Adventures in Immigration

al_corona · Sep 15, 2009

Havana Mike said:
<link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CMichael%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><link rel="themeData" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CMichael%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_themedata.thmx"><link rel="colorSchemeMapping" href="file:///C:%5CUsers%5CMichael%5CAppData%5CLocal%5CTemp%5Cmsohtmlclip1%5C01%5Cclip_colorschememapping.xml"><style>  </style> The following is a conversation that took place last night at SJO upon my return trip from Havana.
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Immigratioin officer: Passport please
Looks at passport
Immigration officer: How many days in Costa Rica?
Me: 9
Immigratioin officer:Where is your return ticket?
Me: It’s electronic, I’ll be going to Miami next Friday
Immigratioin officer: I need the ticket.
Me: Can you look in the system for American Airlines for next Friday?
Immigratioin officer: You need your ticket or I can’t let you in.
Me: I have a ticket, it’s electronic, I’m flying to Miami next Friday.
Immigratioin officer: Without a ticket, you’ll need to go to the Taca desk
Me: But sir, I have a ticket.
Immigratioin officer: Shakes his head no and calls over security guy to escort me to Taca desk inside the airport
At Taca service desk back inside the airport:
Lady at Taca Desk: Hello sir, would you like to buy a ticket?
Me: No, I have a ticket for next Friday to Miami.
Lady at Taca Desk: On Taca?
Me: No ma’am, it’s on American Airlines
Lady at Taca Desk: Their office is closed, you’ll need to buy a return ticket to enter Costa Rica.
Me: But I have a ticket, it was bought over the internet.
Lady at Taca Desk: But I can’t see that in our system. And the American Airlines office is closed.
Me: I understand their closed, but if I can get access to the internet, I can show you my reservation code and my itenerary.
Lady at Taca Desk: We can’t give you access to the internet, you’ll need to buy a ticket.
Me: I already have a ticket.
Lady at Taca Desk after looking at her computer for a minute: Sir, I can give you a ticket to Guatemala for next weekend for $330. Would you like that?
Me: Why the on earth would I want to go to Guatemala when I have a ticket to Miami for the same weekend?
Lady at Taca Desk: If you buy the ticket and show it to immigration, you can leave the airport. Otherwise, we will have to send you back.
Me: Back to where?
Lady at Taca Desk: Where did you arrive from?
Me: Havana
Lady at Taca Desk: Then we will send you back to Havana tomorrow.
Me: Really? You can send an American citizen involuntarily to Havana?
Lady at Taca Desk: Unless you buy a ticket…
Me: How much is a fully refundable ticet to Guatemala?
Lady at Taca Desk: $330.
Me: So I can buy this and return it tomorrow?
Lady at Taca Desk: You can use it to go to Guatemala
Me: But can I return it if I change my mind
Lady at Taca Desk: No
Me: Then it’s not refundable, is it?
Lady at Taca Desk: But you can change it if you want for a fee
Me: Can you call the Immigration Supervisor, I’d like to go back to Havana
After a while, an immigration officer comes and a conversation takes place between them and the officer asks me to follow him. We go back to the immigration desks and speak to a lady. She asks how many days I’ll be in Costa Rica. I tell her I’m going to Miami next weekend. She nods, stamps my passport, and hands it to me.
Is there stupid syrup in the water here?:think2:
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Yup

RaoulDuke · Sep 15, 2009

I've never been asked in the U.S. or here for a return ticket and i've been flying back forth for the last 19 years. I always fly continental or delta and they have never asked. The only people that i've heard having problems was with American Airlines.

AdamSelene · Sep 15, 2009

Raoul Duke said:
The only people that i've heard having problems was with American Airlines.

Yup, same here, AA is also the only airline to ask me for return ticket.

