And I don't mean a two week vacation. I spend a lot of time abroad for work. I inevitably get grilled about what I was doing away for so long.
I finally nipped that in the bud by getting a Global Entry Card. No more idiotic questions about my work (I'm a freakin' historian, for god's sake).

my encounter with TSA at Hartsfield Airport in Atlanta after taking a weeklong holiday to Amsterdam was pretty much an intrusive and unpleasant third-degree questioning in an aggressive and hostile tone (much worse than anything I got from any customs/border security in Europe). I can only imagine what it's like for people who aren't US citizens.

Yeah, I know, I'm going to be pegged as one of those lefties who hates America.

what a horrible way to go thru life...afraid of your neighbor, afraid of the guy at the grocery store, afraid to go to a movie.
This is another example. Fear of ebola, bird flu.
The list could go on and on.
There are too many peple these days who would apparently like to build an immense dome over the continental US (Sorry Hawaii. You're gonna be on your own) and put a gun in every hand, and deport anyone brown, jeez.
What next? Maybe a bar-code-like tattoo on every American proven to be an unwavering patriot. No tattoo? You're outta here.

She was visiting a friend in Vermont who took her to lunch in Canada, 15 minutes away. On returning to Vermont, the US border guard examined her German passport and asked her when she was returning to Germany. She told him, and he started yelling at her that she had entered the USA in May and had to leave earlier. She said was only in the USA for a week in May and had entered in July. The idiot was either to blind or too lazy to find the July entry stamp and threatened her with trouble if she didn't plan to leave the States one day earlier. Quick thinking (more so than the stupid border guard), she said, oh, sorry, she had given him the day of her expected arrival back in Germany and the flights from North America always leave the day before. The idiot accepted this and let her back into Vermont.

Our people aren't the only ones who act like boors, though. In Germany, a customs officer stopped a world-famous violinist on the way from a concert she gave in Japan back to Brussels, where she lived, at her stopover in Frankfurt. He asked about the violin she was carrying, which was a Stradivarius. He said she didn't have proper documents for it (her own instrument!)--as if he knew how to distinguish a Strad from a Nashville fiddle. He confiscated it, locked it up in storage who knows where (temperature and humidity can destroy these things), and it took her months to recover her violin. The German government apologized and returned her violin, but she went through hell to get it back, after being punished for her honesty. I think she'll not be flying through Frankfurt in the near future.

My friend that lived in CO is in her 20s and has a boyfriend in southern Germany. Because he had so much trouble visiting here, she got a work visa to go live with him at the university town. The US officials almost didn't let her leave the country because they didn't believe she was going to work in Germany because she didn't have a return ticket. Good grief, that b.s. shouldn't be happening to a citizen of the US who wants to go abroad.
When her boyfriend tried to come for a visit the month prior to that time, they would not let him enter the states and flew him immediately back to Germany. Told him that they didn't believe he was only coming for a visit because he hadn't booked his return flight yet. So the lesson here is book your return flight before you arrive because they may not let you enter the states.

Sometimes you get one with both intelligence and experience. Sometimes you get one and you wonder how they ever graduated the eight grade. It's the easiest thing in the world to book a one-way trip for your return and then get a refund for it when you're over there.

I always book my round trips from Europe because 1.) I live there, and 2.) they're cheaper. At the check-in counter in the States, they always give me a hard time when I fly back to Europe because my ticket ends there. Now, I always have my German residency card ready although they have no idea what it is. I could present them with my German driver's license and they wouldn't know the difference unless it's Lufthansa, which I never take.

Luckily my daughters are dual citizens. They use their German passports when entering and leaving Germany, and their US passports when entering and leaving the USA. That way, no one gives them any grief.

One time, an American woman working for my outfit was traveling on Continental Airlines from Brussels to New York. The stupid Belgian woman at the counter found her suspicious and called security to accompany her the whole way through the airport, even to the toilet, until she boarded the plane. I wrote Continental and told them they must have Al Qaeda sleepers working at their counter in Brussels, because the only reason they could have had to make such a fuss over my assistant would be because they were testing to see how easy it would be for them to smuggle a terrorist onto a Continental plane by causing an immense and uncalled-for distraction over someone who obviously posed no danger. They wrote back with the usual platitudes about how security was their highest priority blah blah blah. I wrote back again to explain that security, judging by the behavior of their staff in Brussels was absolutely the lowest priority, and that no one from my organization would ever fly Continental again due to the high risk to our personnel. I got some stupid form letter back which I never answered, but I'll bet their staff at Zavantem got an earful.

