O/T - Visiting the US and Visas

[Tooting Gull]

Walk on smoking crack, and say you're a good mate of Amy Winehouse. Americans love celebrity name-dropping.

 

[Raphael Meade]

It rather depends on what could be called 'Regular'. If you visit the US more than twice a year using a Visa Waiver they are almost certain to detain you and search your luggage as you will be suspected of being a drug smuggler. Regular vists are a lot easier if you get a Visa which save a whole lot of hassle. I do speak from personal experience.

i've gotta go out to LA in a couple of weeks, and it'll be the 3rd trip in 10 months (no visa) and am dreading being at the airport for hours......

 

[Hornblower]

The visa waiver programme (vwp) should allow for business meetings and, in the case of musicians, non paying performances - playing songs to a publisher/a&r person etc. However, turn up at immigration with a guitar case and no 'O' or 'P' visa and try and argue your way in on a vwp and you may well be sent home. If you're refused entry once, it makes it a million times harder to gain entry at a later date. Better to go down the 'P' visa route and have a petitioning party in the US.

 

[clippedgull]

I guess if they don't remove it they still believe you are in the states.

We went to Canada last year and spent a day in America popping across the bridge at Niagara. We had the usual delay going through customs however on the way back into Canada we were just waved through and it wasn't until we got back to the UK I realised we still had the green visa stapled to our passports.

If you are planning to go back to the USA I STRONGLY recommend you phone the embassy in advance and explain what happened and follow the advice given.

Your name will be on a stop list and you will be detained upon entry otherwise and more than likely be deported back to the UK.

This happened to a friend of mine once. Now he is barred from the USA for ten years!

He could even prove that he left on his original flight. But they are so terror obsessed they didn't even want to know his story.

 

[bhaexpress]

Is JFK the wankiest airport in the Western World? I can't think of a single British Airport anywhere near as crap as JFK.

Pretty shit but nowhere I have seen is and awful as Manila Airport, it's truely appalling from the time you start queuing to get in the terminal until you land !

 

[Barrow Boy]

I guess if they don't remove it they still believe you are in the states.

We went to Canada last year and spent a day in America popping across the bridge at Niagara. We had the usual delay going through customs however on the way back into Canada we were just waved through and it wasn't until we got back to the UK I realised we still had the green visa stapled to our passports.

Snap !, we did exactly the same back in 2001, we flew to Canada then drove down to Grand Rapids Michigan to attend my brothers funeral, then drove back into Canada 2 days later. The Canadian immigration just waved us through and it wasn't until I next looked at our passports (year later) that I realised the visa waivers were still stapled inside. I got on to the USA embassy website and there's a nice section about what to do if you've forgotten to hand in your visa waiver. My god, the amount of stuff I had to provide either original or photo copies of to prove to them that we'd actually left the USA and had been living and working in the UK for the past 12 months.
Statement giving reasons why we hadn't surrendered the visa waivers.
Exact time and place we left USA soil
Flight tickets
Bording passes
Bank statements
Wage slips
Credit card statements
And then if you managed to collect all this you had to mail it to a PO box number in the USA, which I did and have never received confirmation from the US immigration if they actually received it and are we actually allowed back into the US.
Good luck !

 

[Gazwag]

Cheers Barrowboy, bugger, looks like I have some work to do

 

[Lord Bracknell]

The are many horror stories of people thinking they are entitled to enter the US with a completed Visa Waiver form, only to discover that someone decides that they aren't.

What happens next? The manacles and detention. Followed by deportation. It happens to journalists all the time. Even though they thought they were going on holiday, it turns out that they need an 'I' visa. As do members of their family.

My brother once applied for a US visa and he was required to supply the US authorities with all sorts of detailed information ... about Roz. Simply because she's a member of the NUJ and lives with his brother.

 

[Barrow Boy]

Cheers Barrowboy, bugger, looks like I have some work to do

I'm taking Clippedgulls advice and ringing the Embassy as we were thinking of going over to California next year, I'll let you know how I got on.

 

[Couldn't Be Hyypia]

I'm glad I asked - I suspected it could be a bit of a performance. Great advice folks - thank you.

 

[Barrow Boy]

I'm glad I asked - I suspected it could be a bit of a performance. Great advice folks - thank you.

Oh and to cap it all, I had the following conversation with this US immigration Twat at the Canadian/US border,

Twat "Why do you want to visit the USA" ?

Me "We are attending my brothers funeral in Grand Rapids"

Twats reply (I kid you not)

"Is that for business or pleasure" ?

 

[bhaexpress]

Oh and to cap it all, I had the following conversation with this US immigration Twat at the Canadian/US border,

Twat "Why do you want to visit the USA" ?

Me "We are attending my brothers funeral in Grand Rapids"

Twats reply (I kid you not)

"Is that for business or pleasure" ?

The Twats at Toronto Airport mst be closely related, my (soon to be ex) Missis who is an American citizen was extremely close to hitting one when we bumped into them there.