ChristianTroy · Sep 15, 2009

geeks

SampS · Sep 15, 2009

US Air also ask for return flight infomation while traveling to Costa Rica and will not allow you on the flight if you don't have something...They say the airline will get fined...

wolfie_cr · Sep 15, 2009

Raoul Duke said:
I've never been asked in the U.S. or here for a return ticket and i've been flying back forth for the last 19 years. I always fly continental or delta and they have never asked. The only people that i've heard having problems was with American Airlines.

a while ago (And this was like 4 years ago) there was an actual directive from the goverment to the airlines telling them to enforce the rules........NO country in the world takes a tourism without a return ticket (or something along those lines)

AA is of course the ones where you will hear most of the stories (because Miami is like Avenida Segunda in the US for US......everyone connects through there)

My wife got stopped as I said in Miami once........and she has been asked for a return ticket OR residence docs in at least FOUR times (Newark, Geneva, Houston etc)

I have travelled to the US at least 25 times (I have yet to count them) and I've been asked to show my 'ticket' at least 4 times which is more than fine since I know thats a given

wolfie_cr · Sep 15, 2009

Havana Mike said:
I've not been told we had to have a paper ticket. I didn't think I'd need one, as people stopped using them 20 years ago...

What runs most afoul is that every attempt at presenting a solution was quickly dismissed and I was again herded back into the option of buying a ticket I wouldn't use. Bribery is one thing, extortion is another. Had I gone down stairs and they said "Sir, you have way too many cigars", then perhaps a reasonable regalo would have been called for. But this wasn't the case. This was, "If you don't buy a ticket to somewhere, we're deporting you".

Keep in mind, I had a ticket. They persistently prevented me from proving it. That is my bitch here. At any US airport, they can access any airline information they want and will to solve the problem. They don't simply say, you have to buy a ticket from TACA before you can leave.

I had to be willing to go to Havana with very little cash to call the bluff...
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you don't have to have a paper ticket, you are correct that they are (for the most part...and except for REALLY remote parts of the world) not in use anymore

your beef is with the TACA agent who offered a 'profitable for them' solution (I agree with you....there is NO reason she could not have just sold you a fully refundable......aka full Y or J class ticket)

At any US airport.......well .....I can't tell you what happens there because I've never been the subject of a 2ndary inspection (phew knocks on wood) .........

Regardless......I am sure you know the drill now.....print the freaking confirmation that takes you out of here, I am here this happened to you........but its not up to the immigration agent to offer you outs/facilities/etc.

Once you are on the 'radar'......the problem is yours....not theirs. I asure you that if I get deported from the US.......I would not be able to say 'hey they didnt give me a phone/space/an ATM machine/computer etc' to show them that I did indeed intend to leave

Let me just say also that they FOR SURE saw your in/outs......and noticed a regular in/out pattern.....throw that with the 'I cant show you a way out as the rules say I should' and its a recipe for disaster

You ARE lucky that you could get out of this shit....in the US AS OF COURSE YOU KNOW........there are no airline counters before immigration where you could buy your way out of this

Travelling these days its not 'that easy'

Cheers from the Presidents Club in PTY, Panama :toast:

wolfie_cr · Sep 15, 2009

fuzebox said:
My old story was that I was in love with this nice tica and we were going to get married some day, so I was flying down once a month to see her... If I had a female immigration officer she would smile and be like "awwwwww that's so sweet!" and wish me luck.

boy I SERIOUSLY need to be hired as immigration agent ~~:<< ......THAT exact scenario is an ULTRA NO NO in Canada (but hey, they bother both you AND us ........their customs people is pretty aggresive trying to get any AND ALL people trying to evade 1 CAD in taxes)

wolfie_cr · Sep 15, 2009

Btw let me just give my position in all this shit

You are a gringo/canadian/etc......you want to live here? Show us that you have not been a 32$#@$ criminal in your country of origin....show me a balance of 'x' amount of dollars.....a reasonable explanation of where it can from........pay us 5k .......live here as long as you dare to.......

This '90 days in / 3 days out ' shit IS ridiculous.........

Unfortunately I am not running for office ..............d1g1t

wolfie_cr · Sep 16, 2009

deleted

fuzebox · Sep 16, 2009

wolfie_cr said:
boy I SERIOUSLY need to be hired as immigration agent ~~:<< ......THAT exact scenario is an ULTRA NO NO in Canada (but hey, they bother both you AND us ........their customs people is pretty aggresive trying to get any AND ALL people trying to evade 1 CAD in taxes)

Uh... How could you even begin to compare Canadian immigration to Costa Rican? Whatever situation is an "ultra no no" in Canada really has nothing to do with this conversation. Costa Rica WANTS my tourist dollars. As a Canadian citizen, I'm allowed to come to Costa Rica as a tourist for 90 days without any application whatsoever, like all the other countries in the world I can travel to without applying for a visa.

