A visitor to the United States naturally would like to avoid long lines, long waits and long questioning at the customs and immigration gates. Well, the U.S. government has the answer — for better or worse.
The solution is ESTA, which is short for Electronic System for Travel Authorization. Its website sets forth the rules for its Visa Waiver Program and the “enhanced security requirements” that come with it.
For starters, the prospective traveler has to pay a $14 fee. Then comes a questionnaire — a long one. Among many other things, it asks whether you have any physical or mental illness (including Lymphogranuloma venereum), have been involved in moral turpitude, espionage, sabotage, terrorism, drug abuse or “persecutions associated with Nazi Germany or its allies.”
Still other questions are: “Have you ever detained, retained or withheld custody of a child from a U.S. citizen granted custody of the child?” and have you “committed a serious criminal offense in the United States as defined in 8 U.S.C Sec. 1101(h), including any felony, at any time for which immunity from criminal jurisdiction was exercised?”
Next comes an agreement to waive “any rights to review or appeal of a U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer’s determination as to my admissibility.”
Then comes the question: “When must I obtain a visa instead of using the Visa Waiver Program?” The answers: If you intend to arrive in the United States on a nonsignatory air carrier or if you intend to visit for more than 90 days.
By this time, anyone with normal patience will have given up. The $14 is nonreturnable, $10 of it having gone to the Visit America ad campaign. If an application is denied, the system won’t promise to give the reason.
Now, it is clear that the United States must protect itself from evildoers. But the agency’s mantra as explained by its chief operating officer, that it sees “security and customer service as mutually exclusive,” seems needlessly cold and forbidding. Visitors to this country can be an asset as well as, on occasion, a security threat. This is no way to distinguish one from the other.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security surely can do better. Why not redesign the threatening website, do away with complex questionnaires, post customs limits for the convenience of the law-abiding and use intelligence and random searches to catch any criminals?
A smile and as friendly “hello” will welcome the honest visitors and restore America’s reputation for generosity and hospitality in the spirit of the poetic line engraved on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
Lots of foreign visitors love coming to the US but the VISA application process and the barage of inane questions are a big turn-off. The statement that “security and customer service [are] mutually exclusive” just about says it all.
The convuluted U.S. visa application process is driving millions of tourist dollars away each year. A more efficient, visitor friendly process would enable tourists to visit our country spend their foreign currency and carry a message of friendship back to their home countries. As a country we have legitimate security concerns, but our Homeland Security folks are going overboard both with respect to visas and to our own personal freedoms. I can count on the fingers of one hand the times I agree with the BDN Editorial page, but they are right (no pun intended) on this issue.
There exists a visa waiver program that many European Countries belong to along with Australia, Canada and the USA. The US requires visas from some countries as those countries require US citizens to have a Visa. I understand this. However I do not understand the rudeness that customs officers seem to have at times. And it appears to be differ which airport you arrive in. When I arrive in JFK from South America I have to answer questions at times but for the most part it is done in a professional way. When I come into Miami from South America I have always been treated very rudely by Customs. It at times is to the point were I seriously think that they are trying to find some reason to deny my entry and mind you I am a US citizen by birth.
The rudeness, long lines, and endless questioning are incredibly offputting to anyone. I’m sure we’re losing millions of possible tourist dollars because people would rather go someplace that people are friendlier when they enter the country. Is this keeping us safer … or poorer?
I travel out of and back into the US twice a year. Im a citizen but live half the year in South America. I can enter Argentina as a foreign national in about 20 minutes. As an American coming back to my own country I face a wait of at least an hour at times and depending if I arrive in Miami or NYC I am treated very rudely almost to the point of being assumed that I am a criminal.
not only visitors; U S citizens returning to the U S through Madawaska are also confronted by jack-booted skinheads toting sidearms and not very friendly or motivated to process anyone very quickly.
I can confirm that in part as I have experienced apathy when arriving back home to the US a JFK and experiencing outright hostility and rudeness at Miami International.
I am an American citizen that lives in Argentina half the year. I myself have been treated extremely rudely and like a criminal upon my return. Such questions I have been asked are how can I afford to live out of the country? Who do I know in the US that Customs can call to check me out(parents dont count). The last time I came back on a cheap flight out of Bolivia and landed in Miami. I was asked at least ten times who I knew in Bolivia, why did I come from Bolivia, and what did I do in Bolivia. I explained each time that living in northern Argentina it was easier to fly from Salta to Santa Cruz, Bolivia and then to Miami, and that there was more than one way to fly from South America into the USA. I was asked where I worked, how much money I made. I was getting to the point of saying “You know I am a US citizen so enough with this foolishness” when I was told to be on my way. Meanwhile during this questioning the officer was speaking spanish to a fellow officer while speaking to me in English. Mind you I had told the officer that I live in South America half the year. The officer said, this guy is scared(meaning me) in spanish to his fellow officer. I responded in Spanish that I spoke Spanish and then I was told to be on my way.
