Will we be allowed entry into the US??

[Haleesi45]

Hi, we are a Muslim family. My husband and I booked tickets to take our teenagers to New York during the Christmas hols. They were so excited but now post election...I'm worried we won't get a visa or worse be refused entry at JFK.

This.. if you have an esta, like everyone else then you can travel. Oh the drama 🙄

Trump doesn't get sworn in till January, so whatever he wants to do won't happen before then. But I think tourists should be alright even with Trump in charge.

You do know they can still refuse entry even with an Esta?

Honestly, op 🙄

I'm surprised too at the level of dismissiveness in this thread. I think you will likely be fine too OP but it's not ridiculous to be worried.

Several members of my DH's family who are originally from one of the countries on the banned list have been denied ESTAs since 2017 purely because of their country of origin/birth and these are all full British citizens travelling on UK passports who have been living blamelessly in the UK for 20+ years, not even visiting their home country (ironically enough because they had to flee as refugees from the current terrorist regime in their home country which their family were in radical opposition too). Yes they did mostly get travel visas after a trip to the US embassy to be interviewed for a full visa (although one uncle wasn't, because he'd done compulsory military service in the home country 30 years ago) and yes it was only a minor inconvenience and the worst that would have happened was they had to cancel a trip to the States, hardly life or death (and these are people with some experience of genuine life or death immigration matters) but you can be damn well sure it rankles some to be lumped in with the terrorists and people with criminal records and ner-do-wells that are not welcome in the states purely because of their ethnic origin, and it certainly feels to them as though it's Muslims being targeted rather than terrorists! So a bit less of the brush off of OP if you know nothing about the matter, the policy is absolutely broader than just people travelling from or on passports from the banned countries list...

Only if their visa's aren't in order

You mean the Muslim ban that specifically restricted entry to people from 7 specific countries: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen?

You don't see what those countries have in common? And how does that affect OP coming with a UK passport?

This

One family member had to put the name of his hotel he will be staying at on the ESTA form. He just completed it three months ago. I was surprised but it's what was required before he could go ahead and pay. That's why booking the hotel makes sense before filling out the ESTA unless you can just pick any random NYC hotel on the form and family member has misinterpreted it?

Has anyone else on here got totally grilled when they just went to the USA on holiday.

I did. Been three times. Happened every time.

It makes me nervous to go again. I can't deal with the passport control guys. They'd make you have a panic attack

Do it the opposite way around if you want to instead. USA first, then Cuba? Just don't expect to be welcomed with open arms to the USA in future after Cuba...

You can put ‘unknown’ down for US point of contact and address whilst in the US.

Ah, that's perhaps where he went wrong and just assumed he had to put an address down. Thanks for clearing it up😊

I suppose they need to have a tough demeanour. Can't just let anyone wander in unchallenged.

Theyre a bit over the top though!

But the USA is with a lot of stuff.

I remember seeing Lisa Kudrow from friends talking about it.

She said that she married a non US citizen. And every time she went back to the US with him, the officers grilled her. Even though they were married

She said one time the officer was really grilling her at the airport and he said "if your marriage is genuine why are you not taking his surname".
And she said "well I'm keeping my surname cuz I'm an actress!"

I'm glad I know that now about Cuba, as I didn't know that.

Astounding to think if I had just stepped foot into Cuba on my travels, it would have caused me problems to get into the USA for the rest of my life.

They don’t make it very obvious as an option, but it makes sense as you can do multiple trips with different ports of entry.

It’s maybe worse if you’re in a country where they won’t let you out without lengthy questioning (as happened to me on a work trip once). Not fun.

Well, based on his last presidency…

Did you not pay attention last time?

Yes you can also go back in and edit it to add the hotel name once you know it :)

I always make sure it’s on there tbh after once getting grilled about where I was staying. But worth knowing you can put unknown and then change it to get it done asap

He's not in till January and it may be your last chance to go, they'll cancel flights to the US after WW3 breaks out.

What do you mean?

Have you been living in an air pocket close to the Earth's core?

As long as you have an esta, there will be nothing to worry about.

The travel ban was for a set number of countries where religious extremism and militia groups were, and are, still rife and incorporated all religions within those countries.
The irony that a Democrat designed Obama administration piece of legislation only gets termed a "Muslim ban" when Trump enacted it. Typical race baiting left media at it again.

I've travelled during Obama's time, Trump's time and Biden's time and have found CBP stricter/firmer under Biden.

That being said, most recent time I travelled CBP looked helpful and really assisted an elderly Muslim woman who was travelling with family and couldn't speak any English. Especially considering O'hare was rammed and backlogged at the time.

We got a bollocking off some US border agent on a land border from Canada. We were arriving on British passports. Mixed race family. We all have quite neutral but clearly English accents. He demanded to know how good our English was. Er, it’s our first language, so very good? He thought we were taking the piss. What else did he want me to say? We are English. English is our first language. Were we supposed to lie and say we don’t speak English? Wtf he was on I still have no idea.