Originally Posted by yycguy2
I asked this question in the AC forum months back and the answer was that they are not allowed to comment on what is displayed and tracked in the system.
True, but sometimes you can tell based on the questions they ask you what they're looking at. Two months back, me and a buddy went to the USA. My buddy gives the INS guy his driver's licence. INS guy types in my buddy's name and birth date. The first question my buddy gets asked is "Did you travel to the USA two weeks ago?"....I wonder what came up on the screen.
The INS is actually pretty open about what databases get queried during primary inspection i.e. IBIS, NAILS, NIIS, TECS, etc. They're also pretty open about what type of information each database contains. The INS also made public an inquiry into how the Sept 11th hijackers entered the country -- it talked about how primary inspectors, in some cases, queried IBIS and didn't turn up any "hits". I haven't been able to find similar information for entering Canada -- I'm just guessing that its pretty much the same thing.
Originally Posted by yycguy2
I have seen Canadians refused entry in the the US for the same reasons.
I have seen Canadians get fired because they picked up dumb, seemingly insignificant convictions that bar them from entering the USA. For some people, myself included, admissibility into the USA is a condition of employment.