One problem is the US Social Security Card and other forms of identification; they (and information on any ID) are stealable by hackers and others endeavoring to constantly dip into personal information. They are everyplace, even working in stores to steal receipts of purchases made on credit cards. Various countries of the world used as starting points to the USA, incorporate varied methods of exit/entrance documents and processes. Even leaving the USA, various processes of security are used. This is known as FBI “profiling”; and it is federal law. The immigration authorities need to know your income, verifiable through their computers and tax returns for overseas money made and gone unreported in the US IRS system. The upshot here is that with the worldwide “no-fliers” and terrorists traveling the world over and really in every country of the world as it is known, these methods outlined in the BDN news article are substantial and necessary. Think of it as a viable tracking system. Best just to do the dance steps and learn to dance the way each world government requires.
keep voting the same politicians in and expect change
The heightened Urban Myth that we were not safer, pre-911, still exists. So, politicians feed upon this to scare folks into tighter and tighter, costly, additional controls. They feed the thirst of Nativism in a Land built by immigrants, immigrants who fought for freedom from British. We have nothing to fear but fear of Ourselves?
As a retired Border Patrol agent, I’m a little more sympathetic to the immigration enforcement officers mentioned by most of those who have commented. Only a few short years after “9-11” people seem to have forgotten that almost all, if not all, of the terrorists entered this country on some kind of “visitors” visa, as students or tourists, etc. The background checks on them were poorly done or non-existent. After the fact some of their visa applications were made public; and had any due diligence been done, it would have been obvious that their purposes were questionable.
I don’t know the exact figure, but there are something like 500 million admissions of visitors every year. I, for one, want them to be thoroughly screened; and, if it were up to me, none would be admitted without some kind of background check.
There are probably better ways of screening those seeking admission to the U.S. – biometrics, RFD technology, etc. – but they’re costly, time-consuming and sometimes controversial. It seems that many people and most U.S. businesses want people to flow into the country with no constraints. That may be good for business, but it’s very bad for national security.
And it’s possible to conduct a business -like inspection without being rude Some people may interpret direct questions as rudeness, but there are questions that have to be asked. Good inspectors become very adept at recognizing applicants for admission who should have further screening. And good inspectors do it without rudeness.
It’s far from a perfect system, but it’s always a balancing act between the flow of visitors and commerce and national security. Whatever you deem to be more important is how you view the problem.
Im anxious to discuss this with someone who has done the job. In my circumstance I am a US citizen. When my passport gets swiped at a place like Miami doesnt it indicate that I am in fact a US Citizen? Then what is with the questions of how much money I make a year, how can I afford to live outside the US for 6 months, who in the US knows me, besides my parents. Do I fit some sort of profile perhaps? Im just curious as I have no criminal record and nothing in my mind that makes me suspicious. Im just a US citizen that has been out of his country that is now returning back home.
That would be too long a discussion to have in a “Comments” column. And even if we did discuss it, I wouldn’t be able to put myself “in the shoes” of the inspectors you dealt with. From what you describe it sounds to me like the inspectors are getting an indication that there might be a customs issue. When you present yourself at a POE (port of entry), the inspectors actually are doing 3 inspections: immigration, customs, and agriculture. (The inspectors are U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officers.) Once you satisfy the inspector that you’re a U.S. citizen, you’re still subject to customs and agriculture inspections.
If you’d like to discuss this further, I’d be willing, but am not sure I can answer your questions to your satisfaction. Email: frecker1991@roadrunner.com
Thanks for getting back to me. What seems to happen is that once it is determined that I have been out of the country for six months with travel between three countries during that time I somehow raise the interest of the officers. At that point I can understand some of the questions but being asked the same question five or six times starts to make me wonder.
Chefcater (and with all due respect to blyvl):
I assume you are reentering on a US passport. Once it has been established that you are a US Citizen, you cannot be denied reentry into your home country. Customs issues aside, all questions about your travel, business, etc, are irrelevant. They cannot turn you around and put you back on a plane. That being said, they can send you to secondary inspection, pick apart your bags, etc – but I would recommend that if you find the questions offensive you escalate to a supervisor.
