Trouble at customs, try #2, please help!!
 

I know this might be a little off topic, but I don't know where else to turn!

My boyfriend is an Italian, wanting to come visit me in the US for the holidays. We want to get visas for Australia and fly there together from the US, but do not have them yet.

He initially booked a flight on Dec 6th, but was not allowed to fly to the US. He was questioned in Dublin at US customs, primarily because he did not have a return ticket. He quit his job in Italy to go to Australia with me, and so with no visa for Australia, nor return ticket, and no job back in Italy (a good tie for returning home) he was not allowed to go to the US.


We have purchased another, round trip ticket for the 12th so that he can "try again".

He applied for the Visa Wavier Program/ESTA, and he says that it is still active. A lot of people have told me that this will not work because he was "denied", but his passport has NO marks in it. He has checked online, and it says his application is still valid, and he has even updated the flight information. Does this mean it is still okay? I get so confused with all these different forms and visas....

We really want to make sure we do everything right this time, and that he won't be denied again, especially because it is a non-stop flight to the US.
What sort of questions should he be prepared for? We want to make sure he is set for everything this time... Please, we need advise and counsel!

Have you called U.S. Customs and Border Protection? I would suggest they would provide a more definitive answer than the "When I did it a few years ago" at best, or "I think ..." opinion of folks here. I suggest you at least try that in parallel.

One thing I would say is that the fact that his passport has no marks in it means little in these days of electronic commerce.

Was he issued any paperwork when he was "denied"? If so, the paperwork will reflect his status. If he was formally denied and found to be inadmissable, then under most circumstances he will have received a lifetime ban from utilising the visa waiver program and this will be noted on the refusal paperwork that he was issued.

If he was simply permitted to formally or informally "withdraw application for admission", then he may still be eligible to use the VWP. However, keep in mind that there is almost certainly a record of his previous interaction and this will result in his being referred to secondary at his US POE where a more in-depth analysis of his admissability will be made.

He was not issued any paperwork at all, he was just not allowed to board the plane to the US. I just got off the phone with US Customs and Border Protection and they really stressed that he bring as much proof as he can about having ties back in Italy, and that he has a round-trip ticket. If he is asked about Australia, they said to have places that we will be staying, doing, just a full itinerary. I'm sure that he will be questioned a lot more than normal now that he is in their system.

You need to have onward or return flights when entering Australia too. Or more correctly, when boarding a flight for Australia with any type of visitor visa.

He did not have trouble at customs, but rather with pre-clearance border protection. Having trouble in customs would be different.

Oh, I didn't realize, my mistake...

Yes! We have learned our lesson! ^

The fact that he has no employment in Italy and a girlfriend in the US is likely a big red flag.

And this other thread may give OP something to look out for:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/pract...g-us-time.html

+1.

I cross the border weekly to visit my SO and this is what they ask for regularly. That and whatever information you give them...make sure it doesn't change when you interact with officers in the future. They save notes on what questions they have asked you and bring those back on your next entry.

I've read this now, thank you for the advice. Hopefully it won't be that complicated! That is really scary...

The advantage of pre-clearance in Dublin is that US immigration can deny you without actually formally denying you.
The guy had no ticket leaving the North American continent. Thats a clear case of not granting access to the US via the Visa Waiver Program.

Actually, the airline should have denied him issueing boarding cards without an onward ticket. He should not have gotten to the US immigration guys in the first place.

Best thing to do now is to get to US consulate in Italy and look into this.
He will probably need a proper VISA, hence an interview. Meanwhile I would strenghten the job position. That is what really matters to NA and OZ officers.

"Formal" or not, I am betting there will be a record of it. A friend of mine discovered this the hard way, when exiting Canada to become a landed immigrant - you have to leave the country, and the easiest and cheapest way for many is walking over the bridge at Niagara Falls, turning around, and re-entering Canada. If you walk over, and choose not to enter the US, instead going straight back to Canada, it is marked down as a refused entrance (no paperwork, nothing in the passport etc. just on their computers). They were not really in the big scheme of things denied (they could easily have gone for a walk around the park on that side, then come back, for example) but didn't know any better. It still comes up years later, and they have to answer 'yes' to "have you ever been denied entry to the US" (but luckily can explain exactly why, and hasn't been a further issue).

I travel on one way tickets all the time and all airlines do is make me sign a form stating that if I am refused entry they aren't responsible. I've only been asked for a proof of onward travel by an immigration officer once and it was in the UK.