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Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

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Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#101

Post by paraschopra »

brown9-2 wrote: post #89
paraschopra wrote: post #14

I will tell another personal experience. I am based out of India and have been invited to speak at a conference in San Francisco. I applied for a business visa and was denied that visa because apparently I am young (23) and they have not heard about my startup (it is of course not an IT service giant like Infosys, TCS or Wipro) or conference (it's about A/B testing). Mind you: my startup is doing quite well financial…

Do you truly need a business visa just to enter the US in order to speak at a conference, for a visit likely lasting no more than a few days?

Yes. How else am I supposed to enter the US?

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#103

Post by Evgeny »

die_sekte wrote: post #16

Anybody willing to share how Schengen/EU borders are for foreigners?

I am a USSR born Australian citizen (I have Russian and Australian citizenships)

Last year was the first time I traveled outside Australia since 2001, but my Australian passport was issued about 5 years ago. So there was not a single stamp in it.

On my way to Russia I had a stopover in Amsterdam for about 4 hours so I went out to have a walk around the city.

The customs officer had a look through my clean passport and asked "Travel much?". We had a laugh and in a few seconds I was in Amsterdam.

I flew to Madrid from St. Petersburg and then drove from Spain to southern France to Rome and flew back to St. Petersburg. Well, when you drive from one EU country to another there is technically a border but nowhere I was even stopped. In the airports they generally ask you to open your laptop but that's it. The most strict one was in Warsaw - I think I had to take my shoes off and place them on the conveyour. And you walk through a metal detector, but if you put your watch and wallet on the conveyour it generally doesn't detect anything, unless you have a huge belt buckle or something like that.

Well, with a Lybian or Iranian passport the experience could be quite different I assume ...

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#104

Post by asclepiades »

die_sekte wrote: post #20
eoghan wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What exactly would you like to know? I've traveled to about 10 European countries. I've never been photographed, had my fingerprints taken, been interrogated about my intentions. But every time I visit the US, all of these things happen. I should note that I'm a European Union (EU) citizen which gives me the right to travel freely between countries in the EU. But my American friends have only ever been hassled when t…

Well, I am an EU/Schengen citizen, and I would like to know what non-EU, non-Schengen citizens experience at the EU/Schengen borders.

I am an Italian, living in Brazil, my girlfriend is Brazilian. The only minor hassle she had was once in Portugal, when the officer asked her three times in a row what she was planning to do in Europe (probably because, from his point of view, she was a single woman from Brazil in her early twenties). It was an exception, as in my experience Portuguese officers are in general extremely friendly and professional.

She has also crossed borders in Italy and France, and was treated very well each single time; I am sure that the fact that she speaks Italian fluently and has an advanced level of French was a positive factor, but nonetheless she was treated just like any EU-citizen there.

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#105

Post by ErrantX »

tallanvor wrote: post #79
arethuza wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the more surreal conversations I've had while entering the US was one guy who wanted to know why I've been to Turkey/Egypt/Morocco so many times - he just seemed to refuse to believe me when I said that they are really nice places to go on holiday and that they are very common holiday destinations for Europeans. I actually had to explain what it is that I like about them! Note - I'm from the UK. [Edit: Note th…

If it makes you feel any better, I get more questions from US border control than any other country I've visited, and I'm an American, so it's not just foreigners they treat like crap.

Make the mistake of entering Israel with a passport stamped for an Arab country and you will probably put the US second :) Perfectly civil.. but a LOT of questions, over and over and over.

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#106

Post by darklajid »

VMG wrote: post #102
sambeau wrote: post #64

As a British person I find it sad (and slightly scary) that the best advice given to him is to start carrying a gun.

Does he really have to own the gun or does he just have to declare his camera as a gun?

This. The GP got it wrong. The suggestion was to use something "sortof" gun-like to declare that the case contains a weapon, so that the TSA has to list (and treat) according to the rules for these things.

The one giving the advice said that he has a "starter pistol", which google explained as a gun that you use to start a race etc.. Not a real weapon. Others suggested a flare pistol (Dangerous? Sure. But not a 'weapon', but more a tool).

I find it sad that these workarounds seem to help and that they are deemed necessary. But "bring a gun" is not what they are suggesting here.

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#107

Post by FraaJad »

brown9-2 wrote: post #89
paraschopra wrote: post #14

I will tell another personal experience. I am based out of India and have been invited to speak at a conference in San Francisco. I applied for a business visa and was denied that visa because apparently I am young (23) and they have not heard about my startup (it is of course not an IT service giant like Infosys, TCS or Wipro) or conference (it's about A/B testing). Mind you: my startup is doing quite well financial…

Do you truly need a business visa just to enter the US in order to speak at a conference, for a visit likely lasting no more than a few days?

The B-1 Visa is a Business and Pleasure visa.

http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/types/types_1262.html

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#108

Post by steveklabnik »

paraschopra wrote: post #101
brown9-2 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you truly need a business visa just to enter the US in order to speak at a conference, for a visit likely lasting no more than a few days?

Yes. How else am I supposed to enter the US?

We don't have some kind of tourist visa?

(Ignorant American here)

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#109

Post by steveklabnik »

jasonkester wrote: post #78
gaius wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Try Sea-Tac airport. 20 lanes at the border, 17 reserved for American citizens, of whom there are probably about 20 on a 400-seater plane. I've traveled all over the world, US borders are the most unpleasant. I'v had border guards in FSRs point guns at me but hey, those guys are just doing their jobs. In the US they go out of their way to be rude, lazy, incompetent and just plain obnoxious.

Or PDX, where Immigrations was so hostile that demand dropped to zero on direct flights from Asia and the airlines had to pull the routes. Evidently it was better to simply book your flight to SEA, wait for those 3 lanes, then catch a separate flight south to avoid the pain and suffering at the hands of the PDX border guards.

Ugh, PDX. They treat Americans like crap on flights back from Asia, too. At least that was my one time leaving the country...

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1682004

Re: Why I stopped travelling to the US and largely stopped doing business in the US

#110

Post by tallanvor »

ErrantX wrote: post #105
tallanvor wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If it makes you feel any better, I get more questions from US border control than any other country I've visited, and I'm an American, so it's not just foreigners they treat like crap.

Make the mistake of entering Israel with a passport stamped for an Arab country and you will probably put the US second :) Perfectly civil.. but a LOT of questions, over and over and over.

That's quite possible. I admit that the 20 or so countries I've visited isn't enough to say for sure that the US border controls are the worst, just the worst I've experienced so far. :)
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