Maybe you could just write "beer drinker"

Instead of unemployed how about retired? You could say you sold your dot com and now are just touring the world.

The sooner you let me in, kind customs person, the sooner I can start leaving some of my nest egg behind in your country!

Well, as I say, I MANAGE my beer intake...

Depending on your nationality and/or visa status, sometimes having "unemployed" may just bar you from entering Canada, for good, even while you're still residing legally in the U.S.

Case in point: a friend of mine who is domiciled legally here in the U.S. just finished MBA school and is job searching, like the thousands of other recently MBA grads out there. While he was a student andn pre-9/11, he was able to enter and exit into Canada without any problems to visit his lady friend. Now that he's done with school, he has found that they would not let him enter into the country because he has been "unemployed."

It goes both ways folks. While not defending our Canadian Customs people (they can be just as bad or good as other countries), U.S. Customs and Immigration can be very nit picky as well, all in the name of "protecting" American jobs. I've seen many people turned back at the airport (in Canada, where you pre-clear U.S. Customs) when the officers were not satisfied with the answers given to their questions regarding employment. One fellow was turned back because his job description as he verbally explained it did not exactly match what he had put on the form. Our company routinely sends Canadian to the U.S. and Americans up here to help each other out when we are temporarily short staffed due to sudden (and temporary) increases in work activity. It's a bit of a crap shoot as to whether you make it across the border or not. I've always made it through but other employees did not, due top the way they answered questions, even though we did the same jobs.

I am pretty sure that when entering the U.S. on the I-94 Visa Waiver Programm (the green card they staple into your passport,valid for 90 days), there is no mention or question pertaining to employment.

So, does anyone have news to report on the job seeking front? I've got a few interviews lined up. As I told the [expletive deleted] that I used to work for when she wished me good luck, I don't need luck. I have talent.

Tony, careful about burning bridges. (I know, I have torched a few!)

Another thought/question about getting into countries while not working - does anyone have any experience writing "retired?" I'm not and don't plan to be, at least not for several years, but I'm of an age where I could pull it off if it was helpful.

I'm not concerned about burning this bridge. In fact, if I were a general and this were war, I'd bomb it once again just to make sure it was completely and totally destroyed. Let's just say that some very shady things took place after I lost my job. Things like forging my signature on letters to my former clients and such.

I am giving serious consideration to filing a lawsuit against my former company AND naming my former boss in that lawsuit. You cannot forge my signature on letters. I have a copy of the letter and it's a complete lie. It says that I've been assigned different territory and that they should contact so and so in my place and that I'll be happy to help during the transition.

The bridge ain't gonna get burned, it's gonna get nuked.

Funny thing is, they'll likely end up paying more in damages to me if I do file suit than it would have cost to give me a severance package that would have made me go away happy.

Would that package have included any First Class travel on United?

Well, all of these sure do sound better than "cheating my clients."

Nope. No need for that if they just give me good ole greenbacks.

In any case, I've got someone looking into what I can do. I cannot believe that someone thinks they can get away with forging my signature on letters! Actually, the scary thing is that they almost got away with it. If one of the people that got the letter wasn't someone who I have a tremendous relationship with, they would have!

I was laid off by Macromedia in late November, but still had a fantastic two weeks over Xmas-New Year driving with my family across NV/AZ/CA.

Now writing two books while most of Down Under is still on summer vacation. This is my fourth layoff. The worst, airline travel-wise, was when I first made 1K, got the 6 SWUs and could not use them at all...

I used to put "Product Manager" and it usually invited "What products do you manage?" at INS. For some time now I use "Marketing Manager" and it has not been questioned.