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Another awesome US immigration experience
151–160 of 240 posts
Re: Another awesome US immigration experience
#152Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're right: I'm here because the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. But this kind of stuff is what tips the balance the other way, not for me, but for other people like yourself. The problem with the US immigration system is that none of the people suffering in it can vote to change it. The purpose of my story is to raise awareness amongst US citizens who understand the importance of immigration to the economy th…
> But this kind of stuff is what tips the balance the other way, not for me, but for other people like yourself. Says who? How do you speak on others behalf? No offense, but your post (like many others) just sounds like someone who is upset that were inconvenienced for a day. If you have all of your papers sorted out (and nothing is fishy), what's so mentally anguishing about having to wait? The problem is, as you sa…
> If you have all of your papers sorted out (and nothing is fishy), what's so mentally anguishing about having to wait?
You are right, if you're sure you haven't done anything illegal, it will all be OK.
But the problem is that those people can really cause you trouble. Not only they can keep you waiting for hours (is there even a maximum amount of time they can hold you for at the border?), which can result in lost connection flights, etc. that won't be reimbursed, but they can also allege that there's something wrong with your data and threaten deportation. There's a comment in this thread from a reader that almost saw his wife deported to her home country for apparently no reason. Yes, you'll get to be heard by a judge, but not until you've spent a considerable amount of money, time and patience.
The problem is that those people don't seem to be penalized for their faults. Immigration/customs personnel bullying passengers is seen as OK by central authorities, as homeland security and the struggle against terrorism are the priorities. If in order to catch a couple of terrorism suspects we have to give the rest of the population a bad time, it's still OK. Better "safe" than sorry, right?
Re: Another awesome US immigration experience
#153I hate how hostile and incompetent the US immigration process seems to be for foreigners. It's sad to go by an embassy basically anywhere in the world, see the fortress that is the US embassy, and the huge lines and amount of documentation needed for people to get US visas. Even worse is the non-deterministic hell on actual arrival. I'm glad I've never had immigration or customs problems anywhere, despite going to so…
I'm a US citizen, and recently visited my embassy abroad. I was denied entry and told to make an appointment. The first available was about 10 days away. This was for a simple document I needed signed by them. And I was leaving this country in less than 10 days. The guard who turned me away said they used to take walk-ins but not since mid-2012.
So as far as embassies go, being a citizen doesn't help too much.
Re: Another awesome US immigration experience
#154I'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…
Maybe you could trick the system by entering without a passport check and then leaving with one. So score is 1:1 and the database record from 1995 get's the flag "departed" = true... Maybe :)
More like cavity_search = true on the way out!
Re: Another awesome US immigration experience
#155If 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/
Most of these programs require retina/iris photographs, which I feel extremely uncomfortable with.
Why? I've had that done, it is literally just a web-camera pointed at your eye. Takes two seconds, doesn't hurt, and is really no worse than having a "normal" photo taken (since it is a normal photo, just of your eye!).
Re: Another awesome US immigration experience
#156Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you feel like levelling the playing field a bit with respect to your accidents of birth then I'm quite sure that those countries would be happy to strike you from their registers if you asked nicely. On the other hand, since you were given this for free and it wasn't your fault you might as well enjoy the privilege. Personally I think all immigration controls should be abolished. The world will be hell for about a…
I'm somewhat of the feeling of the second paragraph. However, in some ways it is happening in the EU. As the EU enlarges, it generally creates a larger area of free travel/work/residence. Heck, if the US and Canada opened up immigration 100%, there wouldn't be hell because the countries are pretty similar. Some might prefer Canada or the US, but it would likely be generally equivalent. In those cases, I guess I don't…
I'm curious as to how much longer the Schengen space will subsist. As EU-skeptic parties rise in opinion polls again, it will not be long till all conceivable social issues are blamed on immigrants.
Re: Another awesome US immigration experience
#157Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would you think otherwise?
The same reason the "random checks" line at security isn't really random?
In Canada their "random checks" seem to be via a machine/automated process. You stand on a mat and an arrow either directs you into a line or to additional checks, so there can be no racial or otherwise profiling.
It is a great system, I really enjoyed it when I was there.
Re: Another awesome US immigration experience
#158I entered quite a few times under visa so far and my experience has been more than fine (in fact, it's even been pleasant). Hopefully, it'll never get to what you've had. It happened a couple of times that the officer wasn't sure if I was doing what I said I was, for whatever reason, and they generally just asked a follow up question like "do you have an access card for this company and can I see it?" which resolved…
Ironically, it is poor security practice to print names on access cards. But it is fairly common.
Re: Another awesome US immigration experience
#159>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…
It is the fault of the "lowest level employees" that they're rude, hostile, and short with everyone.
Unfortunately I don't think most American citizens really get to see the true face of their immigration officials. I've actually had them talk to me in a way that in any other "service" industry I would have made a complaint (but you cannot due to the power inequality, and the risk that they would add a "note" to your file).
So I eat it. But they're really rude, and it has nothing to do with their job. Most other countries manage to get just as much information about you and make exactly the same decisions without acting that way.
But police/immigration/etc in the US is kind of militaristic and authoritarian even at the best of times...
Re: Another awesome US immigration experience
#160There's somebody on the US no-fly list that has the exact same name as me. I can't check-in online with any airline, and checking in at the desk anywhere in the US results in some sort of warning on their computer, and a quick call to somebody to come out from the back and check it out. Unfortunately I have to fly at least once a month. A quick look over the passport shows it's obviously not me (though I don't have a…
Didn't they try to resolve this by issuing redress numbers or whatever? When I enter my passport on most airline's web-sites it gives me the option to add a redress number, which in theory should allow them to identify you as NOT the individual on the no-fly list.
See this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Fly_List#DHS_Traveler_Redres...