Re: Being questioned on visit home?

This is a question. I've read now that the US is starting a new policy where Americans who have been out of the country for a long period (I guess more than 6 months) are supposed to be taken aside on re-entry for special questioning about what they've been doing. (It's another new security protocol). I'll try to find the article where I read this. But has anyone experienced this?

Crikey!  Adds another 2 - 3 hours to the trip, no?  Bulb, if you see something, please post it.

I can't look for this now, and I can't think of a google search that would help me find it. But I'm an inveterate reader of CNN, BBC, the NY Times, UK Times, Independent, and Guardian online. So I must have picked it up for one of these places, but it was a legit normative news source, not simply web gossip. Will try to find it later.

I was questioned and was gone only two weeks - I wasn't taken to a holding area but was questioned at the desk...more than the standard questions that they asked me the last few times I had re-entered which was 'Enjoyed your stay? Welcome back' This was much more lengthy, felt almost as bad as trying to get into England.

  Think their going a little overboard with things, especially if their interrogating people who were on a bloody two week vacation! LoL!! It's silly really. Tc!! 

x x x - Minxy 

Having made a recent visit after an absence of about four years, I wasn't questioned coming into Newark. The officer scanned my passport and sent me on my way without a word.

Having made a recent visit after an absence of about four years, I wasn't questioned coming into Newark. The officer scanned my passport and sent me on my way without a word.

Pretty much the same here and went through Newark as well. 

I have had normal and bad experiences at Newark.  Last year, the IO at Newark, asked me, "What are you wearing?",  and I almost lost it, but knew to keep my composure.  I was also taken to the "back" room and I guess they ran a background check on me (remember, I am a US citizen) and was made to sit for about 30 min.  I overheard them mention that I was not a threat to the US and I should be allowed to "enter".

Now, when I enter the UK on my British passport, the queue is fast and the IO barely even open my passport and let me thru.

bvamin

I've been asked a couple of times what I do abroad. Whenever I tell them "I work for an American company abroad", they sometimes ask what company. When I tell them, that's the end of the interview. Then it's always: "Welcome home."

I hope we can find out more about this new policy soon.  It will impact my travel plans.  grrr

I dont know where all yall are going into. But at LAX they dont ask u NOTHING. i went and i said i satyed for 1 day the lady just raised her eyebrow i showed her my ugly stamp and said i had  to get a visa and she said " you poor thing" and let me on through.
 Wehen i went  the first time nobody asked me much of nothing. EXCEPT this dummy came up to me and asked me like where did i saty and what did i do. that was it.
  I  wish he hadn't  jumped in my face.
 When patch came to visit, he was in like for 5 moinutes and all they did was ask how long he was staying and what he was there for. LEMME TELL U The protection i feel  with our  LA customs LOL.
  Shala

I am concerned simply because I don't want to be forced to give my partner's name as a part of being required to "account for" all the time I've spent outside of the US.  Because US immigration law is discriminatory against gays, it is possible that if INS (or whatever it is called now, "Customs And Border Protection") has my partner's name on record, that when she applies for a work visa to sing an opera in the US, she will be refused under the automatic presumption that anyone in a gay relationship with a US citizen will not leave the US when their visa expires.  Never mind the fact that we BOTH live at the same address in the UK and she would simply be coming to sing an opera or a concert, then come back home to me in England.  INS does not care about those niceties.

http://travel.state.gov/family/childcit.html

I thought this might be of interest. The old simple law that said "any child born in the United States is an American citizen; any child born abroad to an American parent is an American citizen" has been wiped away.

This new thing is a big muddle I can barely understand. Especially given that provision that a person with any claim to US nationality cannot enter the United States on a foreign passport. Seems like a big ol' vice clamp to me.

Tholian,

Has she ever been to the US before on such business, and has she ever been there since you have been residing together in the UK?

Perhaps it would be worth asking a US immigration lawyer, but I would have thought they would not cause problems for an opera singer with a short-term contract in the US and the proper visa.

m.

Especially given that provision that a person with any claim to US nationality cannot enter the United States on a foreign passport. Seems like a big ol' vice clamp to me.

Yep - it was a great big gigantic fat hairy pain in the BUTT for us to get organized enough with a newborn to get his US passport ASAP before we flew to America on Holiday in June. For various reasons we weren't able to get his UK passport in time (Mainly time constraints) so I called the UK passport people and they said "Yeah, he should re-enter the UK on his UK passport, but it isn't a huge deal, Bring loads of paperwork with you instead (like birth certificate, marriage certs etc) - - so we re-entered the UK and they just stamped his US passport and considered him a visa - the guy at the desk said that since we were planning on flying back to the US within 6 months anyway (for a wedding) that it was no big deal, and to just get the UK passport now that we are back home. They were WAY nicer about it!

*did that makes sense?*

Has she ever been to the US before on such business, and has she ever been there since you have been residing together in the UK?

She has worked in the US before.  (Prior to our relationship.)  And she's been there for visits (visa waiver program) several times since we became involved.  She's never mentioned our relationship to US Immigration--she has never been asked about it, and has no reason to volunteer the information.

The last time she entered, which was a few weeks ago--she was in Vancouver and made a day trip to Seattle to visit some friends, I was actually at home in Harrow--they gave her a bit of a hard time.  Apparently they wanted to know WHY she was visiting the West Coast since she usually visits the East Coast, and were unsatisfied with her truthful answer that she was visiting her friends.  They made her recite the exact dates of her last few trips in and out of the States, while they checked whatever was coming up on the screen.  Poor thing has ADD and a bad memory, so this was very nerve-racking for her.  I guess she got it right, because they let her through after a couple of minutes, but they were nasty about it. 

What the hell do you do when you're standing there telling the truth and you're not believed?

Usually the work visas are arranged by the opera house/symphony and her agent , but since 9/11 the US has gotten VERY persnickety about O-1 visas for artists, and is basically using any excuse to not grant them.  She hasn't had any work opportunities over there since we've been together, so it hasn't come up yet--I guess we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.