My 17 year old son has bought plane tickets to texas in America to meet a girl he met online, he is from scotland, I really need advice please.

[scottishmother]

He has made his mind up to go, to be honest I thought he would have saved up more money but he has sprung it on me and is going in 2 weeks time!! I have asked him things and he has told me, and it seems fine, but he does not like me to ask him anything as he thinks it is invading his privacy lol. He has been very secretive, and this is not helping my worrying, I have said to him I will not let him out the door without him giving me a address and letting me speak to the girl who is 2 years older than him first. I need advice as to what to do please as I am going out of my mind.

Well said Blazing. Similar happened to my friend too.

And another one, in Michigan. The one above was Louisiana. news.google.com/newspapers?nid=110&dat=19930318&id=_9dYAAAAIBAJ&sjid=rFUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=6861,5418012&hl=fr

This is better than Sat night tv, surely can't be serious!

Not read all this thread but what about contacting the US authorities - Embassy/Immigration with name/flight details etc. They will want to know more - it was only a couple of years ago they turned some student away for tweeting he was going to 'destroy' America. A 17 yr old with no money/job arriving without parental consent to visit someone he met on the internet is certainly going to pique someones interest

Interesting thread...but do you think the OP will come back?!

Someone should post a link to this thread to Nev and Max. Quick!

'Interesting thread...but do you think the OP will come back?!'

No.

Oh, weird I've not been around since this morning/whenever when I posted about the immigration form - so OP's disappeared? Ah well, t'was ever thus....

I remember my first visit to a Saturday farmers market somewhere in N.C. And the sign' carrying concealed weapons forbidden' (bold is mine) and thinking "wtf?"

Colorado has drive thru liquor stores in its favour [hic]

Yes indeed Joffrey, I am thinking trailer park too. And maybe closer to Laredo than Fort Worth.

An unaccompanied young male is going to attract the interest of Homeland Security as well as Immigration. Someone with no way to prove he has a stake in his life apart from a connection to his family members no job or mortgage or school to return to, no visible engagement with western life would fit a profile security would be interested in.

I am also wondering how two total strangers meet on Skype and get chatting, especially when one of them is 15. I get several unsolicited contacts per month on Skype inviting me to put people on my contact list, inviting me to send my bank account details so I can claim the gold mine my dear great uncle left me in his dusty old will, and from a huge number of men in uniform colonels, majors, and one major general who all seem to be functionally illiterate or close to it.

RafterPlease 'Curious as to the specifics of all the vague doom and gloom about Texas. The only thing that's been mentioned is guns. And mean police. What is it that is going to be so unspeakably awful for him?'
The possibility of living in a trailer in a trailer park when temps are in the 30s day and night with high humidity.
The possibility that he will be on his own every day with nothing to do and nobody to talk to, possibly in a rough area of some place he does not know, looking like someone who doesn't belong there if he tries to get out for a walk in the blasting heat.
The meth trade.
The proximity to Mexico and all that entails in terms of street violence in border states. Dallas-Fort Worth is attractive to Mexican gangs because it is a transportation hub.

I transferred with my company to New York. When I signed my new US contract, it had a clause saying 'you may not bring your gun to the office'.

Because you would otherwise, wouldn't you!!

I'm piping up to back the views of a lot of people who've already posted.

Speaking as a DFW native (now living in England), I'd be very cautious, OP. You cannot, honestly, do ANYTHING in Texas without a car. Even in Austin, where I went to uni, and which is a student town (hook 'em, horns, expat ), anything outside a very small radius needed independent means of getting around.

In all likelihood, your son will not be in Fort Worth, but a suburb. There will be very little to do, and in the best case scenario, your son will be completely dependent on the girl he's visiting to get anywhere. If she works, he will face long, isolated stretches where there's not much he can do. You might encourage him to try a shorter visit to start (say a couple of weeks?).

I understand the romantic aspect of it - I met DH when I was 23 and doing my post-graduate degree, but we dated long distance for a year, spending essentially long weekends together every six weeks (OTOH, it was pre-911, so cost roughly $200 to fly over if you waited for a good deal to come up), before we got engaged and I came over for six months to make sure we were compatible over a longer stretch of time - but I also had about 20x what your son had in the bank, good backup plans, and had been meeting my fiancé regularly over the previous year.

If it's real love, there's no rush, and there's no harm in a shorter initial visit...

I have spent some time in the DFW area, stayed in a 'nice' suburb of FW with family at a similar age to your DS. I would just reiterate what other posters have said, he will not be able to get around independently at all, there are no buses and everything is too far apart to walk. It is just SO different to the UK in that respect. Also, ditto the strictness of US immigration, they will almost certainly ask questions.

Scottish DS, what are your thoughts on the posts so far?

Think the op has left this thread (maybe on the way to America with her DS?).

This has to have been a wind up. I had it in watch thinking by now the op would have seen the light!