Visas, and a more flippant question

[Flo_and_co]

Hello all - I'm new here

Planning a (return) trip to Orlando in Sept 05

I have 2 questions - the first is flippant, but one I've never found an answer to - what's the difference between a hotel and a motel? Even my travel agent didn't know...

Secondly - I'm a bit worried about this one - what's the deal with the new entry criteria?

This will be our 10th trip to Orlando, but first since 9/11 and the introduction of fingerprinting etc.

I wasn't too worried as neither of us are exactly international criminals - and neither my travel agent or any websites / books I'd read up until now suggested any potential problems. BUT on reading the (quite excellent) Brits Guide 2005 which I bought yesterday - it says that if you have been arrested EVER, even if no charge was brought, then you can't travel under the Visa Waiver Programme and may be refused entry??!!!

eeek! Background: my other half grew up in Northern Ireland and at the age of 15 (MANY years ago - in the 70s) was caught up in one of the many riots of the time. He was popped in a cell overnight, and fingerprinted, but was released the next morning, and hasn't thought anything of it since.

This experience is one shared by pretty much anyone who was a young man in NI at the time, and he's been in no trouble ever since.

Will this really be enough to get him barred from entry to the US? Even though he's been there many times before without trouble?

Does he REALLY have to go to all the trouble and expense of applying to the US embassy for a proper visa? And is there any chance they might refuse him one?

If I hadn't have read the Brits Guide I'd be none the wiser (I have already read 2 other current Orlando guide books and neither of them mentioned this new rule) - so my gut feel is to just go regardless and pretend I never read that.

But has anyone heard of anybody actually being refused entry because of something little like this? Do they actually check fingerprints, and would this long forgotten infraction show up?

Don't know what to do!

But I really don't want to risk him not getting into the country as we're planing to get married over there this time (after many years of dithering!! lol)

Any advice / opinion would be welcomed

Flo

 

[patdavies]

The term motel was coined in the 1920s (also known as motor courts) after a property called the Motel Inn of San Luis Obispo north of Los Angeles.

Motels differed from hotels in their emphasis on largely anonymous interactions between owners and occupants, their location along highways (as opposed to urban cores), and their orientation to the outside (in contrast to hotels whose doors typically face a hallway).

Vehicle parking is directly outside the room and thus motels are single storey buildings. Once you had checked-in there was no need to enter the lobby again as you had direct access to your room

The arrival of chains such as Holiday Inn started to blur the distinction between hotels and motels and even the best known motel chain - Motel6 - tends to have a single pint of entry via the lobby in some of thier properties.

 

[patdavies]

As to your other question regarding visas.

The rules governing the VWP have not changed, so if you believe that a visa is required now, then this would have held good for all your previous trips under VWP.

As there is unlikely to be any record of the arrest, then there is no way for the US authorities to know (they do not have access to our criminal records, much less arrest records).

My personal advice would be to forget all abouit it and travel on VWP. If you ask the US Embassy, they will tell you that you will need a visa. However, this is partly due to the facts that a) they always say that and b) visa issue is revenue generating

 

[Flo_and_co]

thanks for your replies Pat - especially the second one - phew!!

I still don't really get the motel thing - as the place we are staying this year (Rodeway Inn International Drive) is apparently a motel, yet it looks like a hi-rise block to me - so not likely to be able to park directly outside the room lol

Still - it's only a word, not too bothered.

I'm just hoping the hotel is clean - as it's a LOT cheaper than the ones we used to stay in (seriously skint this year - but wasn't prepared to go without my Orlando fix altogether as we haven't been able to go for the past 4 years and we miss it terribly)

 

[alisonbestford]

....and also, from what I understand, because he was under 18 the situation doesn't count anyway
Alison