Obviously if I was going to a country with specific entry requirements, and I had to apply for a visa, I wouldn't just tell the story which gets me through customs the quickest.

wolfie_cr · Sep 16, 2009

fuzebox said:
Uh... How could you even begin to compare Canadian immigration to Costa Rican? Whatever situation is an "ultra no no" in Canada really has nothing to do with this conversation. Costa Rica WANTS my tourist dollars. As a Canadian citizen, I'm allowed to come to Costa Rica as a tourist for 90 days without any application whatsoever, like all the other countries in the world I can travel to without applying for a visa.

Obviously if I was going to a country with specific entry requirements, and I had to apply for a visa, I wouldn't just tell the story which gets me through customs the quickest.

what I meant was this

supose that a US citizen travels to Canada as a tourist........(I am sure that Canada wants the tourist dollars as well......and US needs no application either to enter Canada)

Imagine that the US citizen is asked for the reason of the visit "I am visiting my girlfriend ......I am hoping she marries me"

at that point (from a specific case that I am aware of) things go south

my point had nothing to do with visa or no visa but that saying something like "I am visiting my hopefully soon to be wife" may not be compatible with being a tourist in certain places (here everything goes but even US/Canada dont like those situations)

fuzebox · Sep 16, 2009

LOL stating that you are visiting friends or a girlfriend will not get you in trouble. I know because I have done it. You are right about the marriage part, it would be best to leave that out, because of people that only get married for a green card.

I only said it because of latin america's obsession with marriage and how "beautiful" it is, lol.

wolfie_cr · Sep 16, 2009

well the case I know is just one.......so it doesnt count as much.......American girl and Canadian guy......go to Vancouver for a VISIT....he lives there , she lives in the US......the immigration guy asks for relationship.......'she is my girlfriend'......that led to a 30 minute interrogation where she was repeatedly accused of 'you want to get married in Canada and get residence', this outcome didn't surprise me but the American girl was outraged.

in my case whenever I go to Canada their obsession is to get me to admit that I am going there to work....thereby violating the terms of a tourism/business visa.....so I have to keep telling them 50 times over that its a business meeting ......and that I am not going to do paid work. (after 30 minutes of that they normally get the idea that it is a business meeting)

as to the romanticism of marriage............brb ...I need to puke , its too early to think about that specially without booze

AdamSelene · Sep 16, 2009

fuzebox said:
LOL stating that you are visiting friends or a girlfriend will not get you in trouble.

Uhh, yes it will, generally.

Canada doesn't like foreign girlfriends/boyfriends, and neither does the USA. I've heard multiple stories about girls & guys (U.S. citizens) going across the border to visit their girlfriend/boyfriend and getting scraped across a cheese grater by Canadian immigrations.

When my wife went to get a Visa, we were sitting next to a 20-something love-struck Tico going to visit a girl in North Carolina -- with a letter of invitation from her. I wanted to tell him he's crazy there going with that, better to tell them you are going to Disney Land or something. He was crushed when they turned him down, which was a foregone conclusion to me. And this day they were only turning down maybe 1 in 10 people.

muff-diver · Sep 16, 2009

We don't need any more lazy good for nothing tricksters, crack smoking swindlers, breathing all the white mans air Ticos in the states anyway.

SampS · Sep 16, 2009

fuzebox said:
LOL stating that you are visiting friends or a girlfriend will not get you in trouble. I know because I have done it. You are right about the marriage part, it would be best to leave that out, because of people that only get married for a green card.

I only said it because of latin america's obsession with marriage and how "beautiful" it is, lol.

Fuze, it really is "beautiful" being married to a Tica...of course its really beautiful to drink the entire day while at work before you make it home to really enjoy her...i mean to enjoy...what did you say? :think2:

Tortillera · Oct 29, 2009

Why bother, being Gringo there you don't need to do any paperwork.........They simply wont fuck with you and you get no advantage doing it

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