Did you know that SO from the Middle East

[goldenheart 0]

Did you know that Significant Others travelling from the Middle East or other countries have to undergo a security background check while they are enroute to the USA???

An attorney just informed me that once you check in at the airport, after the visa is issued, you have to undergo another background check and if the POE gets a name match hit, they are instructed to interview you at the POE. If not, they will let you pass own through.

[sereia 0]

i have no problems with any of the checks they do for our fiances/husbands. better safe than sorry........

[Nasturtium 500]

I knew that even though you have a visa in hand, they can deny you entry at the POE, and you are not safely in and through the process until you are let through immigration at the poe. I think that's pretty rare though, that they deny you after giving you the visa.

[sereia 0]

ugh can you imagine the disappointment?! getting your house all ready, buying food, mani/pedi, etc, etc, etccccccc and then he gets rejected. oy!

[Nasturtium 500]

ugh can you imagine the disappointment?! getting your house all ready, buying food, mani/pedi, etc, etc, etccccccc and then he gets rejected. oy!

Exactly. That would really suck, suck being the lightest word possible. But I am assuming that has to do with the additional security checks. I don't have a problem with a bunch of security. I have a problem with the unequal application of law.

[m&n 0]

EXACTLY....I too don't have a problem with the security.....it should just be fair & I don't think it should be based on what you look like...........for example......on my flight back from Cairo in Sept, the plane was packed....there wasn't one empty seat available.....when we arrived at the US at JFK and got to those windows that you have to check in at before getting your luggage......they divided up people into 2 lines......one line was allowed to proceed to get there luggage & leave the airport....the people on the other line were directed down a long, narrow corridor to another room.....I was asked to join this line.

It was apparent right away what was happening.....most of the people on my line were veiled women and men who "looked" Muslim. They took us to another room, told us to turn off all cell phones (they didn't want us to communicate with anyone from outside) and took our passports and told us to wait for our name to be called. I kid you not, I waited 2 hours and 25 minutes for them to call my name and was then interrogated for another 35 minutes....what annoyed me was that I am a US citizen, was born here, raised here, went to school & college here, pay taxes and I SWEAR to you that the person who was interviewing me had the thickest accent and I couldn't understand half the questions he was asking me.....I got so frustrated.....I started asking him all the questions he was asking me......are you a US citizen.....how long have you been here....where did you go to school.....etc. Why wasn't he considered a "threat" as I was.....Many US citizens were harrassed on that day as a result of the profiling now being done at airports.

ugh can you imagine the disappointment?! getting your house all ready, buying food, mani/pedi, etc, etc, etccccccc and then he gets rejected. oy!

Exactly. That would really suck, suck being the lightest word possible. But I am assuming that has to do with the additional security checks. I don't have a problem with a bunch of security. I have a problem with the unequal application of law.

Edited February 15, 2007 by m&n

[Nasturtium 500]

Oh, I got this too! IN Frankfurt and in Detroit on the way back. Asked a bazillion questions and they opened up all my luggage for an item-by-item search, I had to explain all my visas and I was frustrated because I can't read arabic, so I have no idea what my visas said. They finally let me go afterr asking and asking and asking about my husband, and then looking at my neck (I had a giant hickey, whoops, wish I had known that!) and they asked me what we did on those 10 days.. over and over.. until I was like LOOK! He picked me up at the airport, we went ot the apartment, where we HAD SEX many times.. etc.. I started running through list-- day by day-- and then I was like "do you want positions? Do you need evidence? Should I get some pap smears and maybe some other tests run??" And people were staring at me.. but then one lady was like"Yeah! You've been asking her personal questions for 45 minutes!!" And the red-faced guard let me go. In Frankfurt I had more patience than in Detroit, but the questioning was the same-- I just hadn't been up for like 24 hours by then.

I did like the way the people behind me were getting mad too, probably because I was being questioned at the immigration window and not in a seperate location, thus delaying them from going through!

