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It is another sleepless night on the floor of my new appartment, waiting for my stuff to arrive from the U.S. Now that I'm settling into a new life in Germany, I've started to realize how we (so-called non-resident aliens in the U.S.) all hated U.S. immigrations, and all have a story to tell. With increasing distance to these events, frustration and outright anger is making its way into my conscious mind.
For me, it started with my very first entry to the United States of America. I had just passed immigrations, and clueless as I was, I asked an immigrations officer where my luggage was to come out. The officer told me and then proceeded to run a full, additional, and totally superfluous check through all my stuff. From passport to purpose of visit. He clearly told me never to bother a bored officer again.
In front of immigrations, every foreigner is very small. Officially, we have no rights, and they can send us back without giving any reason. Just like this. Supposedly, there was this guy who on the visa waiver form had put down that he once in his life had been a terrorist. Just for fun, to see what would happen. Last news heard was that he had been seen in Guantanamo. But that may well be an urban legend, even though it nicely supports Darwinism by showing that stupidity kills. As I said, no person in his or her right mind fools around with U.S. immigrations, pre or post 9/11.
U.S. immigrations in Vancouver holds a special place in my heart. Because of its close relationship with Canada, U.S. Immigrations has a post in Vancouver, on Canadian soil. Once past this post, you are flying into the U.S. as a domestic flight. But first you need to get through this post. In 2003, returning from a ski trip to Whistler mountain, I was rejected from entering the U.S. because of a missing signature in my papers. Because it was a minor issue, I tried to convince the officer to let me through. I worked for over an hour, and eventually he said he would let me through, if I only showed him this other paper again, which I had put back into my carry-on, waiting in front of the post's door. Turning away to pick up the paper and bring it in, I saw the officer getting up and saying to his colleague "time to call it a day". I jumped to ask him not to leave until I'm through but he said his colleague could well take care of it and would be informed. When I came back in, of course, it was back to square zero, as his colleague had no clue whatsoever. (1)
On a more recent trip, flying back from Vancouver to San Francisco, I had to pass the same post again. This time, I faced a hotshot of an immigrations officer, a very self-assure and highly educated person. Among other things, he told me that my passport was all wrong and that German authorities apparently were just too stupid to produce a proper passport. Specifically, it should be GE for Germany in my papers, and not DE. That's because DE stands for Delaware, the U.S. state (2). All the while, he was flipping through my passport, marking it up as he pleased. He crossed out my (now obsolete) H1B visa and scribbled some indecipherable things onto other pages. Finally, he let me through. Once around the corner, I checked my passport for any smileys or other graffiti this particularly brilliant guy might have put into my passport, but fortunately there were none. No Henri Rousseau, this guy.
I'm not the complaining type. I've lived in the U.S. for five years and I have enjoyed it. There is a lot of good things to be said about this country, and it is indeed in many good ways showing the world a path. However, some aspects of the U.S.A. really need to be fixed, and immgrations and foreign relations are certainly a key part of this.
I will still have to travel to the U.S. a lot, but I'm glad that I have no property left in what's now Red State Country for four more years. Anyone who is caught between the worlds has my sympathy.
(1) I did make my flight after an additional 2 1/2 hours of work; I literally caught my plane at the last minute. I had been fortunate in that the bus bringing us back from Whistler had been 4 hours early to the airport.
(2) In the international ISO code table, DE stands for Germany, and GE stands for Georgia, a Russian republic. (Yeah, close to Ali G country, where they beat goats and women plow the land by hand.)
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