211–220 of 257 posts
I call bullshit!
quite ironic that the (German) site shoves a "like this on FB" prompt in my face as I read
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I mean, if you were willing to invest that sort of effort, it might even be easier just to put the innards from a modern slim "ultrabook" laptop into the case of a 2000 era thinkpad monster. Throw on a "third party extended battery" for good measure... Actually, don't bother with that. There is plenty of air-space in many older laptops that you could pack with explosives if you don't worry about being able to run the…
Depends how smart the "average terrorist" would be. Because you would catch the ones stupid enough to just gut out the laptop, rendering it inoperative (unless of course for that last one blaze of glory… hem).
Asking people to turn on their computers is like a doctor taking your temperature with the back of his hand on your forehead.. right before actually using the digital thermometer anyway.
Just a note of caution, a friend of mine wanted to send their daughter over to visit the US during the summer before she headed off to college. We were of course happy to let her stay at our place which is a good west coast starting point for things California. Somewhere in correspondence where she was trying to ask nicely if she could stay at our place she said "I could watch the kids or something" and later in that…
So ridiculous! Why are they cracking down on this? Are young French and German girls really posing such a risk to US employment rates? I have offered the same thing while asking if I could stay with relatives in other US cities (I'm American). Next, are they going to go around accusing 16 year old American girls of tax evasion since their bank accounts "fit the profile" for someone who's done babysitting? Sorry, but…
So I guess they're miffed that girls are trying to cheat the official (rather inflexible IMO) system.
There are huge numbers of American girls in Europe doing a similar thing -- legally and illegally -- and in some countries you'd get the same hard-assed attitude.
In Germany, au pairs don't need a visa at all.
France, being France, they require a work permit (unless you're from CN, NZ or AU).
Spain is easy (just apply to the nearest consulate and it's rubber-stamped) and you can work there for up to two years.
In the UK, it's super-complicated. The UK authorities simply don't want non-EU workers under any circumstances (but what's the point in au-pairing in another English-speaking country?).
However, French and German girls are awesome, so please keep it up and with any luck, more will come here to Spain.
;-)
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They probably had these papers already prepared. It's not like people get their visas one day before departing to the US.
I think Germany is part of the Visa Waiver Program, so she would have had to apply via ESTA before she flew out. It wouldn't surprise me now if there was a system in place that used the ESTA information to query the NSA/CIA/etc for anything that might be an issue for immigration control. If she's been talking about working in the USA and hasn't got a visa (ESTA is only for personal visits, not business IIRC), that's…
It's for both both business and pleasure - says right there on the ESTA home page:
https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/
"You plan to travel to the United States for business or pleasure."
NB I've travelled a few times the US over the last few years on business using ESTA so you had me slightly worried there!
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Just because the NSA didn't share the data doesn't mean another government agency couldn't also request it from Facebook.
Are you suggesting that the TSA agent interviewing this woman called up some TSA hotline who called up someone at Facebook who just gave it to them, sans warrant, all within the span of a couple hours? Words fail me for an adjective to describe how unlikely that sounds. The far, far, far simpler explanation would that she had a printout of the conversations because it had an address or directions or that she voluntar…
Pretty much, only "filled in a form on a web page" not "called up someone", "made a request to the api" not "called up someone at Facebook" and "the software ran" not "just gave it to them". Get with the times.
> Words fail me for an adjective to describe how unlikely that sounds.
You have not been paying attention.
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What is the logic or basic reason for this level of extreme prejudice against people doing basic work in another country? It seems to me that someone working in a country is going to be contributing.
Someone working in another country is doing work someone in the country could also be doing, depriving them of a potential job. That's why you need a visa.
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Just because the NSA didn't share the data doesn't mean another government agency couldn't also request it from Facebook.
Are you suggesting that the TSA agent interviewing this woman called up some TSA hotline who called up someone at Facebook who just gave it to them, sans warrant, all within the span of a couple hours? Words fail me for an adjective to describe how unlikely that sounds. The far, far, far simpler explanation would that she had a printout of the conversations because it had an address or directions or that she voluntar…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think Germany is part of the Visa Waiver Program, so she would have had to apply via ESTA before she flew out. It wouldn't surprise me now if there was a system in place that used the ESTA information to query the NSA/CIA/etc for anything that might be an issue for immigration control. If she's been talking about working in the USA and hasn't got a visa (ESTA is only for personal visits, not business IIRC), that's…
"(ESTA is only for personal visits, not business IIRC)" It's for both both business and pleasure - says right there on the ESTA home page: https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/ "You plan to travel to the United States for business or pleasure." NB I've travelled a few times the US over the last few years on business using ESTA so you had me slightly worried there!