To think that this sounds very fishy and untrue.

[ColinRobinsonsfamiliar]

My fil is an arse. No two ways about it.

We took him & mil to Florida for a holiday. Their first holiday abroad ever.

We gave them some brochures to read up on where we were going prior to going.

FIL read the small print on the back of the brochure and declared that he couldn’t go because he had a conviction that he had never disclosed to the family.
He was referring to the ESTA.

He revealed that he was arrested in 1968 for a minor theft from his job. (Think an off cut from the simple product). Also stole a tax disc and got caught.
He ended up travelling to London to the Embassy to be interviewed face to face to be assessed for suitability to holiday in America.This was a stipulation of the revelation of the arrest.
was granted this.
On arrival at the airport, going through passport control, fil was taken off into an interview room while we were ushered through the airport with all of the other traveler’s.
He was interviewed for nearly 2 hours before being released to continue his holiday.

I can’t help thinking that there is no way that this was because of a “minor theft”.
Anyone in the know could maybe shed Some light on this ?
It has bugged me for ages.

My 'welcome to Las Vegas' moment was looking down the barrel of a large-calibre handgun. The person on the other end demanded to know why I had walked to a checkpoint. I answered that I had been told to by the previous border guard.
His yelling at me that I was lying, drew the attention of the first guard, who called across to confirm my version of events. Dirty Harry then holstered his gun and wandered away unapologetically. Happy to not set foot on US soil again.

I was interviewed by border control in the States for two hours when I was about 22 because they thought I wanted to overstay my visa. For no reason. Eventually, one guard said for goodness sake look at all these stamps in her passport, she just likes travelling and was clearly exasperated with the jobsworth who pulled me aside. So who knows? It could be something or nothing. The US and Canada don’t mess about when it comes to their borders.

Last time we went to Spain my 8year old got pulled aside for a random drug test, he was so upset. I think it’s more pot luck getting questioned than anything else.

My friend went with her boyfriend to the US when he was on a business trip.She was just going along for the ride.

They were both detained and questioned. Simply because he is brown. And they couldn’t quite work out why she was with him, so regarded it as some sort of fishy collaboration. They couldn’t quite accept that she was his girlfriend.

Awful.

Exactly my friends experience. He was held for 7 hours!

Read elsewhere of a Swedish person being detained on US border as the border guard thought Sweden was part of Denmark so her passport must be a forgery. Couldn't be convinced Sweden was a country. A supervisor was eventually called who checked and yes Sweden was a country.

I was stopped, full blown search of me and my luggage when travelling with a family, only difference was I had a different surname. It was not long after 9/11 and when we arrived at the airport in New York I was escorted by a security man with a gun. I was 19 and shit scared. Never wanted to return but now my brother lives in America. Never had an issue again thankfully. His experience of getting his visa was tough so I think they are extremely thorough. I do know that someone my dad worked with was arrested when a teen for some kind of assault charge after a fight. He has never been allowed in. So possibly if it’s a violent or serious crime they refuse entry altogether? I don’t know.
If it was my fil I would enjoy the endless scenarios I could come up with though 😂

I can easily believe your FiL is being completely honest. American customs is utterly ridiculous. They gave me a 10 minute lecture about why it would have been better for me and ex dp to have had the same name when we traveled. Note they gave me the lecture, not exdp 🙄

They are power hungry little wankers IMO.

If it's any consolation, I was interviewed for over an hour by UK immigration on my return from a weekend in Bruges. I was on the Bunac visa at the time, so had already gone through the initial entry into the UK. Just some git with a chip on their shoulder, convinced 22 year old Americans were all trying to illegally settle in the UK. None of our English friends could believe it, but of course you don't experience your own border control the same way.

They've got enough criminals of their own to deal with in America, but this doesn't seen to be the way to keep overseas ne'er-do-wells out!

Tolerate? Doesn’t look like it OP!

Was it your first experience of visiting the US?

