AisleSeat
Established Member
- Joined
- Nov 11, 2016
- Posts
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Thought I'd share this one as it's been a major annoyance for me over the last 7 years. (Hopefully it is now resolved, I'll find out next March!)
So, back in 2009 I worked at a summer camp in the US, all legit, proper visa etc.
Since then, every time I've visited I've either had the pre-boarding extra check or pulled aside for secondary screening at US immigration, or both.
I was always asked at immigration if I'd ever been a student in the US (No). After researching, I realised that the visa which is used for summer camp counsellors (J1) is the same visa issued to international students to the US. From then on when I got asked the question, I'd always state that I worked at a summer camp. I figured that this was probably a case of them thinking I had been a student because of the visa type, but something on their screen was telling them something extra. I was always let go to carry on. (I did almost miss a connecting flight once though because of this secondary screening).
Fast forward to 2015. I arrived at LAX with my family (after having to do pre-boarding check in Aus, again, for the 100th time, ugh.) Once again at immigration, I was asked to go to secondary (Wife and daughter have US passports so all fine for them).
The immigration agent was very courteous and I think didn't understand why I had to be there. He said there was a whole bunch of things on his screen that didn't add up and he was going to go and look into it more. (We had a few hours til our connecting flight so I wasn't too bothered about time).
So maybe 20 minutes go by and he comes back.
Apparently someone at the summer camp had entered into the system that the program was cancelled and that I did not finish it, effectively terminating my visa, which was not true!
This also meant that I was flagged as overstaying, but he could see clearly from my exit record that I had not.
OK! Now we were getting somewhere!
He started asking where I had been in the world and named off a bunch of countries: North Korea, Ukraine, Indonesia, Thailand, Libya etc... (All no except Indo and Thailand)
Then he says, "I've got one other country on my list that is also a reason you've been flagged."
"Have you ever been to the Middle East? Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon?"
"No, no, no, no...uh...I've stopped over in the UAE for a connecting flight?"
"Well, there's a country here, can you think a bit more?"
I was really struggling trying to think of where I'd been, I've never been to the Middle East!
Then it hit me: "Egypt?"
"That's the one we've got here, when and why were you there?"
I was on the verge of saying "Egypt's in Africa, not the Middle East", but I kept my mouth shut about that.
"I dive quite a lot and the Red Sea is one of the top places in the world". (It really is) (Also my reasons for Indo and Thailand)
He acknowledged that some mistakes had been made, and apologised that this had dragged on for so long and never been corrected. I waited while he wrote what seemed like a long email to whoever explaining the details and for it to be corrected. What a guy, he was the first person in years who explained all this.
Guess I'll find out next March if it has in fact been sorted out.
So, back in 2009 I worked at a summer camp in the US, all legit, proper visa etc.
Since then, every time I've visited I've either had the pre-boarding extra check or pulled aside for secondary screening at US immigration, or both.
I was always asked at immigration if I'd ever been a student in the US (No). After researching, I realised that the visa which is used for summer camp counsellors (J1) is the same visa issued to international students to the US. From then on when I got asked the question, I'd always state that I worked at a summer camp. I figured that this was probably a case of them thinking I had been a student because of the visa type, but something on their screen was telling them something extra. I was always let go to carry on. (I did almost miss a connecting flight once though because of this secondary screening).
Fast forward to 2015. I arrived at LAX with my family (after having to do pre-boarding check in Aus, again, for the 100th time, ugh.) Once again at immigration, I was asked to go to secondary (Wife and daughter have US passports so all fine for them).
The immigration agent was very courteous and I think didn't understand why I had to be there. He said there was a whole bunch of things on his screen that didn't add up and he was going to go and look into it more. (We had a few hours til our connecting flight so I wasn't too bothered about time).
So maybe 20 minutes go by and he comes back.
Apparently someone at the summer camp had entered into the system that the program was cancelled and that I did not finish it, effectively terminating my visa, which was not true!
This also meant that I was flagged as overstaying, but he could see clearly from my exit record that I had not.
OK! Now we were getting somewhere!
He started asking where I had been in the world and named off a bunch of countries: North Korea, Ukraine, Indonesia, Thailand, Libya etc... (All no except Indo and Thailand)
Then he says, "I've got one other country on my list that is also a reason you've been flagged."
"Have you ever been to the Middle East? Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon?"
"No, no, no, no...uh...I've stopped over in the UAE for a connecting flight?"
"Well, there's a country here, can you think a bit more?"
I was really struggling trying to think of where I'd been, I've never been to the Middle East!
Then it hit me: "Egypt?"
"That's the one we've got here, when and why were you there?"
I was on the verge of saying "Egypt's in Africa, not the Middle East", but I kept my mouth shut about that.
"I dive quite a lot and the Red Sea is one of the top places in the world". (It really is) (Also my reasons for Indo and Thailand)
He acknowledged that some mistakes had been made, and apologised that this had dragged on for so long and never been corrected. I waited while he wrote what seemed like a long email to whoever explaining the details and for it to be corrected. What a guy, he was the first person in years who explained all this.
Guess I'll find out next March if it has in fact been sorted out.
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