151–160 of 375 posts
Apparently traveling in a lot of countries is grounds for suspicion in the US. Well if you have multiple citizenship you can always just choose which passport you're going to use so how useful is that really?
Even if you don't have multiple citizenship, it should probably be standard practice to get a fresh, stamp-less passport if you're planning on travelling to the US or any such hostile country.
Back in the late 90's the US was fairly high on my list of travel destinations. At the time I didn't have the finances to visit. Because of stories like this, it's slipping so low on my list that I'll likely never get there.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Having a Jewish father doesn't make you Jewish. Only people who have Jewish mothers or those who convert to Judaism are considered Jewish. If the agent thought he was being inaccurate then the agent was just being ignorant.
Try telling that to an Al Qaeda extremist! Which, by the way, is what the border agent was getting at.
U.S. Immigration agents are trained to look for certain traits in visitors: nervousness, unusual or inconsistent answers to questions, history of visiting certain countries. Any of these characteristics trigger an automatic escalation in the interrogation process. This individual, albeit sounding perfectly innocent, unfortunately triggered several hot buttons and the hapless agents were too unimaginative, uninformed,…
I've done a fair amount of back-and-forth between the US and China. On my most recent entry (to the US), the phase 1 guy flagged me to have my carryon manually inspected because I took the trouble to answer his questions honestly (bizarrely, the search did not involve a search of my person, or my checked luggage, so I can't imagine what it was supposed to accomplish). That forced my mother to wait an extra hour to pi…
I wonder what other countries have this "non-friendly countries" policy, it could be good to know.
Interestingly, in the developed world it seems to be the Anglophone countries that have the shittiest attitude towards border control these days. The US is notoriously user-hostile at the borders. The UK is doing its best to catch up in a Mini-Me way with the USA's Dr Evil, and is actually on course to become even more hostile than the USA -- the only mitigating factor is that the third degree is reserved for non-cit…
I would appreciate if you wouldn't cite the 'world socialist website - Published by the International Committee of the Fourth International' as a reputable source. Some of their articles are surprisingly good, but it's still the publication of an obscure trotzkyist sect.
I assume most folks here are smart enough to evaluate any given news site on the basis of its accuracy and to differentiate between editorial bias and factual incorrectness.
If you really can't bear to see news and opinions from sources you personally disagree with, how are you ever going to test your opinions?
Something similar happened to me recently. I voluntarily left my job at a US employer, planning to move back home (to Sweden). But first I wanted to spend some time preparing for the move and waiting for my wife to wrap things up. The rules say you have to leave the country the last day of work, so I left for Canada to stay with a friend, and planned to come back on the visa waiver program. I consulted with the compa…
This phrase caught my eye. Based on this, you probably thought that you could leave and enter the US at will. Ironically, during this phase of the green card process (i.e. right after the I-485 is filed and awaiting final processing for denial or a GC in the mail), my understanding is that you'll have more difficulty entering and leaving the country without special dispensation (called Advance Parole).
Assuming that your company lawyers handled your green card application, I'm surprised they didn't apply for Advance Parole for you at the same time as filing the I-485. That would have saved you a bunch of hassle, regardless of whether you quit the company or not.
IANAL and all that, but I think this explains why they were so hostile. You didn't follow their strict procedures for these types of things. Of course, they're not going to tell you this during an interrogation, but this may have helped.
U.S. Immigration agents are trained to look for certain traits in visitors: nervousness, unusual or inconsistent answers to questions, history of visiting certain countries. Any of these characteristics trigger an automatic escalation in the interrogation process. This individual, albeit sounding perfectly innocent, unfortunately triggered several hot buttons and the hapless agents were too unimaginative, uninformed,…
Just wondering why you didn't enter Canada with your Canadian passport then?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
"He was obviously travelling all around the world sight-seeing" This is not so obvious. This is one of the possible points of view, of course. "He had tons of proof of that" For example? I'm not sure other countries stamp a reason for entry like the US, it's usually an entry stamp for anything and that's it. I'm also sympathetic to the author, but he was extremely naive. The border control doesn't want to hear about…
Why don't border control want to hear the details of a person's travel history? It would seem naive to me to try to hide details that could help you.
Depending on the details, yes, it's better, like, "oh, I transited through Malaysia when leaving Singapore"
But remember "anything you say can and will be used against you", so don't go into details unless needed.
And to be honest, someone saying they traveled there because of the Botany, they're either a plant expert or this can be felt as they're hiding something.