I was reprimanded very loudly and aggressively but two police officers on quiet street in Santa Monica.

why?

i had “jay walked” off the crossing

Everything is to excess in the UK. Including airport security

@HipsterCoffeeShop

The top part of Africa counts as the Middle East

Much to my dismay at the time, I maybe ignorantly thought by Middle East they meant Syria etc. but no

I've never lived it down either - it's the family joke going through customs to this day

no it doesn’t

but that is the US for you 🤷‍♀️

What is it with the Woodcraft Folk, are they a front for something horrific?

My dad and his mate were passing through US on their way to Ecuador... both blokes in their mid 60's, a retired architect and a retired university prof. both with families back in the UK...

But, my Dad pinched a few items from the US army in 1976 during an expedition to look for alien gold in a cave with Neil Armstrong and that IS a true story .... and his mate... was a Woodcraft Folk leader...

Four hours. They didn't have any intention to remain in the US either, just get the next flight!

I can answer your question.

First he was unlikely interviewed for 2 hours. Instead you go into what they call secondary inspection, the wait can be very long for busy airports like MCO. Where he probably had to wait around 2 hours for his turn. Sometimes they call you forward, get your story, you wait, they call you forward again, you wait some more, etc. They do actually check up on the things you tell them.

It doesn't matter how minor or it is, they still go through the procedure. It's a waste of time, most of the time, but they do it anyway. We have to go through secondary inspection every time because my husband has a visa. They literally look at his visa, ask him how long he's staying, what he's doing, what his employment is and then stamp his passport. In the beginning though, it was more grueling and we had to have lots of paperwork and he had to answer a lot of questions.

Very boring and your FIL is probably telling the truth.

He did the sensible thing in querying if he could get into the USA. He wouldn't be the first who'd arrived there and been refused entry.

This doesn't surprise me. They are v strict about who enters their country.

why would that be grounds for questioning?

My stepmum is Russian. A few years ago her sister 84 came to the UK on holiday. She doesn't speak any English.

At Heathrow on her return to Moscow, she was asked if she had any liquids. She had a bottle of perfume. They took it off her and she got upset and started shouting at them to return it. They carted her off and strip searched her. She never wants to return here again.

@EmmaH2022

Fake passport or flying under a false identity

Strange rules, I can't fathom. A female freind who has a felony rap sheet as long as your arm often goes to Florida no problems at all. A teacher freind counter signed a US visa thing for me back in '82 and was rung up by the American embassy and interrogated about the nationality and residency of my DD's father & was he in the USA & was I planning to marry him or pregnant?Weeeiird.

@itsonlysubterfuge

your FIL is probably telling the truth.

Yep…I’m actually feeling for a bit sorry for the FIL TBH…sound’s like he’s been honest and yet ends up the subject of a thread with a somewhat pejorative title.

Way I see it he (finally) told the family the whole story and thankfully answered the ESTA application honestly….

Given his “previous” the Embassy interview isn’t fishy at all, it was a given.

The secondary on arrival in the States was either random or the US Embassy official was happy to allow travel but wanted the FIL to have to tell his story again to a Border official before entering the US, so put a flag against his name/details in the border IT system.

Nothing sounds untrue or fishy to me.

Not sure if that was the airport we were at when we entered Israel from Egypt but the lady had a machine gun and interrogated me and my partner about our relationship, and when we said we were not married and had no kids she looked disgusted and got all our stuff out and just questioned us about our lives for ages with a machine gun by her the whole time. I just found it weird.

Yes, if you like the immigration service, you’re going to LOVE the local police!

US immigration can be something else - they play a glossy "Welcome to America" video on a loop then proceed to treat you like shit. Except the last time we went we flew into JFK and they were trialling self-service passport and finger print check machines. The guy at the desk afterwards was more interested in eating his KFC than anything else. Canada by comparison was a breeze - queue to show your passport in Vancouver and that was it.