 

[Pinkie Brown]

Snap !, we did exactly the same back in 2001, we flew to Canada then drove down to Grand Rapids Michigan to attend my brothers funeral, then drove back into Canada 2 days later. The Canadian immigration just waved us through and it wasn't until I next looked at our passports (year later) that I realised the visa waivers were still stapled inside. I got on to the USA embassy website and there's a nice section about what to do if you've forgotten to hand in your visa waiver. My god, the amount of stuff I had to provide either original or photo copies of to prove to them that we'd actually left the USA and had been living and working in the UK for the past 12 months.
Statement giving reasons why we hadn't surrendered the visa waivers.
Exact time and place we left USA soil
Flight tickets
Bording passes
Bank statements
Wage slips
Credit card statements
And then if you managed to collect all this you had to mail it to a PO box number in the USA, which I did and have never received confirmation from the US immigration if they actually received it and are we actually allowed back into the US.
Good luck !

Snap again! Somewhere on the U.S. Embassys website for London, there's a whole section for dealing with the above scenario. I had similar last year. I entered the U.S. by land from Canada about eight weeks after a previous entry by air into Florida from the U.K.. Although the green slip at the bottom of the passport had been removed on departure on first visit, it somehow hadn't gone into the 'system' when I tried re-entering a few weeks later. Result? A grilling for 15 minutes from the Inbred goons at a remote rural crossing point before the decided it was safe to let me enter. Three days later when I returned to Canada, I too forgot to hand the green slip to the Canadian guard. He never even asked to see my passport, only asking if I'd made any purchases over $50 then waving me through. I was so taken aback, I totally forgot to pull the green slip out.

After taking the advice from the embassy, I had to show proof that I'd left North America, which land crossing I'd passed through to Canada, covering letter with the green slip enclosed, and mail it to a Post Box number in Kentucky. Likewise, I've no idea if it's all been sorted or if I'll flag up as 'dodgy' the next time I enter the U.S.

The morale of the story is - Make sure that green slip is removed when you leave the U.S. The chances are it could cause you problems on any return.

 

[Vankleek Hill Seagull]

The Twats at Toronto Airport mst be closely related, my (soon to be ex) Missis who is an American citizen was extremely close to hitting one when we bumped into them there.

I'll give that my vote as well, miserable bunch of c**ts.

The girl at the NorthWest check-in counter didn't give me the green waiver form because (I assume) she thought I was Canadian. Then some pompous self-righteous, head stuck up his arse customs guy starts giving me grief and asking why I haven't got the form.

I explain that I wasn't given one, so he proceeds to then lecture me whilst I fill one out. That'll probably be the last time I ever go back to the US.

 

[Caravan Club]

I flew in to Denver from Heathrow on Wednesday, filled in the green form on the plane as well as the customs form, and got in no problem. So it's not always bad.

This year was even easier because the BA flight beat the Lufthansa flight which arrive within about 10 minutes of each other normally. Unfortunately the immigration goons have not noticed this and are never prepared and consequently only ever have half the desks open.

 

[Porky]

From CNN today.
A few stores in NYC accepting only EUROS!!

Oh, how the mighty have fallen!!

 

[Mr C]

Before I moved to the U.S. I had many trips over here. I think on one or two occasions I forgot to hand in my form as I left. Didn't cause any problems when I returned.

One time when I was leaving from Detroit, they had a "US Exit" system in place where you had to scan your passport at a machine (do it yourself) to prove you'd left the country. There was nothing to stop me scanning it (thus "proving" that I left), then just walking out of the airport!

 

[Questions]

Pretty shit but nowhere I have seen is and awful as Manila Airport, it's truely appalling from the time you start queuing to get in the terminal until you land !

I thought they were all mail order ..................... your women. I didn`t realise you had to go over and pick them up.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

I know there are a lot of NSC'ers who regularly visit the US, so can I check my understanding of the visa situation. As I read it:

UK citizens with a valid passport do not need to have a visa to visit the US on holiday. But the passport must be machine readable.

Is there ANYTHING I need to sort out before I actually jump on the plane at Gatwick (apart from ticket, baggage etc etc) to allow me to enter the US or is having a UK passport enough?

Many thanks

It is also not advisable to wear an arabic headscarf as this will upset the immigration officials.

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

You'll be given to a card to fill out on the plane. In addition to this you will also need to fill out another card(which they don't tell you about) when you land. They don't tell you this until you get to the angry immigration men, by which time you've queued for a while. At JFK there is a couple of women who stand to thr right side of immigration by the window holding out this 2nd card. Its a pain in the arse, but without it they'll not let you in - even for a weekend. My missus got a right grilling and we only went for 3 days... Oh and its also worth having the address of the hotel with you as they will ask for it and expect you to know it

Is this the form with the question about wether or not you are a terrorist and have to tick either a box for yes or a box for no ?