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Another awesome US immigration experience

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Re: Another awesome US immigration experience

#61

Post by jacques_chester »

ryan wrote: post #19

If you have a green card you can avoid this by signing up for Global Entry[1]. Then you can avoid customs lines and just swipe your card at the kiosk - enter the country without ever talking to anyone. As an extra benefit the kiosk is always empty so you are through in minutes... hmm maybe I shouldn't be spreading the word about this :) [1] http://www.globalentry.gov/

Global Entry is open to U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, Dutch citizens, South Korean citizens and Mexican nationals. Canadian citizens and residents may enjoy Global Entry benefits through membership in the NEXUS program.

OK, I like Dutch people, but how'd they get into this sweet deal ahead of classic US friends-and-allies like the UK or Australia?

Re: Another awesome US immigration experience

#62

Post by Mvandenbergh »

There is nothing unique to the US about this in my experience. There is literally one part of the government that deals (by definition) with people who cannot vote and do not have elected representatives.

If you want to know what it's like dealing with government agents in highly undemocratic countries, it's precisely this. Except it's every day and it's in your own country.

Re: Another awesome US immigration experience

#63

Post by jfb »

seldo wrote: post #31
onetwothreefour wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which airport? IMHO, SFO is probably the best airport to arrive at immigration wise. LAX is a little bit worse, but that's more of a 50/50 on whether someone's having a good day or not. JFK, on the other hand... Ouch.

This was MIA. And yes, SFO is by far the friendliest airport I've ever arrived at (the others being Dallas/Fort Worth and JFK).

Holy God, is MIA ever a donkey circus. That is the single worst place I've ever been (there's a peek into my knapsack of white male privilege for you all). That place would sour the sweetest vintage.

Re: Another awesome US immigration experience

#64

Post by seldo »

jimmaswell wrote: post #60
jacquesm wrote: post #18

As long as you feel the benefits outweigh the downsides the only person you can complain to is yourself. You're still going there aren't you? I've had an episode quite comparable to this one and it was the last time I visited the US. I don't bitch about it, I don't begrudge the border guards their jobs or attitude (I assume they get a lot of shit heaped on them every day, not an excuse for a non-professional attitude…

> Don't like US immigration? Good, don't emigrate to the US. Once enough people do this that it starts to affect the US GDP I'm sure there will be some change. Less immigrants would negatively affect the GDP? I've heard the opposite many times, but I'm not an economist. Why is that so?

I wrote a long, long blog post about why: http://seldo.com/weblog/2012/11/29/why_all_americans_should_...

But the TLDR is: immigration brings skilled workers into the country, who produce more than they consume, raising GDP. So stopping the flow of immigrants causes GDP growth to slow.

Re: Another awesome US immigration experience

#65

Post by smsm42 »

Let's look at the incentives. The picture here is not pretty. There's a big incentive to squeeze budgets, of course, anybody who watches US politics knows you can't just get any money you want, especially when there's 2 dozen another 3-letter agencies competing for the same. There's some incentive to serve citizens better - since once in the country, the citizen can call his congressmen or his local paper and raise hell if he was mistreated, and if bureaucratic middle-management hates something it is being featured in bad press and asked unpleasant question by his superiors. But when it comes to visitors, there's pretty much zero incentive to treat them better. I'm not saying that immediately leads to bad treatment - I am a non-citizen, I crossed US border more than a dozen times last few years and always was treated with courtesy and respect, which I assign to the good nature of the people that worked there. But there always are bad apples, and there's very little that can keep those in check. If the immigration officer mistakenly denies entry or costs a person 5 hours of their life, there are no consequences, ever. So these things are bound to happen, unless some kind of incentive to become better will be found.

Re: Another awesome US immigration experience

#66

Post by smsm42 »

surfmike wrote: post #36

It's embarrassing how poorly people are treated when entering the US. We should put pressure on the government to improve that, but also pragmatically if we want to keep attracting talented people from around the world we really need to change this. For the time being, I'd highly recommend to the poster to enter into Global Entry (people with PR are eligible: http://www.globalentry.gov/eligibility.html )

Second that. All you need is your papers, short interview in a closest major airport and you don't have to do this passport-fingerprint-photo stuff anymore.

Re: Another awesome US immigration experience

#67

Post by jimmaswell »

jfb wrote: post #23
seldo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Partly because I think it's a relevant detail -- I think he genuinely didn't understand that a web developer is a type of software developer. But partly because they scared the shit out of me, and the system is stupid and unnecessarily hostile, so, yes, I'm angry at them.

It's not only insulting and juvenile, it's irrelevant. I've met PhDs from the LSE who wouldn't know the difference between email and snail mail, but that's not material to a) how good they were at their jobs or b) whether or not they were good people. The system is stupid, and hostile, and (in my opinion) totally self-defeating. And people -- normal, decent people -- will act like petty little tyrants in that sort of…

Well, it's the person's job to be able to judge if someone's trying to falsely represent themselves in that area, so he should be familiar with what common job titles mean and which ones could be mistaken for others.

Re: Another awesome US immigration experience

#68

Post by jacquesm »

jimmaswell wrote: post #60
jacquesm wrote: post #18

As long as you feel the benefits outweigh the downsides the only person you can complain to is yourself. You're still going there aren't you? I've had an episode quite comparable to this one and it was the last time I visited the US. I don't bitch about it, I don't begrudge the border guards their jobs or attitude (I assume they get a lot of shit heaped on them every day, not an excuse for a non-professional attitude…

> Don't like US immigration? Good, don't emigrate to the US. Once enough people do this that it starts to affect the US GDP I'm sure there will be some change. Less immigrants would negatively affect the GDP? I've heard the opposite many times, but I'm not an economist. Why is that so?

Because immigrants represent work potential, realizing that potential will increase the GDP.

More people -> higher GDP.

I really dislike quoting the Bush administration on anything but here it goes:

http://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/cea/cea_immigrati...

Re: Another awesome US immigration experience

#69

Post by opinali »

DrSbaitso wrote: post #34

I'm a Canadian citizen and get this type of treatment all the time. Every time I enter the US, which is about once a month or so, they send me to a back room for secondary screening. The reason? Their system thinks I overstayed my visa once back in 1995. What actually happened was my family took a road trip to New England, and nobody bothered to check our passports on the way out, so there was no departure record. So…

"they say it's impossible because only the government department that created the flag can remove it, and that department no longer exists" -- omg, real-world Kafkian anecdote...

Re: Another awesome US immigration experience

#70

Post by [deleted] »

Permit wrote: post #25

>They keep taking breaks to crack off-color jokes about each other’s sex lives, and moan about how hard they’re having to work tonight. The jokes might be uncalled for, but you just told us they were under-staffed and had hundreds of extra people to process. I can see why they'd be upset. Especially when absolutely zero of the hundreds of people they talk to in a day are happy to see them. I get the impression you've…

[deleted]
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