# "Are you a terrorist?" on USA visa application. Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 19, 2014, 12:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-terrorist-on-usa-visa-application-why/684078 "2014-03-19T12:12:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 9:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-terrorist-on-usa-visa-application-why/684078/41 "2014-03-20T09:21:00Z")
> [@Batistuta](#): > > Not really the point of the topic, but what happened to that person? Well, in the best tradition of the civil service he was asked to check that part of the application again in case he had made any mistakes…he was extremely apologetic as apparently he had misunderstood the question! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-terrorist-on-usa-visa-application-why/684078/42 "2014-03-20T09:56:15Z")
Related to the OP, but the last time I visited the US a couple of years ago, there was still a question on the entry form which said something like “Are you now, or were you ever involved with the activities of the Nazi Party of Germany between 1933-1945?” Even as a teenager visiting the US for the first time in the mid-1990s I remember thinking 😕 at that one, what with World War II having been concluded before my dad was born, but by the time of my more recent visit to the US, World War II was so long in the past that someone born in 1945 would have about 75 and anyone old enough to have made a conscious decision to actively participate in Nazism during that era would have been nearly 90 and unlikely to be in any state to be travelling to the US on a holiday. I often wonder whether the reason for leaving that question on the form was bureacratic inertia, or whether they thought a Herr A Hilter, passenger from Buenos Aires, might actually tick “Ja” and save several intelligence organisations a lot of work in the process. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2014, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-terrorist-on-usa-visa-application-why/684078/43 "2014-03-20T16:36:17Z")
Remember when airport security used to ask you if anyone had offered to watch or repack your bags for you? They discontinued that question a number of years ago, and at the time I read that, as far as anybody knows, no one had ever answered “yes.” ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-terrorist-on-usa-visa-application-why/684078/44 "2014-03-21T05:28:58Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > Remember when airport security used to ask you if anyone had offered to watch or repack your bags for you? They discontinued that question a number of years ago, and at the time I read that, as far as anybody knows, no one had ever answered “yes.” I flew internationally in November of last year and they asked if I packed my bags myself or if anyone gave me anything. I can’t remember \*not \*ever being asked that. ---
**Author:** ![madmonk28](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madmonk28/32/20811_2.png) [@madmonk28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madmonk28)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2014, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-terrorist-on-usa-visa-application-why/684078/45 "2014-03-21T11:32:05Z")
Yeah, I fly between DC and Dubai 6 times a year and they always ask if I packed my own bags. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-a-terrorist-on-usa-visa-application-why/684078.md?page=2)