Travel to the USA becomes even more complicated
December 10th, 2008Business, Political, Travel 5 Comments
It’s been clear for some time that the US is becoming more and more paranoid about border security. My first trip to the US was in late 1993, when we hopped over to New York on a special deal (less than 2 weeks notice), and I remember it being much like any other international destination, or if anything easier. In particular if you held a British passport, you were pretty much waved through at the border with very little fuss.
Since 2001 things have gotten more difficult, obviously, but in the last 5 years it’s been getting increasingly silly. The need to fingerprint every traveller seems rather unnecessary and certainly slows down the process. On arriving in LA a couple of months ago I was struck by just how unfriendly the officials were, one in particular being pretty damn rude to a family in front of me in the queue who were unsure about which of the multitude of forms they were supposed to fill out when. Sure, it’s really big and clever to swank around with a gun at your hip, shouting at people when they don’t fill in your forms correctly. It’s not universal – recent trips to San Francisco and Boston have been a little more relaxed, but I can’t help but notice that the tension towards ‘outsiders’ appears to still be increasing.
Every time I’ve gone to the US I’ve travelled under the Visa Waiver Programme, which is very convenient – basically you don’t have to apply for a visa if you’re just visiting on business or pleasure, just turn up with your passport, a local address and a return ticket and you’ll be fine. From January 12th next year though, they’ve decided that’s far too easy, and travellers from countries that are eligible for the VWP will have to apply for clearance before travelling, via the Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA). The system appears to be largely automated, so it’s much quicker than getting a ‘real’ visa, but it’s still an extra step to remember to do, and another bureaucratic process that can get screwed up.
I’m not sure why they’ve chosen to do this, I can only assume it’s related to their wish to do pre-checks on travellers, and that they’re not getting ‘enough’ information from airlines – who already have to pre-warn the US authorities of the personal information of incoming travellers (unlike every other country) and give them information which is probably contrary to many local Data Protection laws.
I know 9/11 was a big deal, but honestly I don’t think there’s a need for border control to be quite so unfriendly as it seems to be getting in the US. It’s akin to DRM – hugely overcomplicated processes that mainly put barriers in the way of the kind of people you want to welcome, while almost certainly not impeding the real criminals / terrorists in any proportionate, practical way. Maybe once the current swaggering, fear-mongering chimp of a president is finally gone, the culture of xenophobia and paranoia may start to abate a little.
December 10th, 2008 at 10:35 am
I don’t think it’s really about terrorism. It’s about using the terror threat as an excuse for increasing the Big Brother capacities. It’s a wet dream of nearly every government to be able to track citizens’ (and foreigners!) activities. Even those we thought to be reasonable are yielding to this temptation – like Sweden, which recently passed a law allowing its spy agency to track ANY electronic trafic in the country (or through the country!) without warrant.
And the funniest is the argument of the advocates of all this paranoia: if you’re not doing anything wrong then why would you mind being watched? And my answer is very simple: Because I don’t trust those, who watch. With all those disks with personal data constantly being lost, with a temptation to a govt servant of making huuuge money on black market (or to foreign intelligence) by selling some data, this is all just very unhealthy. And we’re not doing much about it.
December 10th, 2008 at 1:36 pm
The mess with the TSA (the guys waving guns and forms) hasn’t turned up a single terrorist. It’s a giant and ineffective, or at least inefficient, way of screening passengers.
Everything could be much easier if some racial/state profiling were allowed. It’s terribly unpopular, and yes, morally questionable, but the fact is that the guys involved in 9/11 were a certain race from certain countries.
I don’t want to be a prick to anyone. And I don’t believe this entire charade is worth it, profiling or no, but at least admitting that the attackers were Muslim Arabs would allow them to stop hassling the majority.
Call me insensitive, but if some computer programmers or fundamentalists from my area decided to kill a few thousand people, I wouldn’t be offended at all to be singled out of a crowd. I remember seeing an interview with an older Muslim man a few years ago who felt the same way.
December 10th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
Just a further note on my last post – my suggestion about profiling assumes that we could find inspectors who would treat these people with decency and respect. That’s admittedly unlikely and it made further unlikely by treating Muslims as a “them” opposed to “us”.
December 12th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
When I emigrated to Canada in 98, my route took me through the States, Newark to be precise. I filled out the necessary immigration/customs (forget the name) form, which included one field titled “Destination US City”. Obviously I had no US destination city but try as I might, I couldn’t convince the guy checking my passport that the form was filled out correctly. “What am I supposed to write?”. “Your destination city in the US”. “I don’t have one – I’m shuttling through to Canada”. I think it took me three attempts to fill it out before I was finally let through. Damn annoying!
When I became a resident, I had to cross the border back into Canada to get my paperwork finalised. So I took my parents to Niagara. I wasn’t allowed to exit Canada and re-enter at the same point, so I exited on one bridge, walked through Niagara (US) – what a dump! – and re-entered at the other bridge. My parents were with me and it was easily 40C+. When I got the US side of the border crossing, the guard said “oh you should have just exited here and re-entered here. I would have let you through.” Well gee thanks, but I was told I wasn’t allowed to do that!
So I’ve seen both sides, but yes, the US guards do seem to be much less friendly.
November 27th, 2009 at 5:55 am
I agree with the fact that the need to fingerprint every traveler seems rather unnecessary and certainly slows down the process. Unfriendly officials are big threat to travel. There are certain websites that assists with safety travel tips to an unfamiliar destination.