Why don’t you apply for Global Entry? For $100, you get a smartcard that allows you to avoid all the drama and interact with a kiosk. You need one card per traveler – it does not apply to a family. But you will end up jumping to the front of the line in almost all cases.
The first question after I am asked how long I have been out of the US is do I work in that foreign country. When I respond no then it raises questions about my finances and then when I explain that I work only six months in the US then it seems that raises eyebrows and then more questions come.
Does Customs have some sort of database that would show my travel patterns? I often wonder if such a thing is available to them. In my case it would show that I have made the travels I am speaking of consistently for the last four years.
Read my comment below, please. There are security (national and international) reasons the responsibility for finding out more about those who travel abroad (even to Bermuda and Mexico) must now abide with rules never-before engaged for international and US security. The remaining fact belongs to “ID and Identity Theft”. Think about it. These things are a “MUST-CHECK” if you meet any “profile”; and most people do who appear suspicious and then this “reasonable cause” law kicks in to investigate further in offices in the downtown FBI or CIA or other facilities which have connections to port security computers.
What I say is this: Those who can be allowed to travel may do so from any country from “safe countries”, but those coming from countries we are at war with and those harboring or/and have terrorist cells operating, need not be allowed into any free country’s borders or from any port.
I wonder what profile I fit? Im white, I arrive in the US wearing typical American clothes and I speak with a Maine accent. If anyone thinks that I might be part of some sleeper cell then I really dont know what to do about it.
Argentine, Bolivia and Uruguay along with Chile are not countries that are security concerns for the US.
With the documents and databases available today it makes me wonder how customs cannot perfrom the required checks on US citizens before they even arrive in the US. For example John Smith gets on a plane in Budapest bound back home to Boston. Customs already has a report that John Smith, an American Citizen is on that plane. Couldnt they check to see if John Smith is really an American, what his travel patterns are and if there is any reason to check him out in person when he arrives in the US.
The agencies check your passport numbers either by scanning them or by entering in the passport numbers. There are other critical information passport holders are unaware of, so most likely in the near future, passports will also have some kind of fingerprint or “eye data” which verifies your existence of a US citizen and exactly who you claim yourself to be. The system as it is has faults, sir.
50 years ago, just coming across the Canadian border was a nerve-wracking experience for my parents, a more pro-USA couple I cannot imagine. They always feared that we would not be allowed back home. All born in the U.S. Father carrying his WWII credentials. This was through NY borders. The (correction) U.S. Customs Inspectors and Immigration Inspectors, even then, managed to convey the message that we were darned lucky to be allowed to return to the country where we were citizens. And, believe me, my parents did nothing other than smile and answer questions.
As an adult, having a day-jaunt in Canada, around the St. Lawrence River area, travelling with a young child, and without evidence of even shopping, as there weren’t usually purchases made, save for food, it was again as though we were seen as great criminal threats. We all looked about as regular as you can be. It didn’t matter.
I’ve been pulled into secondary at the Mexico border, 20 years ago, by the Border Patrol. Something in the computer data base, they claimed. They went through everything. It is a wonder that I didn’t ask for asylum in Mexico. The attitude was heavy-handed, smirking, sadistic, the kind of thing you might see in a terrifying movie.
Not a “welcome” back to your own country.
.
If things were as you say, which I have no reason to doubt, that’s unfortunate. I’ll admit that some inspectors are less than pleasant. And the people at the border in those days were U.S. Customs Inspectors and Immigration Inspectors; at least we can’t blame the Border Patrol for the instances you describe. (I’ll probably hear from people who have had a bad experience at a BP checkpoint.) In fairness, I believe some people are intimidated with the inspection process and expect the worst. I’ve watched a lot of inspections (and have done quite a few myself); and 99% of the time I felt they were proper. I’d hate to leave the impression on this thread that anyone who crosses the border is going to have a rough time.
I misspoke. U.S. Customs and Immigration Inspectors, not Border Patrol. My Dad was in combat in WWII. Do you think he ever thought he would be other than welcomed back into the country?
“This is no way to distinguish one from the other.”
Exactly!
How much sense does it make to give a suspicious character a questionnaire asking him if he’s a bad guy or a good guy? What do you think he’s going to do? This is senseless paperwork that will get us nowhere. Had intelligence agencies been doing their job, these pointless questionnaires wouldn’t even have been proposed. They’d know who to take aside for further questioning as soon as they landed, instead of inconveniencing everyone else.
