[niea_11]

> in the US, whether you are permitted to enter and how long you may stay are determined by the person at the border

I don't believe this is specific to the US. The agent at the border always has the last decision on whether you can enter the country even if you have a valid visa and travel documents.

[josephg]

Border guards in the US tend to be more strict than other countries though. I’ve heard plenty of stories of friends being refused entry into the US, and I don’t personally know of anyone who was rejected coming in to any other country.

It’s devastating when this happens because not only are you thrown out of the country on the next flight, but once you’ve been rejected at the border once, you can never apply for a simple online visa permit again. For the rest of your life you need to go to a consulate with your passport like this article describes.

I was almost denied entry once when I visited Hawaii. The immigration officer heard I was on vacation for a month and had no cash on me (who travels with cash?). Turns out he was worried I’d end up homeless. He didn’t realise that as an Australian, I get paid while on vacation and I had plenty of money in a bank account online.

This isn’t (just) a race thing. I’ve heard plenty of rejection stories from white, Australian men.

[zarzavat]

The US also has some quite byzantine rules. For example, let’s imagine I fly from Europe to Canada, with a 3 hour transit in US. I stay four months in Canada because I’m a UK citizen and Canada allows me to stay up to 180 days. I return to Europe using the same route via US.

If I did that I would have overstayed in the US. Because the US only allows a stay of 90 days under the Visa Waiver program, and even though I only spent a few hours in the US, the four months in Canada counts towards the 90 day limit. The US also doesn’t have airside transit like most countries.

The correct thing to do would have been to apply for a US transit visa so that I am not entering on VWP, or to route my flight so that it doesn’t transit in US.

[murphyslaw]

I've also noted that issue. I know of several people at my former job who traveled to the San Jose office and were turned back for some inane reason that had never been an issue before that time. US Border Guards have extreme latitude and they seem to like their power a bit too much.

Problem is that a single rejection forces you to go through the Visa process instead of the Visa-free process for the rest of your life: one of the questions on the entry form is (or was) "have you ever been denied entry", next to "are you a nazi war criminal" (not a joke). And answering "yes" on the former guarantees a whole lot of pain. If you answer "no" you're committing a felony.

The USA's entry system is inane, utterly dependent on the person in front of you and downright scary to me.

I've known conferences to move outside the US for this kind of reason, the pain was just too much and too many people couldn't get in.

[Khaine]

It also occurs if you visit countries the US doesn't like such as Cuba or Iran.

Visited Iran when sanctions weren't in place, no ESTA for you. You get treated like a criminal, and have to pay more money for a proper visa.

[ryathal]

Something I've started mentioning, is the US immigration and customs is also pretty rude to their own citizens. Coming back to the US has been the far more stressful border crossing in my experience.