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Something that I was curious about, and which others might also be: >Sorry, you’re not allowed entry to the US on your ESTA. "ESTA" stands for the Electronic

Something that I was curious about, and which others might also be: >Sorry, you’re not allowed entry to the US on your ESTA. "ESTA" stands for the Electronic System for Travel Authorization, and is a program administered by US Customs & Border Protection (part of the Department of Homeland Security). It's used by people in Visa Waiver countries to submit information about themselves & their travel plans, before they depart their country of origin. More info here: https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/esta https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/esta Info on the Visa Waiver program: https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/visa-waiver-program https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/visa-waive... I guess Mr. Stenberg could have applied for a B-1 Visa to cover the visit, but I thought the whole reason for the Visa Waiver program was to remove the need for people in member countries to get a B-1.

xchaotic 9y ago
I live in a country which requires a B-1 anyway. The reason we have to apply for visas is that too many (3%) people overstay their visas or something like that. Well, I got the visa bought the tickets and got asked about my return tickets upon departing from London. It turns out that under ESTA you need return tickets, but with a visa you don't (and the reason for the visa in the first place is people were not returning). There is no common sense to this.
PostOnce 9y ago
The whole point of the visa waiver program is to make travel frictionless, you just get on a plane and go -- and then here comes ESTA, wasting peoples time and money with fruitless bureaucracy again. I wonder how many Swiss and Japanese terrorists have had their plots foiled due to the life-saving shield of ESTA. How is this not a violation of whatever agreements all these other countries signed to let us in without any paperwork, and yet they have to file paperwork to get into the USA? Maybe next we can quarantine all new arrivals for 72 hours in some kind of security camp, where they'll endure an arduous interview process to make sure they're safe -- run by highly qualified TSA geniuses.
- nippples 9y ago
  The meaning of "Swedish", "German", "French" and "British" for example isn't so clear any longer after EU's happy unlimited-immigration-with-no-questions programme was enacted by Merkel. Globalism is a great thing. You just have to be more attentive as a pedestrian.
  - detaro 9y ago
    Passports are a thing and border controls tend to look at them.
  - matthewmacleod 9y ago
    EU's happy unlimited-immigration-with-no-questions programme was enacted by Merkel. That’s not a thing. There are enough real problems without making more of them up.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
  - zegl 9y ago
    A majority of immigrants/refugees to the EU are not citizens of the EU, and do therefore not have a EU passport.
- ubernostrum 9y ago
  As I said in the prior thread, I'm still betting on this being a clerical error. I -- US citizen -- was once almost denied boarding of an international flight because the airline's system had screwed up my passport information, and they thought I would need a visa to return to the US (and of course I didn't have a visa). I found this out at the airport. Luckily I was able to get it resolved in time by showing the airline agents my passport, and a supervisor was able to override or correct something to let me get a boarding pass, but relying on the kindness and competence of front-line airport staff is risky at best. I might just as easily have encountered someone who would tell me "The computer says no, and I can't do anything for you when the computer says no".
sapphire_tomb 9y ago
Someone on the previous thread about this was arguing that the EU should start imposing the same sorts of border checks that the US does to EU citizens, on US citizens coming into the EU. The theory being that this sort of tit-for-tat approach would encourage US citizens so inconvenienced would shout for change at home. Your post though, I think, outlines the flaw in this argument. Which is that most people don't know the rules of entry for foreign visitors to their own country, and wouldn't therefore know how onerous it is. Why would a US passport holder (by birth, of whom I assume there are a lot more than people who've acquired one after immigrating) have any clue what I, as a UK citizen, need to do in order to spend my vacation or whatever in Miami? I'm certainly hazy on what the current rules are for US citizens to come to the UK. I think we have a visa-waiver programme in place, but I don't know what it entails at all, and whether it's already as terrible for US citizens coming here as it is for me going to the US. So instigating those sorts of changes here is probably unlikely to have the effect that poster was hoping for. Hmm. This turned into a much longer ramble than I thought it would.
- detaro 9y ago
  It's actually an official principle in EU visa policy to grant visa waivers reciprocal to the other country granting it to EU citizens. The established time frames have been ignored in the case of the US for years, which is why this bubbles up regularly, especially when the situation gets worse.

xchaotic 9y ago

I live in a country which requires a B-1 anyway. The reason we have to apply for visas is that too many (3%) people overstay their visas or something like that. Well, I got the visa bought the tickets and got asked about my return tickets upon departing from London. It turns out that under ESTA you need return tickets, but with a visa you don't (and the reason for the visa in the first place is people were not returning). There is no common sense to this.

PostOnce 9y ago

The whole point of the visa waiver program is to make travel frictionless, you just get on a plane and go -- and then here comes ESTA, wasting peoples time and money with fruitless bureaucracy again. I wonder how many Swiss and Japanese terrorists have had their plots foiled due to the life-saving shield of ESTA. How is this not a violation of whatever agreements all these other countries signed to let us in without any paperwork, and yet they have to file paperwork to get into the USA? Maybe next we can quarantine all new arrivals for 72 hours in some kind of security camp, where they'll endure an arduous interview process to make sure they're safe -- run by highly qualified TSA geniuses.

nippples 9y ago
The meaning of "Swedish", "German", "French" and "British" for example isn't so clear any longer after EU's happy unlimited-immigration-with-no-questions programme was enacted by Merkel. Globalism is a great thing. You just have to be more attentive as a pedestrian.
- detaro 9y ago
  Passports are a thing and border controls tend to look at them.
- matthewmacleod 9y ago
  EU's happy unlimited-immigration-with-no-questions programme was enacted by Merkel. That’s not a thing. There are enough real problems without making more of them up.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- zegl 9y ago
  A majority of immigrants/refugees to the EU are not citizens of the EU, and do therefore not have a EU passport.
ubernostrum 9y ago
As I said in the prior thread, I'm still betting on this being a clerical error. I -- US citizen -- was once almost denied boarding of an international flight because the airline's system had screwed up my passport information, and they thought I would need a visa to return to the US (and of course I didn't have a visa). I found this out at the airport. Luckily I was able to get it resolved in time by showing the airline agents my passport, and a supervisor was able to override or correct something to let me get a boarding pass, but relying on the kindness and competence of front-line airport staff is risky at best. I might just as easily have encountered someone who would tell me "The computer says no, and I can't do anything for you when the computer says no".

sapphire_tomb 9y ago

Someone on the previous thread about this was arguing that the EU should start imposing the same sorts of border checks that the US does to EU citizens, on US citizens coming into the EU. The theory being that this sort of tit-for-tat approach would encourage US citizens so inconvenienced would shout for change at home. Your post though, I think, outlines the flaw in this argument. Which is that most people don't know the rules of entry for foreign visitors to their own country, and wouldn't therefore know how onerous it is. Why would a US passport holder (by birth, of whom I assume there are a lot more than people who've acquired one after immigrating) have any clue what I, as a UK citizen, need to do in order to spend my vacation or whatever in Miami? I'm certainly hazy on what the current rules are for US citizens to come to the UK. I think we have a visa-waiver programme in place, but I don't know what it entails at all, and whether it's already as terrible for US citizens coming here as it is for me going to the US. So instigating those sorts of changes here is probably unlikely to have the effect that poster was hoping for. Hmm. This turned into a much longer ramble than I thought it would.

detaro 9y ago
It's actually an official principle in EU visa policy to grant visa waivers reciprocal to the other country granting it to EU citizens. The established time frames have been ignored in the case of the US for years, which is why this bubbles up regularly, especially when the situation gets worse.