sarah aka madmouse
Earning My Ears
- Joined
- Feb 13, 2003
Hi everyone,
There has been a lot of people on this board who have been worried about the new rules regarding visa waiver issues.I have it on good authority(someone who is a visa consultant from the U.S Embassy) that it is HIGHLY UNLIKEY that the immigration officials have records of convictions from the Uk.So if you have been arrested for stealing,drunk and disorderly,sppeeding.canibis smoking etc this will not be on file.If however you have murdered someone or you are a drug smuggler etc then you could well be on a record somewhere.Think about it this way,of all the plane fulls of brits that land every day in Florida,there probably are quite a few that have a criminal record or caution for these type of offences,we are all human_right???There is no way that the system could cope with all that data.Also these rules are not new and have been in existence for years.It has allways been the case that if you are not eligible to travel under the visa waiver program then you need to go to the embassy.The only reason there is all this hype now is since Sept 11th they have to try and control who gets into the U.S. Also I think there is a lot of scare mongering by the embassy themselves.Of course if they print all this now,they want people to have to go up to the embassy and declare all their history etc-it makes the job easier for them if they can track everyone.
On the other hand I am not condoning lying on the visa waiver form either.Really if we are all good and honest people then we should fill out the form truthfully.But really someone with minor offences is not a real risk to the United States-its all the terrorists etc they should plough all the money into catching-not the fun loving brits who just want to enjoy themselves and spend all their cash in Florida.
Just another point,I do live in Florida now and when I applied for my visa I did have my records checked.But just for a holiday most people should be ok.
Hope this helps
Sarah
There has been a lot of people on this board who have been worried about the new rules regarding visa waiver issues.I have it on good authority(someone who is a visa consultant from the U.S Embassy) that it is HIGHLY UNLIKEY that the immigration officials have records of convictions from the Uk.So if you have been arrested for stealing,drunk and disorderly,sppeeding.canibis smoking etc this will not be on file.If however you have murdered someone or you are a drug smuggler etc then you could well be on a record somewhere.Think about it this way,of all the plane fulls of brits that land every day in Florida,there probably are quite a few that have a criminal record or caution for these type of offences,we are all human_right???There is no way that the system could cope with all that data.Also these rules are not new and have been in existence for years.It has allways been the case that if you are not eligible to travel under the visa waiver program then you need to go to the embassy.The only reason there is all this hype now is since Sept 11th they have to try and control who gets into the U.S. Also I think there is a lot of scare mongering by the embassy themselves.Of course if they print all this now,they want people to have to go up to the embassy and declare all their history etc-it makes the job easier for them if they can track everyone.
On the other hand I am not condoning lying on the visa waiver form either.Really if we are all good and honest people then we should fill out the form truthfully.But really someone with minor offences is not a real risk to the United States-its all the terrorists etc they should plough all the money into catching-not the fun loving brits who just want to enjoy themselves and spend all their cash in Florida.
Just another point,I do live in Florida now and when I applied for my visa I did have my records checked.But just for a holiday most people should be ok.
Hope this helps
Sarah
