what happened to me at customs?! HORRIBLE situation

[fozzie 41]

yeah if this is true then I doubt you are banned.

From what you say the next time you enter the US will be as a student on an F1 visa. Therefore you will have to await the I20 from the college and apply in France for the F1 visa. At that point you will know if you have anything on your record against you as they will likely not issue you the visa.

[lovestevie 0]

dear audrey, i have no answers to your questions but i can say, dont let them a$$holes take one day of your happeness away. life is to short to waste a day of it being depressed over what someone else did. u didnt do anything wrong and be proud of yourself for that.

why people do this is something i cant understand. treating anyone like that is wrong.

just move forward and forget about it. i know easier said then done but by doing this means their attempts to scare u or scar u failed. thats the best way to get revenge on them.

good luck.

thank you Donna for being so nice!....I know and im staying strong and wont let them ruin my life...

I know what happened to me was a huge mistake and i didnt do or say anything wrong....Im trying to move on and im planning on attending college next year like nothing ever happened,...its just really hard to know that because of them i wont be able to see the person im in love w for more than 6 months.....its hard to get over the fact that I know ive been accused of sthg worng n punished for tht!

I wonder why people are so mean too.....i understand people in here are saying it was a regular intense custom check, but still i do believe the way they do it is so wrong n barelly legal but because it has always been that way and because thats what people have to go thru, everybody tends to believe its ok and not that bad....when its only i believe an abusive check and way too hard search and also an attempt to personal rights!

Anyway, hopefully i will get my answer in here and find out if i was really banned or not...

Thanhk you again:)

[lovestevie 0]

yeah if this is true then I doubt you are banned.

From what you say the next time you enter the US will be as a student on an F1 visa. Therefore you will have to await the I20 from the college and apply in France for the F1 visa. At that point you will know if you have anything on your record against you as they will likely not issue you the visa.

Yea def!...next time, I will go back in the States, i will be on a F-1 visa, i know the process to get my visa issued etc etc, now i just have plenty of time ahead of me before starting application to college!

THank you anyway fr yr answer!

[scandal 951]

..she takes me to the office where you have all the "so called suspicious" people waiting there forever (i think it is the detention office or sthg )......more like all the people looking suspicous coz of their skin colors or countries etc.......UNFAIR id say!.....still, among all of them I look kinda akward, i donot look like the typical terrorist or illegal person....im 22 , young woman i dont knwo what the hell im doing there at all..........

Yeah, it's really terrible that you were put in a room with all these people who don't look like you. How humiliating. So since you are female and 22 we should have a special provision in the regulations to let you enter the country and not need to pass inspection, I suppose. It would be the "I'm 22 and a really nice girl, so how dare you inspect me at Customs" inspection-bypass. Great idea.

my plan was to bring as much as possible over there, and leave it all there , so next time Id come back to go to college, knowing that I could only bring 2 luggages, I would already have a lot of my things waiting for me in the US.......obv that was A VERY BAD thing to do...

Yes, I should say so. You are entering the US multiple times on VAWA, and you are openly declaring that you are using these trips as preparation for longer and more permanent stays in the US. That's not illegal in and of itself, but it certainly raises the possibility of immigrant intent in my mind. And if it's in my mind, certainly its' in the agent's mind. That's their job, to weed out people entering with intent other than the purpose of their visa. I would say they're doing their job diligently, nothing more.

[lovestevie 0]

just took my passeport back n left , finally free to go

You are free to go. Sorry you had a run-around with these jerks. You were singled out for a complete bag check, it happens to everyone now and then, and you were just harrassed by some jerks in Customs. What they told you was just to get you upset. You are not banned. Don't worry and don't hold a grudge against the system; just these individuals.

Welcome to the US; most of us are nice people.

yes i know, i knwo people arent all like that.....i believe A LOT OF people workin at customs are that way tho....they are trained to be cold & mean, i wasnt obv lying but when someone is guilty of sthg they have to be trained and not be all emotional or believe someone just becasue they cry or freak out...they are just trained to be that way coz its security...its serious!

anyway, thank you, i knnow they were jerks!....i wont forget that day anytime soon....and now ill prob be freaking out everytime ill be going thru customs!

[lovestevie 0]

..she takes me to the office where you have all the "so called suspicious" people waiting there forever (i think it is the detention office or sthg )......more like all the people looking suspicous coz of their skin colors or countries etc.......UNFAIR id say!.....still, among all of them I look kinda akward, i donot look like the typical terrorist or illegal person....im 22 , young woman i dont knwo what the hell im doing there at all..........

Yeah, it's really terrible that you were put in a room with all these people who don't look like you. How humiliating. So since you are female and 22 we should have a special provision in the regulations to let you enter the country and not need to pass inspection, I suppose. It would be the "I'm 22 and a really nice girl, so how dare you inspect me at Customs" inspection-bypass. Great idea.

my plan was to bring as much as possible over there, and leave it all there , so next time Id come back to go to college, knowing that I could only bring 2 luggages, I would already have a lot of my things waiting for me in the US.......obv that was A VERY BAD thing to do...