Edited February 15, 2007 by julianna

[sereia 0]

i dunno... if they all did that for everyone i'd feel better. i feel its not fair to profile...so why not just grill everyone?

the israeli el al does this and i was more than happy for them to ask me an hour's worth of questions and pick apart all my luggage with a bomb tester....touching each thing one by one. i felt safe! i think our TSA and airline employees need to follow suit with el al's program.

[wildroze22 0]

i dunno... if they all did that for everyone i'd feel better. i feel its not fair to profile...so why not just grill everyone?

the israeli el al does this and i was more than happy for them to ask me an hour's worth of questions and pick apart all my luggage with a bomb tester....touching each thing one by one. i felt safe! i think our TSA and airline employees need to follow suit with el al's program.

man i love el als program. i never feel safer. and ive had my stuff thrown apart by them, and a friend was even body searched before his flight!

security stuff doesnt bother me. would seriously suck to have an SO turned away though. im more worried about the security ON the plane, rather than AFTER it... personal fear though

[Nasturtium 500]

i dunno... if they all did that for everyone i'd feel better. i feel its not fair to profile...so why not just grill everyone?

the israeli el al does this and i was more than happy for them to ask me an hour's worth of questions and pick apart all my luggage with a bomb tester....touching each thing one by one. i felt safe! i think our TSA and airline employees need to follow suit with el al's program.

That's the thing. i watched them let people breeze on by me, but I had to stay at both airports and explain why I keep going to Jordan. That was their exact line of questioning too, and most of the questions were about my husband and not about me. Who's FLYING? ME? OR HIM?! Uugh.

[Meriem_DZ 37]

ugh can you imagine the disappointment?! getting your house all ready, buying food, mani/pedi, etc, etc, etccccccc and then he gets rejected. oy!

Goldenheart had this very thing happen to her. She knows the heartache of what you just described. Her fiance was trying to come on a k-1 and was turned back at the POE in Atlanta.

Meriem

[wildroze22 0]

That's the thing. i watched them let people breeze on by me, but I had to stay at both airports and explain why I keep going to Jordan. That was their exact line of questioning too, and most of the questions were about my husband and not about me. Who's FLYING? ME? OR HIM?! Uugh.

you may be flying... but the bigger fear is you being supplied with illegal things to take with you. anyone who goes to a neighboring country (esp more than once) gets this in israel, no matter your race or religion. better safe than sorry.

[m&n 0]

Are you serious......Why? that is horrible.............

ugh can you imagine the disappointment?! getting your house all ready, buying food, mani/pedi, etc, etc, etccccccc and then he gets rejected. oy!

Goldenheart had this very thing happen to her. She knows the heartache of what you just described. Her fiance was trying to come on a k-1 and was turned back at the POE in Atlanta.

Meriem

[kerewin21 2]

ugh can you imagine the disappointment?! getting your house all ready, buying food, mani/pedi, etc, etc, etccccccc and then he gets rejected. oy!

Goldenheart had this very thing happen to her. She knows the heartache of what you just described. Her fiance was trying to come on a k-1 and was turned back at the POE in Atlanta.

Meriem

Same thing happened with Liam4Lisa I think, from the UK

[sereia 0]

That's the thing. i watched them let people breeze on by me, but I had to stay at both airports and explain why I keep going to Jordan. That was their exact line of questioning too, and most of the questions were about my husband and not about me. Who's FLYING? ME? OR HIM?! Uugh.

you may be flying... but the bigger fear is you being supplied with illegal things to take with you. anyone who goes to a neighboring country (esp more than once) gets this in israel, no matter your race or religion. better safe than sorry.

omg that reminds me when i went to israel...i went to egypt after, then back to israel to fly home to the us. you can't believe how much i was grilled. they kept asking about things i bought, gifts, who packed my bags, etc. did you tell anyone you were going to israel.... after a while even i started to get nervous and wonder if someone slipped something in my bags! hehe

i happily let them grill me and take apart all my luggage in front of everyone. they didn't treat everyone else the same.....but i wasn't angry. i'm happy they go through so much trouble to make sure everyone is safe!