasting peoples time and money with fruitless bureaucracy again. I wonder how many Swiss and Japanese terrorists have had their plots foiled due to the life-saving shield of ESTA. How is this not a violation of whatever agreements all these other countries signed to let us in without…

The meaning of "Swedish", "German", "French" and "British" for example isn't so clear any longer after EU's happy unlimited-immigration-with-no-questions programme was enacted by Merkel. Globalism is a great thing. You just have to be more attentive as a pedestrian.

EU's happy unlimited-immigration-with-no-questions programme was enacted by Merkel.

That’s not a thing. There are enough real problems without making more of them up.

Re: Denied Entry

#59

Post by [deleted] »

nippples wrote: post #51
PostOnce wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point of the visa waiver program is to make travel frictionless, you just get on a plane and go -- and then here comes ESTA, wasting peoples time and money with fruitless bureaucracy again. I wonder how many Swiss and Japanese terrorists have had their plots foiled due to the life-saving shield of ESTA. How is this not a violation of whatever agreements all these other countries signed to let us in without…

The meaning of "Swedish", "German", "French" and "British" for example isn't so clear any longer after EU's happy unlimited-immigration-with-no-questions programme was enacted by Merkel. Globalism is a great thing. You just have to be more attentive as a pedestrian.

[deleted]

Re: Denied Entry

#60

Post by zegl »

nippples wrote: post #51
PostOnce wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The whole point of the visa waiver program is to make travel frictionless, you just get on a plane and go -- and then here comes ESTA, wasting peoples time and money with fruitless bureaucracy again. I wonder how many Swiss and Japanese terrorists have had their plots foiled due to the life-saving shield of ESTA. How is this not a violation of whatever agreements all these other countries signed to let us in without…

The meaning of "Swedish", "German", "French" and "British" for example isn't so clear any longer after EU's happy unlimited-immigration-with-no-questions programme was enacted by Merkel. Globalism is a great thing. You just have to be more attentive as a pedestrian.

A majority of immigrants/refugees to the EU are not citizens of the EU, and do therefore not have a EU passport.
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