Originally Posted by
Dianeva
More border rant stuff:
The more I look up similar stories about other people who have been denied at border crossings, the less likely it seems that I'll ever be able to enter the US again, or at least not in the next few years. Once you've been denied once, it seems to become exponentially less likely that you'll be permitted access each time you try. And after the second time it seems virtually impossible, like they've already decided you aren't getting in, and even with the best proofs of ties to Canada that you can present, they're still going to find something wrong with it or say it's lacking and turn you back. I'd be afraid to try again even if I had a job and was enrolled in school, because after being denied twice, unless they decided to allow me in, I'd be afraid of being banned for 5 years which is what they sometimes do.
This is very depressing. It's not like I merely can't go on vacation anymore and can ignore it and say I'm done with the US, which is what a lot of people ended up doing in the stories I read. It isn't just a slight inconvenience to my life. US travel is a big part of my life. My boyfriend lives in the US and we want to spend as much time together as possible. It is hard for us to be away from one another even for the three weeks it's been. Right now, the plan is that he'll get a job where he lives, and he'll save up a few thousand dollars. Once he does that, he'll either try to get a work visa in Canada, or move to Washington and get a job there. The work visa probably won't work out, since he only has a technical school diploma in Welding and not a full degree, which is the standard for where he lives, but in Canada you generally need at least a two-year degree and to have specific Canadian certifications. And if he moves to Washington, he'll only be able to visit me while he isn't working, on weekends or something, and I wouldn't dare try to cross the border to visit him.
There are other problems concerning the future. We plan to get married someday, and the plan was that I was going to move to the US with him when I'm finished with my school, mostly because he has a big family and considers it important that he stay with them, while I wouldn't mind moving away from my family at all. I'm worried now that this border problem has screwed up my entire life. If I'm never allowed in the US again, or even for a few years, I don't know how I'm ever going to get the required fiance visa when I'm finished with my degree. I'm guessing they'd deny me that too.
It seems like the only thing I can do now is to wait for a long time, perhaps years, until after I've gotten my degree and get a job. Then hope that I'm let through the border. In the meantime, I won't be able to go anywhere, on vacation or anything, because pretty much everywhere I might go has a connecting flight through the US. I won't be able to spend an extended amount of time with my boyfriend for years, unless he somehow can get a work visa. It's just so depressing. I can hardly believe this is really happening. It feels like something I'd expect to happen in North Korea or a George Orwell world or something. It's just a fucked up system in which they consider you guilty until you're proven innocent. The security became more intense after 9/11, but the issue of worrying that I'm going to immigrate illegally has nothing to do with terrorism.