4 ms·

Most of the posts on here are ridiculous. People saying they are not going on holiday to the USA because it's too much of a pain. Seriously. We applied online

by jbb67 9y ago

Most of the posts on here are ridiculous. People saying they are not going on holiday to the USA because it's too much of a pain. Seriously. We applied online for the visa thing. It took under 5 minutes. Then at the airport we queued up at immigration for around 10 minutes. We showed our passport and answered one question about purpose of visit, and they waved us though. This is the experience of 99.9% of those who visit.

Markoff 9y ago
so you say only 1 passenger out of 1000 has extra search, I highly doubt that
pg314 9y ago
> This is the experience of 99.9% of those who visit. Seems unlikely. The two times I visited the US last year the immigration queue at JFK was a multi-hour wait.
infimum 9y ago
from what i gather all the ridiculous security theater is because there's a non-zero chance of anyone being terrorist. i find it absolutely reasonable to avoid traveling to a place when there's an even bigger chance of being treated like garbage.
GFischer 9y ago
What country are you from? That is not the experience for people from my country (Uruguay, Latin America), nor for any of the high population countries, and it is highlighted in this article. I applied for (and was granted) an U.S. visitor (B-1) visa last month, it was very expensive, I had to fill out a form that took significantly more than 5 minutes (several hours because I had to contact family members for details), and I had to schedule an in-person interview where they (very politely) cross checked most of what I wrote in the visa form, and were very detailed in the questions. That's why the article says "If your country does not participate in the Visa Waiver Program or you are not eligible for an ESTA, you'll need to apply for a B-1 business visitor visa… the long way." "We'll work with you through this process. Start early, as soon as we have dates for a meetup or conference. Visa appointments and processing can take weeks to months." That directly contradicts your claim (and matches my experience). I still haven't flown to the U.S., but those in my family who have, experienced multi-hour delays (my mother lost her flight in Boston only last month due to 2 hours in the immigration queue), most of my family members have been set aside for in-depth questioning at least once, etc. I do know some Europeans have a very different experience (those under ESTA), but I'm not certain your saying "the experience of 99.9% of those who visit" is correct. You might notice that none of the highly populated countries (China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia and Mexico) are in this list: http://www.esta.us/visa_waiver_countries.html http://www.esta.us/visa_waiver_countries.html
praneshp 9y ago
What is this visa thing you applied for that took less than 5 minutes? Are you from a country that does not require a DS-160? There is no chance you filled that form in 5 minutes.

by jbb67 9y ago

Markoff 9y ago

so you say only 1 passenger out of 1000 has extra search, I highly doubt that

pg314 9y ago

> This is the experience of 99.9% of those who visit. Seems unlikely. The two times I visited the US last year the immigration queue at JFK was a multi-hour wait.

infimum 9y ago

from what i gather all the ridiculous security theater is because there's a non-zero chance of anyone being terrorist. i find it absolutely reasonable to avoid traveling to a place when there's an even bigger chance of being treated like garbage.

GFischer 9y ago

What country are you from? That is not the experience for people from my country (Uruguay, Latin America), nor for any of the high population countries, and it is highlighted in this article. I applied for (and was granted) an U.S. visitor (B-1) visa last month, it was very expensive, I had to fill out a form that took significantly more than 5 minutes (several hours because I had to contact family members for details), and I had to schedule an in-person interview where they (very politely) cross checked most of what I wrote in the visa form, and were very detailed in the questions. That's why the article says "If your country does not participate in the Visa Waiver Program or you are not eligible for an ESTA, you'll need to apply for a B-1 business visitor visa… the long way." "We'll work with you through this process. Start early, as soon as we have dates for a meetup or conference. Visa appointments and processing can take weeks to months." That directly contradicts your claim (and matches my experience). I still haven't flown to the U.S., but those in my family who have, experienced multi-hour delays (my mother lost her flight in Boston only last month due to 2 hours in the immigration queue), most of my family members have been set aside for in-depth questioning at least once, etc. I do know some Europeans have a very different experience (those under ESTA), but I'm not certain your saying "the experience of 99.9% of those who visit" is correct. You might notice that none of the highly populated countries (China, India, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, Nigeria, Bangladesh, Russia and Mexico) are in this list: http://www.esta.us/visa_waiver_countries.html http://www.esta.us/visa_waiver_countries.html

praneshp 9y ago

What is this visa thing you applied for that took less than 5 minutes? Are you from a country that does not require a DS-160? There is no chance you filled that form in 5 minutes.