On the one hand, fingerprinting is painless, it’s not a terribly time consuming action and it’s (as mentioned upthread) a way to be ruled out of a crime or mishap if you might have been falsely identified by other means.
But there’s still something that I don’t like about it. If I was planning a holiday somewhere and they were insistent on fingerprinting me, but there was somewhere else I’d like to go that didn’t insist on fingerprinting, then I think it would definitely stop me from travelling to that location and mean I’d end up going to the somewhere else.
I can’t exactly put my finger on (ha ha) what it is that bothers me about the fingerprinting of non-residents for entry into a country.
I’m still not entirely sure how a webcam photo of tired, jetlagged passengers is going to be of any more use from an identification standpoint to the US Government, but then, IMHO, most people’s Driver’s Licence and Passport Photos don’t look much like them either.
Interestingly, the did the “Fingerprint and Photo” thing when my Fiancee and I flew into to Los Angeles earlier this year, but not when we came back in from Mexico.
I was fingerprinted to cash an Amex Travelers Cheque while visiting Bogota, Columbia.
It seemed a little odd, but I wanted the money. So I’d do it but it might make me a tad paranoid for an afternoon or so. I might spend the day raging against ‘the man’ and ‘big brother’, but I’d get over it!
[QUOTE=elfkin477]
I think things might be a little different for Americans, Isamu. It doesn’t strike me as a big deal, and I bet a lot of other people feel the same way. Many of us were fingerprinted for the first time as very small children - it was done at Kindergarten registration where I lived - as a tool for identifying kids (or their bodies) who have been kidnapped. Then, if you ever want to work in a school system, or even volunteer in one as of the late 90s, you need to be fingerprinted and have background checks done too. Ditto for some other professions too.
What I do find inconvenient is in NH towns will not share fingerprinting information, so I’ve had to do it two different times for different school systems - and the cost ($36 most recently) is paid by the person being fingerprinted not the school system. But for security? It’s not that big a deal. It’d be nice not to be charged extra for it, though.
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Thank you elfkin477 for your incisive reply. I had no idea that it was commonplace in the US to be fingerprinted. In all my years as an AUS citizen I had never had to give my fingerprints to the government, even when I went for my first gun license.
One thing that I noticed and that bothers me is that, under the new laws coming in to effect in Japan, all non-citizens (there is an exception but it’s not relevant here) must give their fingerprints - except people on government business. I wonder if this is a reciprocal agreement whereby US government officials don’t have to be fingerprinted in Japan in exchange for Japanese officials not having to be fingerprinted when they come to the US?
If so, when did our governments decide that it’s necessary to fingerprint citizens but that they themselves shouldn’t be fingerprinted. If fingerprinting is so harmless, why the exclusion for government officials?
To the best of my recollection I’ve never been fingerprinted (is there ant way of finding out if you’re on any sort of fingerprint database?). Schools didn’t do this back then, I was never in any of the Armed Services (actually, I had tried to enlist but was found unfit for military service, and I don’t remember being fingerprinted during the physical), and none of my employers ever required it.
I would have no objection to it, since I have no criminal record and at this point in my life am not likely to embark on one.
[QUOTE=Isamu]
As you may know, the U.S. has, for some time now, instituted a system for the fingerprinting and photographing of all non-residents who come into the country.
I went through Chicago airport last May and was processed (by the rude and obviously hungover customs official - perhaps that’s best left for another thread) quite quickly and with a minimum of fuss. But it did annoy me. Personally I prefer not to be fingerprinted, and certainly prefer not to have my fingerprints stored on some US database for all of eternity. If I was travelling for pleasure the answer could have been simple - don’t go to the US, but I was there for business at the request of my boss. Not really much I could do about it.
Now, my own country of residence, Japan, is about to institute a similar system at customs and immigration - fingerprints and photographs for all non-Japanese (basically), so I’m curious as to what people feel about such systems - do they discourage tourism? Would you leave a country off your travel list because of fingerprinting and photographing requirements?
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As an interesting aside, the last time I was fingerprinted (a clearance needed for my job), the tech spent several minutes getting all ten prints acceptable to the computer (it is all automatic now, no cards or ink), and she mentioned that one of the hardest set of people to fingerprint are secretaries. The abrasives in paper (all paper has abrasives in it to make a good writing surface) where off the fingerprints of people who handle lots of paper.
[QUOTE=Isamu]
As you may know, the U.S. has, for some time now, instituted a system for the fingerprinting and photographing of all non-residents who come into the country.
I went through Chicago airport last May and was processed (by the rude and obviously hungover customs official - perhaps that’s best left for another thread) quite quickly and with a minimum of fuss. But it did annoy me. Personally I prefer not to be fingerprinted, and certainly prefer not to have my fingerprints stored on some US database for all of eternity. If I was travelling for pleasure the answer could have been simple - don’t go to the US, but I was there for business at the request of my boss. Not really much I could do about it.
Now, my own country of residence, Japan, is about to institute a similar system at customs and immigration - fingerprints and photographs for all non-Japanese (basically), so I’m curious as to what people feel about such systems - do they discourage tourism? Would you leave a country off your travel list because of fingerprinting and photographing requirements?
[/QUOTE]
Seems like its different for the US where posters are saying they have often been fingerprinted anyway, but its very rare here and I’ve never been fingerprinted in my life. Not a criminal nor a terrorist but I would no more submit to fingerprinting then I would to urine testing (also rare here). If this means I cant visit the US or Japan so be it. I’d rather go somewhere I wouldn’t feel like I was being treated like a criminal.
[QUOTE=cookeze]
That’s okay, but if you stay a month you will need to apply for one.
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You’re required to apply for a driver’s licence if you stay in California for a month? Why? What if you have no desire to drive?
That was an assumption of mine. The remark was also something of a joke, although it is true.
But seriously, I don’t know how anyone would get around without a car in LA. Of the people I know who came from out of town, not a single one didn’t rent a car.
And the distances are huge. It would take half a day to go across LA and back on the bus or the Metrolink trains.
San Francisco is probably a little better. They have BART that will take you to the surrounding cities. But if your business is not close to the rail line, it’s way inconvenient.
San Diego? Sacramento? Fresno? They have public transportation too. Also inconvenient.