"Sapphyre" wrote in message
news:1185139306.563287.122120@n60g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
> On Jul 15, 9:10 pm, Fred Ellis wrote:
>> You must not have gone through one of these Border Patrol
>> check points before. All you do is drive up to the Border Patrol
>> officer, lower your window and he asks if you are a U.S. citizen.
>> You answer yes while he looks inside your vehicle to see if there
>> are any other passengers. Then you tell the officer to have a
>> nice day, raise your window and you drive on.
>
> That works if you're a U.S. Citizen. I am not. When I say "no", then
> what?
Tip: Don't say "no"; say you're a Canadian citizen.
> I've been through only one of these checkpoints (Van Horn, Texas,
> on Greyhound). The officers boarded the bus, the driver told us
> they were "checking the bus" but I didn't know what for until he
> started asking people where they were born. When I told him
> where I was born, he demanded "immigration documents". (Uh,
> I could have been born somewhere and came to the US with my
> parents at 3 months of age, if I were then a citizen I wouldn't
> necessarily have immigration documents...)
If you weren't born in the US, expect to be hassled your entire life. That
includes folks who are naturalized citizens. As a general rule, the higher
your birth country's Human Development Index, the less hassle you'll get.
> Since I was travelling on a foreign passport (and permanently residing
> in Canada), I had "immigration documents", but I have to wonder
> whether or not he'd accept a Canadian passport with no stamps if
> that's what I showed this time around. I've never had my passport
> stamped by the US officials ever since I had it (three years now). I
> always had my foreign one stamped and filled in an arrival/departure
> green card, but they don't seem to do that with Canadian passports.
> That leads me to wonder how they can tell if I'm legal or not...
If you hold a passport from a Visa Waiver Program country or Canada, you're
assumed to be in the US legally unless you give them a reason to think
otherwise.
S
--
Stephen Sprunk "Those people who think they know everything
CCIE #3723 are a great annoyance to those of us who do."
K5SSS --Isaac Asimov
--
Posted via a free Usenet account from http://www.teranews.com
|