4 ms·

usually such places (destination under embargo or sanctions) are happy to not mark your travel document in any way and let you through. they may issue a booklet

by hawk_ 5y ago

usually such places (destination under embargo or sanctions) are happy to not mark your travel document in any way and let you through. they may issue a booklet to indicate when your stay there should end which you can discard when you're out.

short_sells_poo 5y ago
The problem is if the US authorities ever find out, you may be fully banned from the country. Is that a risk worth running?
- akie 5y ago
  I guess it depends on where you live, and if you have regular reasons to come to the US. I live in Europe and have visited the US maybe three times in my life, and I wouldn't necessarily be terribly sad if I could never visit again. So, I'd take the risk.
saiya-jin 5y ago
This, plus also if you change passports because they happen to expire or you lose them, the trail is completely broken. US immigration doesn't have a clue, not from global flight data, not from your IDs. The negative side is you have to lie on ESTA form which sucks, but the whole US approach to Iran is plain stupid and amoral so I didn't mind it. I went to Iran, it was the most amazing 1-week trip vacation I've ever done (Damavand, Isfahan, Yazd, a bit of Tehran). Amazingly friendly people, everybody spoke english, most signs are dual farsi/english, and the best part - its completely untouched by mass tourism. Feels surreal in current world, in the best way possible. Even if this trip would ban me for life from US which is practically impossible with current tech, trips like these are 100x worth it. Can't recommend enough.
- gruez 5y ago
  > US immigration doesn't have a clue, not from global flight data They may not be actively checking, but the information is definitely available for them. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27275163 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27275163
  - saiya-jin 5y ago
    Some info, yes. Definitely conclusive? I don't think so. It can be ie in form of my name & passport number. Which after changing the passport can suddenly point to number of persons from my area. Even if it includes my address (which I highly doubt), it will be different than it was 10 years ago. Eventually, they'll get there. But I am fairly certain today they are not there and they don't bother for average Joe anyway. For me personally, the experience, especially in hindsight for what it offered, was/is well worth this minimal risk.
- ericmay 5y ago
  The problem with the U.S. and Iran is between the governments and small sections of the population, not the general population. Of course you met friendly and amazing people! Iran is on my list of places I'd love to go though. I can't imagine how awesome it is. There are so many sites I'd love to visit but I know as an American it's not a good idea to go right now, unfortunately. > the whole US approach to Iran is plain stupid and amoral so I didn't mind it What about the Iranian approach to the U.S.? What if Iran stopped development of nuclear weapons and attacking U.S. forces in Iraq and elsewhere, or sponsoring organizations that are destabilizing the Middle East? It's not like they're not also agitating the situation. It's in their best interest because that way they can maintain power. I'm more and more becoming of the opinion we need to take away all the toys of these governments (U.S., Iran, and others).
  - belatw 5y ago
    > What about the Iranian approach to the U.S.? What if Iran stopped development of nuclear weapons and attacking U.S. forces in Iraq and elsewhere, or sponsoring organizations that are destabilizing the Middle East? It's not like they're not also agitating the situation. It's in their best interest because that way they can maintain power. It takes threee to tango in this situation Provocations and aggressions that maybe the US should perhaps stop doing: - presidential candidates gleefully parodying beach boy songs about bombing Iran. [1] - spending many 10s of billions of America’s hard earned tax dollars surroinsing Iran with several dozen military bases. [2] - Assassinating or supporting Israel in assassinating Iranian scientists abroad.[3] - or assassinating Iranian military leaders [4] - Organizing violent military coups to replace democratically elected governments with Radical Islamist puppet dictatorships [5], [6] - Gatekeeping nuclear power by releasing destructive viruses into the world to destroy Iranian Nuclear research labs [7] 1. https://youtu.be/U7s5pT3Rris https://youtu.be/U7s5pT3Rris 2. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1XmUD73hHQVBbdm8UcIrRtAcCgTg https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1XmUD73hHQVBbdm8UcI... 3. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/29/middleeast/iran-mohsen-fakhrizadeh-remote-control-machine-gun/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/29/middleeast/iran-mohsen-fa... 4. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Qasem_Soleimani https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Qasem_Solei... 5. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27état https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27état 6. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cia-assisted-coup-overthrows-government-of-iran https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cia-assisted-cou... 7. http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2015/ph241/holloway1/ http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2015/ph241/holloway1/
- clon 5y ago
  1 week in Iran sounds like torture. I spent 6 weeks there and felt like it was not nearly enough. Trip of a lifetime.
  - saiya-jin 5y ago
    Not at all, highly enjoyable and very intense. No plans beyond Damavand, I just let it all roll as things and people were coming
kweks 5y ago
You get stamped into Kurdistan. It's unobtrusive. As other posters have said, refreshing your passport before traveling to the US works.
- hef19898 5y ago
  That's what I wondered. It is pretty easy to get a second passport in Germany for cases like that, e.g. Israel and certain Arabian countries. Show one passport to country A, the other one to country B.