When I get on a place coming into the US that information is already in the hands of the customs officers at the arriving airport I am coming into. I would think a little bit of pre-screening would be able to determine that
I am a US citizen
That I have no criminal record
That my travel pattern never deviates between two routes back to the US
That my length out of the country is always the same within two to three days.
The basic problem that leads to a bad taste for anyone entering the US, as a citizen returning or a visitor, is the attitude and professionalism of the Officer at the gate. The job is going to attract a few individuals who should never ever be given a badge and a gun. That is just a fact of life that they will get through the screening and I don’t believe that there is anything that can stop it from happening.
However, if supervisors are doing their job and monitoring and training their personel properly, they should be able to identify the problem individuals. Once identified they can try to retrain them or give them alternative approaches to dealing with the public. These officers are human and subject to all the same temptations and biases that all humans have.
Reading some of the posts here, I gather that Miami seems to be the worst port of entry when flying in from overseas. It is similar in Calais where the new port of entry seems to have the worst reputation among frequent border crossers. On occasion I have sat for 10 minutes while the officer was dealing with one car, while there are more vehicles backing up. I don’t for the life of me understand what could take that long without ever looking in the trunk of that car. Then the car was waved through and the next car got to the gate and it was over 5 minutes to clear that one, again without a look inside the vehicle. By this time there must have been more than 30 vehicles lined up. The officers inside finally opened up another gate after 20 minutes.
And yes the US Government is requiring CBP do more with
less….CBP is also be required to do more with less and it gets to the point
where you just can’t process people any quicker and people do have to wait. It’s
not an easy job…These officials can make one mistake but the terrorist will
continue to knock at our door wanting to get in. And, if they do the finger
pointing begins with Congress while on the other hand beating federal employees
up to be paid less, pay more taxes, stop cost of living allowances, funding our
highway system, and the list goes on.
The people expect and deserve to have good service when they make entry into
the US. But the agency needs the tools
to hire, train and pay these individuals protecting our homeland. And yes, technology is a big part of what
they do, they must rely on technology there are fewer and fewer of these
individuals to get the job done; they have no choice.
My war story is this: My wife and I traveled from the US (a city in Maine) to Canada and moving through Calais, Maine, we were allowed into Canada (New Brunswick) easily enough with just a wave-on by the Border agents. We took a very nice day-trip and then on the way back, we were heading through the same Border Inspection station in Calais. This was BEFORE the “911 incident”. The agents treated us like garbage. They made me and my wife get out of the Cadillac, open all the doors (they looked under the seats and compartments) and then looked in the trunk of the car and in the engine area as well. My wife was pregnant (8 months) at the time and she was told just to stand aside and was not allowed to go inside the Border Inspection station at all – even to use the bathroom. We were disgusted with the US-side border agents. At least some human kindness and consideration could have been used but when I asked these agents if they were looking for someone which fits out description, they even frisked us; but finding my identification, they allowed us to move on. So even “back along”, these agents seemed to have a major problem for some reason.
So true with the Calais boarder agents! Oh so true!
For sure, and ever thought of giving them a high swing kick in the face?
The BDN fails to realize, or wishes to ignore, this one simple fact: a nation is defined by its borders and its laws. Illegal immigration violates both, and we already have 15+million here in the US.
Don’t be fooled by this shallow appeal for humanity. The BDN, like other leftist media outlets, see in illegal immigrants lots and lots of new Democratic Party supporters. It is as simple as that.
I say: “Go Home and Stay Home until you can enter this country legally”.
“Shallow appeal to humanity”? Good grief!
Illegal immigration is not going to be deterred by some stupid web form. However, LEGAL immigration certainly can be. Opaque, frustrating processes have nothing to do with security; neither does asking someone if they were part of the Nazi party in the 40s.
The DHS person quoted was completely wrong: security and customer service are NOT mutually exclusive: they are not even on the same axis.
Never had a problem coming back in, at either border Mexico or Canada, but was pissed at the NY border when we had to pay a dam toll to get back into our own country, REALLY.
Just what we need a dam speed pass to let more terrorists back in.
A smile and as friendly “hello” will welcome the honest visitors and restore America’s reputation for generosity and hospitality in the spirit of the poetic line engraved on the Statue of Liberty: “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”
———–You’ve inadvertently hit on the reason WHY all those intrusive questions. The line you quote is for IMMIGRANTS. US VISIT is for VISITORS, for non immigrants. You can bet that many “visitors” to this country are going to violate the terms of those visas, overstay and work illegally. 40% or so of illegal aliens first entered this country on visas they overstayed.