US Immigration Controls
Posted: Jan 27th 2005, 7:12 am
I thought I'd put this here because while it's not overtly political, it's pretty interesting.
US immigration controls are becoming a reason genuine visitors do not want to visit the USA, IMO.
Recently I have heard of a couple of incidents which shocked me slightly.
Firstly, a friend of mine lives in Peru and she flies back and forth to the UK about once a year. She usually goes through Miami. However, the last time she was due to go, she was advised by the travel agent to check out the US visa situation because she's technically not a tourist. the purpose of her journey back to Peru is because she lives and works there, so this is what she has to declare to US authorities (apparently). So, she rang the embassy, who told her that yes, she needed a visa to enter the USA. But, she pleaded, I'm in transit. I'm in your country for 4 hours, and I have a through air ticket I can show you, to Lima. I have always done this in the past and it's never been a problem. No, she is told, she needs to get a visa because she's entering the states other than as a tourist. Fortunately she refused to believe them, went to the US embassy in London and eventually found someone at a desk who knew what she was talking about, who told her that no, she didn't need a visa. Fortunately she asked for documentation confirming this, because she had to show it to the immigration officials at Miami.
Second, my parents just came back from a trip to the US to visit family. For those who don't know, my parents used to be US Citizens. However, they renounced citizenship in the 1980s. At the time dual nationality wasn't an option. So, anyway, the sharp-eyed immigration official spotted my mum's very obvious US birthplace on her British passport, and started questioning them about whether they'd ever been US Citizens. So they told the truth, and that they'd renounced citizenship, and gave the reason as the unavailability of dual nationality at the time. The immigration official said he could not recall a time when dual nationality was not available (!), and then proceeded to stamp their passports with a stamp saying they were renounced US Citizens. This bothers me because:
a) is it relevant to their admission to the USA as a visitor, from a country which participates in the visa waiver scheme, that they were once US citizens? surely all that matters is that they are british now, and have the correct documentation.
b) they now each have a stamp in their passport which announces to the world that they used to be American. The fact that passports are used in more than the USA (my dad travels all over the world) and as identification for many purposes, means that every time my parents need to show their passport to anyone official, for whatever reason (and this includes, in the UK, financial purposes) it's immediately clear that they used to be American. this, surely, is nobody's business but their own, and may well potentially cause problems at other borders etc, as well as being a gross invasion of privacy, the way I see it.
They were also fingerprinted and photographed on entering and leaving the country, which I understand is now standard.
I'm flying through LA in a few weeks and I have to say, I'm not at all looking forward to touching down on US soil, where civil liberties and freedom apparently have no meaning. Mr. S is from NI, which is now worrying me.
I'm pointing this out I suppose because most members of this forum are from the US, and so wouldn't ever encounter the (and I say this through experience personally too) downright arrogance, incompetence, rudeness and general ignorance of US immigration staff. it's not so much 'welcome to the USA' as 'we don't want you here and you're all under suspicion'.
It's upsetting.
US immigration controls are becoming a reason genuine visitors do not want to visit the USA, IMO.
Recently I have heard of a couple of incidents which shocked me slightly.
Firstly, a friend of mine lives in Peru and she flies back and forth to the UK about once a year. She usually goes through Miami. However, the last time she was due to go, she was advised by the travel agent to check out the US visa situation because she's technically not a tourist. the purpose of her journey back to Peru is because she lives and works there, so this is what she has to declare to US authorities (apparently). So, she rang the embassy, who told her that yes, she needed a visa to enter the USA. But, she pleaded, I'm in transit. I'm in your country for 4 hours, and I have a through air ticket I can show you, to Lima. I have always done this in the past and it's never been a problem. No, she is told, she needs to get a visa because she's entering the states other than as a tourist. Fortunately she refused to believe them, went to the US embassy in London and eventually found someone at a desk who knew what she was talking about, who told her that no, she didn't need a visa. Fortunately she asked for documentation confirming this, because she had to show it to the immigration officials at Miami.
Second, my parents just came back from a trip to the US to visit family. For those who don't know, my parents used to be US Citizens. However, they renounced citizenship in the 1980s. At the time dual nationality wasn't an option. So, anyway, the sharp-eyed immigration official spotted my mum's very obvious US birthplace on her British passport, and started questioning them about whether they'd ever been US Citizens. So they told the truth, and that they'd renounced citizenship, and gave the reason as the unavailability of dual nationality at the time. The immigration official said he could not recall a time when dual nationality was not available (!), and then proceeded to stamp their passports with a stamp saying they were renounced US Citizens. This bothers me because:
a) is it relevant to their admission to the USA as a visitor, from a country which participates in the visa waiver scheme, that they were once US citizens? surely all that matters is that they are british now, and have the correct documentation.
b) they now each have a stamp in their passport which announces to the world that they used to be American. The fact that passports are used in more than the USA (my dad travels all over the world) and as identification for many purposes, means that every time my parents need to show their passport to anyone official, for whatever reason (and this includes, in the UK, financial purposes) it's immediately clear that they used to be American. this, surely, is nobody's business but their own, and may well potentially cause problems at other borders etc, as well as being a gross invasion of privacy, the way I see it.
They were also fingerprinted and photographed on entering and leaving the country, which I understand is now standard.
I'm flying through LA in a few weeks and I have to say, I'm not at all looking forward to touching down on US soil, where civil liberties and freedom apparently have no meaning. Mr. S is from NI, which is now worrying me.
I'm pointing this out I suppose because most members of this forum are from the US, and so wouldn't ever encounter the (and I say this through experience personally too) downright arrogance, incompetence, rudeness and general ignorance of US immigration staff. it's not so much 'welcome to the USA' as 'we don't want you here and you're all under suspicion'.
It's upsetting.