U.s. Can’t Trace Foreign Visitors On Expired Visas

[jazzbo]

DALLAS — Eight years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and despite repeated mandates from Congress, the United States still has no reliable system for verifying that foreign visitors have left the country.

rest of article at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/us/12visa.html?hp

[gotlost]

DALLAS — Eight years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and despite repeated mandates from Congress, the United States still has no reliable system for verifying that foreign visitors have left the country.

rest of article at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/us/12visa.html?hp

The US could take a lesson from Thailand.

[jazzbo]

... actually I've long been in favor of a mandatory RFID implant for all visitors and non-citizens.

[CharlieB]

DALLAS — Eight years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and despite repeated mandates from Congress, the United States still has no reliable system for verifying that foreign visitors have left the country.

rest of article at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/us/12visa.html?hp

The US could take a lesson from Thailand.

Yeah, there's no-one in Thailand that has overstayed a visit visa!! lol

[david96]

Immigration record the passport information of everyone entering or leaving the country.

If a foreigner does not leave he or she becomes an illegal immigrant.

All Western countries suffer this problem. That is why illegals hide. And that is why some countries have good document checking procedures (such as Australia) for opening a bank account, drivers licence etc.

There will be always a certain number of illegals in any country the policy should be to minimise the risk.

Data matching to Immigration is one of the ways to minimise the risk.

Edited October 12, 2009 by david96

[thaihome]

Immigration record the passport information of everyone entering or leaving the country.

...Data matching to Immigration is one of the ways to minimise the risk.

The US has no exit immigration. You only have to show your passport when leaving if you fly out, it is easy to exit without having to show your passport. With hundreds of thousands of people a day crossing the borders, it would be a massive system to try and track every person.

TH

[samran]

It is a beat up. So a bunch of terrorists decide to do their deeds while the visas are still valid now? A bit like US immigration asking you if you have undertaken warcrimes or 'moral turpitude' on their immigration forms, which are unique in themselves as they recommend you fill them in from the bottom up, lest you mistakenly answer the wrong question...

Whether a country has exit immigration or not, if people decide not to leave, there isn't much you can do about it. Which is why they usually do their best to check your background and intention to stay before granting them. One of the slight annoyances with this global travel thingy that we all partake in, and which mostly, makes our lives more enjoyable.

No secret that the biggest overstayers in Australia are...da da dum....the british, this is despite everyone, except NZ'ers needing a visa to come to Australia...as I said, beat up, the papers need a good via overstayer-cum terrorist story every now and then...

However, if you overstay, and do try and come back, the US know about it. Though she didn't overstay, my wife, for some reason didn't have her green visa waiver form taken off her by the airline when she left a few years back. So according to US immigration, she was an overstayer. That loused up our plans for a while for travelling to the states. We had to send off a bunch of documents proving that my wife actually had left the US within 90 days, whcih included passport copies, utility bills etc. Sent all that off to a non-descript address in Virginia before we could be assured that my wife could get another visa waiver on arrival!

Edited October 13, 2009 by samran

[mizzi39]

... actually I've long been in favor of a mandatory RFID implant for all visitors and non-citizens.

I hope this is a joke. Are you in favor of a new world order too? 1984 ring a bell?

[hansnl]

You can check the paperwork of everyone entering or leaving a country, if someone enters and remains in the country after the date he should leave the country, he is an illegal alien, to get him/her out of the country, he/she must still be found.

And what about the people entering a country illegally, by land, sea or air?

Officially they are not even in the country, and because of that, not registered.

If you want to enter a country, there is always a possibility to do so, just like hiding yourself in a country, or leaving a country.

No system is foolproof, and monitoring legal entrants from entrance to exit is quite expensive and does not keep out those who really want to do damage to or in a country.

Besides that those wanting to do bad things will be helped by figures already in the country, legally or illegally.

And that help runs through race, nationality and most of all religion.

Edited October 13, 2009 by hansnl

[gonzobrains]

nothing significant really ended up happening in 1984. oh, except i got my first atari 2600.  bahahahaa.

... actually I've long been in favor of a mandatory RFID implant for all visitors and non-citizens.

I hope this is a joke. Are you in favor of a new world order too? 1984 ring a bell?

[Svenn]

"Nothing we can do about it" ?? Are you kidding? There are thousands of ways to identify over-stayed illegal immigrants, but the 'civil liberties' people and the philosophers (left AND right wing) on the Supreme Court won't let the gov't do it. For example, just check IDs with every major transaction- buying an apartment, using a credit cared, boarding the subway, heck, even buying groceries. What the heck is so hard about that? Those are things immigrants have to do to survive. There are millions of illegal immigrants in the US, some of whom may be terrorist or otherwise malintended, don't tell me your petty hurt feelings about having to show IDs outweighs that.... we already achieved a police state when we get pulled over for not wearing our seat belt.

The idiocy continues.. I have long said that the easiest way to insure our girlfriend's or wife's return to Thailand is simply to make us liable for money if they don't return. It's an easy solution, but immigration would rather tear lives apart and break hearts by denying 90% of those applicants with their fanciful "proof of ties" standard .

Edited October 19, 2009 by Svenn