by hawk_ 5y ago

short_sells_poo 5y ago

The problem is if the US authorities ever find out, you may be fully banned from the country. Is that a risk worth running?

akie 5y ago
I guess it depends on where you live, and if you have regular reasons to come to the US. I live in Europe and have visited the US maybe three times in my life, and I wouldn't necessarily be terribly sad if I could never visit again. So, I'd take the risk.

saiya-jin 5y ago

This, plus also if you change passports because they happen to expire or you lose them, the trail is completely broken. US immigration doesn't have a clue, not from global flight data, not from your IDs. The negative side is you have to lie on ESTA form which sucks, but the whole US approach to Iran is plain stupid and amoral so I didn't mind it. I went to Iran, it was the most amazing 1-week trip vacation I've ever done (Damavand, Isfahan, Yazd, a bit of Tehran). Amazingly friendly people, everybody spoke english, most signs are dual farsi/english, and the best part - its completely untouched by mass tourism. Feels surreal in current world, in the best way possible. Even if this trip would ban me for life from US which is practically impossible with current tech, trips like these are 100x worth it. Can't recommend enough.

gruez 5y ago
> US immigration doesn't have a clue, not from global flight data They may not be actively checking, but the information is definitely available for them. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27275163 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27275163
- saiya-jin 5y ago
  Some info, yes. Definitely conclusive? I don't think so. It can be ie in form of my name & passport number. Which after changing the passport can suddenly point to number of persons from my area. Even if it includes my address (which I highly doubt), it will be different than it was 10 years ago. Eventually, they'll get there. But I am fairly certain today they are not there and they don't bother for average Joe anyway. For me personally, the experience, especially in hindsight for what it offered, was/is well worth this minimal risk.
ericmay 5y ago
The problem with the U.S. and Iran is between the governments and small sections of the population, not the general population. Of course you met friendly and amazing people! Iran is on my list of places I'd love to go though. I can't imagine how awesome it is. There are so many sites I'd love to visit but I know as an American it's not a good idea to go right now, unfortunately. > the whole US approach to Iran is plain stupid and amoral so I didn't mind it What about the Iranian approach to the U.S.? What if Iran stopped development of nuclear weapons and attacking U.S. forces in Iraq and elsewhere, or sponsoring organizations that are destabilizing the Middle East? It's not like they're not also agitating the situation. It's in their best interest because that way they can maintain power. I'm more and more becoming of the opinion we need to take away all the toys of these governments (U.S., Iran, and others).
- belatw 5y ago
  > What about the Iranian approach to the U.S.? What if Iran stopped development of nuclear weapons and attacking U.S. forces in Iraq and elsewhere, or sponsoring organizations that are destabilizing the Middle East? It's not like they're not also agitating the situation. It's in their best interest because that way they can maintain power. It takes threee to tango in this situation Provocations and aggressions that maybe the US should perhaps stop doing: - presidential candidates gleefully parodying beach boy songs about bombing Iran. [1] - spending many 10s of billions of America’s hard earned tax dollars surroinsing Iran with several dozen military bases. [2] - Assassinating or supporting Israel in assassinating Iranian scientists abroad.[3] - or assassinating Iranian military leaders [4] - Organizing violent military coups to replace democratically elected governments with Radical Islamist puppet dictatorships [5], [6] - Gatekeeping nuclear power by releasing destructive viruses into the world to destroy Iranian Nuclear research labs [7] 1. https://youtu.be/U7s5pT3Rris https://youtu.be/U7s5pT3Rris 2. https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1XmUD73hHQVBbdm8UcIrRtAcCgTg https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1XmUD73hHQVBbdm8UcI... 3. https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/29/middleeast/iran-mohsen-fakhrizadeh-remote-control-machine-gun/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/29/middleeast/iran-mohsen-fa... 4. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Qasem_Soleimani https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Qasem_Solei... 5. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27état https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/1953_Iranian_coup_d%27état 6. https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cia-assisted-coup-overthrows-government-of-iran https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/cia-assisted-cou... 7. http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2015/ph241/holloway1/ http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2015/ph241/holloway1/
clon 5y ago
1 week in Iran sounds like torture. I spent 6 weeks there and felt like it was not nearly enough. Trip of a lifetime.
- saiya-jin 5y ago
  Not at all, highly enjoyable and very intense. No plans beyond Damavand, I just let it all roll as things and people were coming

kweks 5y ago

You get stamped into Kurdistan. It's unobtrusive. As other posters have said, refreshing your passport before traveling to the US works.

hef19898 5y ago
That's what I wondered. It is pretty easy to get a second passport in Germany for cases like that, e.g. Israel and certain Arabian countries. Show one passport to country A, the other one to country B.