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Firstly, just because the border officers have final say on denying entry doesn't mean that they don't get policy guidance from their superiors. Since we can't
by waqf 15y ago
Firstly, just because the border officers have final say on denying entry doesn't mean that they don't get policy guidance from their superiors. Since we can't see what that policy guide says, we have to choose between forbearing to criticize at all, and criticizing based on the results we observe.
Secondly, I would argue that both (i) a "reasonable" country (as defined in my imagination) and (ii) many actual countries simply would not search for that tweet, cross-correlate it with an arriving passenger and use it as a reason to question them extra on arrival.
My only real evidence for (ii) is that only the US has passenger manifests of arriving airliners sent to them in advance so that they can be checked against watch lists. (Other countries do this if/when they make you apply for a visa, but the US does it dynamically when you get on the plane even if they don't require you to have a visa.)
- dredmorbius 15y agoNote that in regard to the US, many foreign visitors do not need a visa if they enter through the visa waiver program (90 days duration, tourist classification only, no extension).
- scoot 15y agoVisa Waiver (ESTA) and Advance Passenger Information (API/APIS) are not the same thing. Even with a visa waiver you (via the airline) must provide API before check-in, and may subsequently be denied boarding, denied entry at your destination, or in extreme cases return of your flight to it's origin mid-flight.
- dredmorbius 15y agoMy point was that with VWP the US doesn't have the opportunity to do an entrance check at the time of visa issue, as there isn't one. This covers most of Western Europe, Australia, NZ, and Japan AFAIK. I did some quick searching to see what the obverse situation is -- what countries US nationals can visit without first obtaining a visa. There's no convenient listing I could find. And this doesn't mean I find the US APIS to be an unordained Good Thing[tm]. Some border controls are necessary, yes. However US immigration policy has more than a small amount of irrationality to it. And pretty much always has (Asian Exclusion Act, etc.).
- waqf 15y agoRight, citizens of most "western" countries can visit other such countries (typically for tourism or business up to 3 months) without a visa. And until APIS became technologically viable, "without a visa" meant that the host country was pretty much waiving the opportunity to perform a background check on you. But these days, the US runs some kind of check on everyone. So that's the equivalent of being one of those "unfriendly" countries that requires visas for all noncitizens. (I guess Australia does too, since it requires non-visa visitors to apply in advance for something called an Electronic Travel Authority.)