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.

The encounter at DUB will have been documented and this is simply destined to repeat itself. Faced with an individual who has little or know ties back to Italy, a SO in the USA and who says he's headed to OZ, but doesn't have a ticket or visa for that, OP's SO will simply be denied entry again.

If the carrier is more careful this time, he won't even be issued BP's.

The SO needs to get his visa for the US and OZ and then buy a ticket Italy-USA-OZ-? OP can then buy the same flights USA-OZ-?

Since OZ won't admit either of them without onward travel either, the "?" needs to be resolved as well.

Even with a US overseas consulate issued vise you can still be denied entry if the CBP agents feel that you are inadmissible.

I'm not sure about this.
With a real visa CBP agents cannot deny entry, if I recall correctly.
Visa is granted by a US Consul overseas, which is not lower than an Immigration agent in the decision-making process.
CBP can deny a Visa Waiver Program passenger, hence ESTA passengers.

You do not recall correctly.

CBP agents can and do deny entry to visa holders. They take great pleasure in pointing out that they are DHS and visas are issued by DOS, so they are entitled to make independent determinations of admissability.

Good to know. Thanks.

-UPDATE-

For anyone who has a similar situation in the future and is crawling through old forum posts trying to figure out if they can make it, as I did, I wanted to make an update of what happened.

He decided to get the Australian working visa, and it was issued to him the next day, which was fantastic. He gathered as many types of proof of intent to return to Italy as he could (bills mostly) and I emailed him an itinerary of our plans for the time he would be staying here.

With all this information, he talked the US consulate in Florence, who told him that to their knowledge, it wouldn't be a problem for him to try again.
I also called Border Patrol and Protection and talked to an agent, explaining the situation (without mentioning our names of course) and they seemed to think that he would be okay to cross.

After an incredibly anxious week, with lots of doubts and fears, he finally flew.
His POE was Newark, NJ, which was scary in some ways because if here were to be denied, he would have to fly back across the ocean again....

When he arrived, he waited in line with everyone else, and was of course taken for questioning when it was his turn.
He talked to many officers, each asking pretty similar questions to ones he already answered. But they asked him pretty much everything you could think. They asked about his family, my family, his life, my life, just really grilled him. And he answered everything truthfully and poignantly. He said that they were all very calm and nice about the process, but it was still intimidating. He eventually just told them the whole story, from the first occurrence until now, and in the end, they let him pass. It was such a relief to see him walking out from the arrival area. They even got him his luggage so it wouldn't be circling around and around by itself. They questioned him for about 30 minutes or so, but with the truth and his preparations, everything turned out just fine.

Well done - fairly lucky I'd say. Make sure he doesn't overstay his visa.

That's probably not why they picked up his luggage for him.

Honesty is always the best policy. :)

Good to hear you get to spend the holidays with him. Thanks for the update.

You are right about that.;)

If he showed up with 9 suitcases, a pasta maker and 10 kg of espresso beans, he'd be back in Italy.

CBP agents can always deny entry, no matter who issued the visa.

All's well that ends well. ^

No you don't. You need to have onward/return flights OR the ability to prove you have enough money to buy one. When I went backpacking over there I met several people who only had one-way flights.

I don't recall them checking I've had return or onward flights on the two times I visited either. Australia is nowhere near as paranoid about foreigners than the US is.

Actually, the pasta maker would show him to be an imposter. Now, if the 9th bag contained a Nonna to hand make the pasta, THEN he was planning on staying. :D

I send US , Irish and UK citizens to jobs in Australia and NZ several times a year. We stopped doing one-way flights after one was denied boarding in the UK without a return ticket. They all carry company credit cards and cover letters so there was no question about funds. They also have short validity business ETAs for specialist work. It was all down to not having a return ticket.
That may well be, but first you have to get checked in, and that's up to the airline.

Maybe it was "paranoia", maybe not - immigration rules and strictness of their application change all the time - the story you heard last month could already be out of date.