Yes, I should say so. You are entering the US multiple times on VAWA, and you are openly declaring that you are using these trips as preparation for longer and more permanent stays in the US. That's not illegal in and of itself, but it certainly raises the possibility of immigrant intent in my mind. And if it's in my mind, certainly its' in the agent's mind. That's their job, to weed out people entering with intent other than the purpose of their visa. I would say they're doing their job diligently, nothing more.

sorry i didnt mean to sound prejuditial at all......what i meant is they do have you know......profiles or people looking more suspicious than others, and when i say that i dont mean to say its fair at all, coz i do believe it IS COMPLETELY wrong to stop someone because of where they come from, what they look like etc......like you said i could be looking all nice and young but could be planning on hiking a plane or sthg so to me it doesnt mean anything at all.....sorry i didnt mean to offend anyone really!

also i agree with you, it was my mistake to bring a lot of things over there, thiking that would be easier for me next time i would come back there to go to school........it def makes me look more suspicious, i guess ive learnt my lesson now!

tks anyway

Edited May 20, 2009 by lovestevie

[Chica Yeyé 41]

..she takes me to the office where you have all the "so called suspicious" people waiting there forever (i think it is the detention office or sthg )......more like all the people looking suspicous coz of their skin colors or countries etc.......UNFAIR id say!.....still, among all of them I look kinda akward, i donot look like the typical terrorist or illegal person....im 22 , young woman i dont knwo what the hell im doing there at all..........

Yeah, it's really terrible that you were put in a room with all these people who don't look like you. How humiliating. So since you are female and 22 we should have a special provision in the regulations to let you enter the country and not need to pass inspection, I suppose. It would be the "I'm 22 and a really nice girl, so how dare you inspect me at Customs" inspection-bypass. Great idea.

my plan was to bring as much as possible over there, and leave it all there , so next time Id come back to go to college, knowing that I could only bring 2 luggages, I would already have a lot of my things waiting for me in the US.......obv that was A VERY BAD thing to do...

Yes, I should say so. You are entering the US multiple times on VAWA, and you are openly declaring that you are using these trips as preparation for longer and more permanent stays in the US. That's not illegal in and of itself, but it certainly raises the possibility of immigrant intent in my mind. And if it's in my mind, certainly its' in the agent's mind. That's their job, to weed out people entering with intent other than the purpose of their visa. I would say they're doing their job diligently, nothing more.

AMEN brother uscandual. AMEN

you are right thinking.

[It's me 1]

I'm sorry that happend to you dear, I'm happy that you made your trip

[lovestevie 0]

I'm sorry that happend to you dear, I'm happy that you made your trip

THANK YOU!!!

[rrobin 2]

File a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with Customs and Border Protection (CBP). You will get an answer in 2 to 3 months. You can't ask them "why were you questioned at the POE" but you can ask them for the official records which resulted from that questioning.

I have attached a sample.

FOIA_CBP.doc

[moonhunt 1]

Hmmm...

USCIS ICE employee may put some note in the computer system since they have I-94W in their hands.

But again, it is "may be".

But if they did, when US Embassy consular officer interview your case for F-1 visa, it "may" pop up from their computer system query.

But this things happens everywhere nowadays, so if you explain well, it shouldn't be a big problem.

For your own protection, you may file the claim from above given site for rude attitude by ICE employee.

So if US Consular officer have a question for the incident, you can show the story and proof you have filed for complaint since it was outraged by US ICE employee, not by your problem.

Edited May 20, 2009 by moonhunt

[Elham 1]

It was so sick! There are so many "bubble heros" in America it seems... they think they are saving their nation because they are too idiot to know that terrorists have their own ways and routs to get there and such behaviors do nothing to them at all...

I don't think they can make troubles for you. Next time go there from another way!

[lovestevie 0]

It was so sick! There are so many "bubble heros" in America it seems... they think they are saving their nation because they are too idiot to know that terrorists have their own ways and routs to get there and such behaviors do nothing to them at all...

I don't think they can make troubles for you. Next time go there from another way!

I will def do that.....that was the very first and LAST time I will ever go to the US thru philadelphia airport!!!!.....On my way back to France, I was soooo nervous n worried in the airport,......worried to see that woman from customs again.....I was just looking everywhere, thinking every cop n custom agents there where looking for me , cameras where tracking me dwn the halls etc ...lol...silly i know ....they just did a GREAT JOB making me so scared & paranoid !!

[lovestevie 0]

File a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) with Customs and Border Protection (CBP). You will get an answer in 2 to 3 months. You can't ask them "why were you questioned at the POE" but you can ask them for the official records which resulted from that questioning.

I have attached a sample.

Thank you for the sample i will def ask them if there is sthg in my record abt what happened!

[lovestevie 0]

Hmmm...

USCIS ICE employee may put some note in the computer system since they have I-94W in their hands.

But again, it is "may be".

But if they did, when US Embassy consular officer interview your case for F-1 visa, it "may" pop up from their computer system query.

But this things happens everywhere nowadays, so if you explain well, it shouldn't be a big problem.

For your own protection, you may file the claim from above given site for rude attitude by ICE employee.

So if US Consular officer have a question for the incident, you can show the story and proof you have filed for complaint since it was outraged by US ICE employee, not by your problem.

Thank you very much for helping me....Now that I think about it I will def file a complaint....at first I was afraid coz i didnt want them to get on my back for complaining agst "one of them".....i just thought i would keep a low profile hoping they wouldnt see a thing on my record.....now that people mentionned it to me......I think ure right, if it ever comes up when i apply fr F-1, if im asked why it happened etc , i will have the complaint proving my story and hopefully they will undertsand it was nothing but a mistake from the agents...and also a false ban....(if that is the case)