** Quartz**, something else to be sure to have is travellers’ health insurance, covering your time in the US ( and good practice to have it extend a few days past your anticipated departure, just to cover contingencies (planes being delayed by bad weather, etc)).
If you have inconvenient stamps in your passport, I imagine you have enough time to misplace it and get a new one. Worth the fee.
This thread made me realize, I haven’t yet lived in Trump’s America; I left for a business trip overseas right after the New Year and I don’t return until the end of February.
Trump may be the president, but this isn’t “Trump’s America”. And there is no reason to think you will be hassled any more than you would have been a year ago. Nothing in Trumps EO on immigration would affect you, personally.
Northern Piper: The link that Duckster gave was from Aug, 2016. The update says the proposal was approved in Dec of the same year. This was all proposed and approved under the Obama administration.
Brother-In-Law just returned from USA holiday.with faimily. No problems. 15 years ago traveling on USA holiday with his family he was strip-searched (Christian, ethnic Chinese, Australian passport)… Around the same time, one of my co-workers on a business trip (Single male, Australian passport, English parents) was “randomly” selected for a search on every internal American leg of his trip.
Security theatre sucks, and turning people back after issuing a visa sucks.
Because he’s talking about August. And because there is no chance things are going to get better.
Yes, you think poorly of Trump. But you also don’t seem to have any problem with the Muslim ban, since you say he’s not done anything wrong yet. Nor do you seem to want to actually discuss the Muslim ban part of your OP. So it still seems like your OP was facetious.
Do you actually think you may have problems coming to the US in August?
There are other threads on that subject.
Ooh… Tucson in August…it will be hot. The Arizona Sonora Desert Museum is very good. If you have the time, Kartchner Caverns is a day trip and very interesting. You’d have to make reservations in advance though. But it might be too hot to enjoy either of those things. What will you be doing for those two days in Tucson? I can totally recommend some amazing Mexican food.
We’re going to be visiting telescopes. Up mountains, so hopefully rather cooler.
I was in the US last week and had no issues with customs or immigration - they were courteous, efficient, and wished me a pleasant stay in the US as they stamped my Australian passport.
No questions about social media, no requests to look through my phone, no being dragged off to a room somewhere for a little chat, no enquiries into my political or religious beliefs etc.
I’m not saying those things haven’t happened to people, but I can only report what I personally saw, which was planeloads of people getting their passports stamped and being allowed into the US after a cursory “So, whatcha doin’ here?” Q&A session with the border officials - the same as last time I visited the US a few months ago under the previous government.
There are 14 of them still scattered about the place, including a couple quite close to the US.
That’s exactly the question this white, English-Canadian retired couple have asked: why were they pulled aside by the US Customs people while they were transiting through the US on their way back to Calgary from their winter holiday in Mexico? Why were they fingerprinted and had their mugshots taken? What risk does a retired 72 year old Canadian veterinarian pose to US security?
Calgary seniors shocked at being fingerprinted, mug-shotted by U.S. border officials
Because it’s happening right now.
For example, a gay guy travelling to New Orleans to visit his boyfriend was required to give up his passwords for his phone, and then was turned away because the Customs guys insisted he give them his passwords, looked at his phone and thought he was a gay sex worker.
So the next time he tried to visit his boyfriend, he scrubbed anything except the most vanilla things off it. He didn’t need to give them his passwords this time: Customs still had them on file. This time, they asked him why he scrubbed his phone? must have been hiding something from them, so he was denied entry again.
US Customs block Canadian man after reading his Scruff profile
Right, I’m about to book flights and it’s looking like my route out will be flying into Seattle, with a flight on to Bozeman. Will 2 hours be sufficient to clear immigration in Seattle and make my flight to Bozeman?
As you’re travelling with a tour group it will probably be pre-arranged and the checks will be more cursory. *
Were you alone, I would say nae chance. Quite apart from TSA checks etc. American bureaucracy is… stately; and subject to random delays.
Visit the Golden Tomb of The Unknown Trump.
It happens.
- I always advise trainee terrorists to join tours to avoid scrutiny. Everyone likes tours.
My flights will not be with the group; I have to make my own arrangements.
In that case, I’d try and make it a 5 hour intermission and take a book to read once cleared. Not a book on philosophy, and not Robert Louis S., nor yet Arab Love Poems. Just an airport novel of the kind they know and love.
As said, it entirely depends on the TSA agent as to whether your intentions are honest or malicious: he may whisk you to a small back room and then say: “Awa tae fuck yer talkin pish, man.”.
If he cries: "Fair fa yir honest sonsie face”, yer golden.
Standing up after several hours of cramped sitting down usually makes a visit to the Golden Tomb of The All-Too-Well-Known Trump an urgent necessity.
Personally, I’d allow longer if possible - I’ve done a International to Domestic transfer at LAX with 2.5 hours and was cutting it dangerously close; they basically commenced boarding for the domestic flight as I reached the departure gate.
Having said that, I can’t imagine it takes nearly as long to get through immigration at SeaTac as it would at LAX.
LAX is a terrible, terrible airport when flying domestically. I can’t imagine it’s better with international, or better than Seattle.