LAX is huge. EVA Air/China Air/Finn Air use the big international terminal which is quite nice and new, some other are not as nice (I think there is 8 ). Also China Airlines flies to tiny ONT airport in the Los Angels area.
This has been going on for a while and even before covid.
One of my friends used to fly to the US often however in 2019ā¦ things took a turn for the worst when they interviewed her suspecting she was possibly working there and not a genuine touristā¦
Another friend had the same problem. She was visiting her boyfriend andā¦ had her waiver cancelled as she couldnāt show proof of funds (he was funding the trip so god only knows why they sent her home.)
On both occasions they said the officer was of CHINESE descentā¦ and in San Francisco so I do wonder if itās a Chinese American who is upset at the Taiwanese having waiver status lol
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In short, very private questions were asked, baggages were emptied, underwear and feminine products were dumped out in front of other passengers, phones were confiscated, private texts were read, all photos in private social media accounts were scrolled through, all private messages were read, all Tinder messages were read, all emails were read, and every page of private journals were read. This was all done by bilingual officers.
One of my friends was held in detention for 24 hours before finally denied entry and sent back to Taipei. There was a lot of crying and intimidation.
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I wonder what sort of Tinder profile one would need to have to merit this kind of treatment. :sorrow:
Guy
āJust arrived in the US and looking for language exchange partner.ā
āMadam, we apologize, but for this purpose, you should be in Taiwan. We will be putting you onto the next available flight back to Taipei.ā
Guy
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Not from Taiwan but from Singapore. Same like your wife a female officer was super rude while the male officer stood by and watched. We had a friend coming from Singapore and they said they had questions about her. So they came to talk to us (both Asian US citizenās) said our story didnāt match our friend so they are detaining her. Female officer was super rude and acted like we were criminals and wanted to make our friend work for us as a salve or something. Snapped/cut us off as we tried to answer. Said she wanted the truth and our friend might be allowed in. Which we gave the truth but she already made up her mind about us. Had us wait over 8 hr with no info and when I went to flag down a male officer some lady who wasnāt in uniform maybe a supervisor cut me off and said to just wait. Lucky I was able to find another officer who just so happened to be working in the case and said he will help us out because he saw I was there with my toddler. After hrs of waiting and no one informing us the nice officer called to say she will not be allowed entry and that they are sending her back. Which if it wasnāt for him we would still be at the airport waiting till our friend got back to Singapore to make a phone call to us. I felt like if we were white and not Asians we would have no problems and our friend would be here visiting with us. And I know for a fact that if I was white they wouldnāt have let me wait 8 hrs without an update. Made me feel like a low class citizen. I hope you are gathering all these stories and can do something about it. There needs to be a light shined on this. Because I was looking up bad experience at SF and saw your post hit really close to home. I believe that they questioned her and scared her into saying something that wasnāt true to get denied.
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Hi so come to find out my friend passed customs and than she didnāt know how to exit so she asked a female officer to show her the exit thatās when it all went bad. Can you tell me what that female officer looks like?
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Itās an interrogation technique. Good cop/bad cop. Everything that the assigned ābad copā does is for the purpose of detecting lies, including cracking people by purposely making them wait for hours.
CNN wrote an article about this a couple of years ago when a bunch of tourists went to the media, and the response from the US CBP was āyou donāt have constitutional rights until you have left customs and immigration and physically stepped into the country.ā
Chinese Americans have zero beef with Taiwan. Their histories donāt intersect. Their beef is usually with China.
lovely
I got grilled at entry to US a couple of times.
I think its common but not exactly normal, never happened anywhere else except China.
I got grilled a little last time visiting the U.S. as a Canadian since I have relatives in the US. They asked things like, where do I work, how long have I worked there, how long am I staying in the U.S., etc. They are probing for the possibility you will overstay. Many Canadians get denied entry if they stay too long or return too often (see Reddit).
Btw it is quite easy to overstay and then later acquire US citizenship. Many routes such as applying for i130 and 485 as an illegal and converting to green card. They are trying to prevent that.
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I know exactly what they are doing .
But some of them are very unprofessional, one started telling me he had a Chinese girlfriend himself 'he loves Asians ā wink wink. This is with my girlfriend at the time beside me. Pretty disgusting.
I think it is NOt easy to overstay and get a green card like you said. It might have been in the past.
Ironically I have actually been arrested in the US (no charges though ) and ahem other stuff and none of it is on my record lol.
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Itās easy for a certain route. You have to enter legally such as tourist, then marry in the U.S., overstay, apply for green card, takes maybe one year and you canāt leave the U.S. during application. Hereās a recent experience: https://www.reddit.com/r/USCIS/comments/119mkum/making_it_official_sharing_my_timeline_spouse_of/
The immigration people are looking for people who match these profiles, so itās good to keep that in mind when talking to them
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By the way my bad experiences were all at JFK and Iām not Asian. And every African was getting carted off for interrogation in front of me.
Donāt think this is just a SFO thing even if there is a problem at SFO itself.
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I see it seems you are right JB people who come in on a visa may have it easier.
They do it to get a reaction out of you. This is all basic interrogation 101.
When one of them scrolled through my friendās Instagram, he said āso you like to party huh? Can you introduce me to some of your hot Taiwanese friends?ā
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My experience as well.
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I think the guy was just a creep.
He threatened to block me entering because my passport was a bit beaten up as well.
OK sorry now I remember that specific one may have been at SFO/LA. Anyway they are notoriously rude/impolite/aggressive , often screaming abd shouting , and not only to Asian looking people.