(THE greatest, in my opinion.) She also has a Strad, on loan from Samsung. I have never asked her about this situation. Of course she has proper documents for it.

Here are a couple of links, if you are interested. :&gt )

The exercise of power over others because you can. For many (un-)civil servants, it's the only joy they get out of their jobs.

When I came back and went through Customs in Newark the Customs guy was the only one I have ever seen, ever, with a smile on his face and a happy disposition. What a pleasant surprise.

I just got back from 10 days at Disney World. I had a wonderful time, and there were skads, ton, boatlads of tourists there (mostly in groups) from Brazil and Argentina. Also, lots and lota of tourists from Britain, and met a lovely family from France, who invited to stay with them when we visit France!

There seemed to be no lack of foreign tourists there.

Those examples are horrendous, though!

I'm American but because he holds a Belgian passport, when we visit my family in the states, he always has to go in the 'furriners' line. He has never been detained but has definitely been grilled by CBP. Plus the immigration lines are insane for foreign visitors.

immigration together. My husband has a british password and we went in separate lines and they gave me a hassle in Switzerland because we got in separate lines. I am his dependent and they scolded me for not going through the same line. Nonsense crap like that is stupid.

intention in the USA, this is a violation of the law. I don't see what's grotesque at all, I see a lot of drama over a woman violating US customs and immigration laws. It's not legal to work in the USA without the proper visa!

Have you see Australian and New Zealand immigration laws? Holy cow, they are far, far tougher than the USA. Canada has equally stringent border & immigration controls.

On the other hand, I would like to see immigration rules relaxed, if not eliminated for Mexicans & Canadians, creating an immigration union of sorts. After all, Mexicans are actually native Americans, considering some 2/3rds of the USA until the early 1800s actually 'was' Mexico.

At any rate, I don't see the problem here. The USA visitor laws are very easy. In every other country, of course there are two lines, one for foreigners and one for citizens. Why wouldn't there be?

Totally not clear on what the issue is here.

If Schneider was not being compensated for the baby-sitting, then the only reason for even applying for a visa would be because she intended to stay more than 90 days, and if family reasons was the reason for the application, then she made no fraudulent statement. German citizens don't even need a visa for stays under 90 days.

In every other country, there are NOT always two lines for foreigners and one for citizens. In the UK, there is a line for UK and commonwealth citizens, one for EU citizens and one for third-country citizens. In the EU, it's EU/Schengen (Switzerland and Norway are not EU, but are Schengen) citizens and one for third party, whether resident or not (US has a line for citizens AND green card foreigners, not just citizens).

Some U.S. officials are smart enough to know when there was an intention to violate our laws and when there wasn't. Just like some cops know when someone is threatening them with deadly force and when someone is not. The intelligent ones are not the problem. The stupid ones who like to throw their weight around are. No one dies when an immigration official get snotty with a German citizen (which is why my wife is still alive), but it doesn't help our rep when the story is told over and over again in the home country of the victim of the over-zealous uniforms. This sort of incident filters right up to the top. I know, I talk to these people and have friends in the German Press. To them, THIS is what America is like, not the hundreds of thousands who are passed through every week with no hassle whatsoever.

considered au pair work, which has specific guidelines and for which she hadn't applied herself for, apparently. This is largely in order to assure that the young women aren't exploited or taken advantage of, and to ensure the well being of the families they're going to work for as well.

It sounds like the young woman just didn't do her homework before trying to travel to the US. The officers at the border were following the rules. Even Germany requires a visa for people from the US staying for longer than 3 months.

One young woman turned away at the border for not following the rules doesn't an international incident make. I doubt that any happy German families will be deterred from visiting Disneyland because of a young woman who was denied entry to the USA. If they are, they can always visit Disneyland in Paris I suppose.

And sorry, I should have said that there are two 'or more' lines at customs. Not just two!

It sounds like it was correctly applied here.