While I haven't experienced this firsthand I do have a couple of questions.
1.Do the people in the countries not expect anything to change in the US after 9/11?
2.If the US is going to screen airline passengers so thoroughly shouldn't we be doing a better job guarding our borders?

My experience with US immigration has been ok, except on a few occasions when it was downright unacceptable. I have no problem with agents who ask me any number of questions or even send me for secondary interrogations (both have happened). However, I will say that for every 8 decent agents, there are 2 bad ones who want to trouble you because of your looks, race, language, job or any other factor. I've been taunted by such agents who keep poking at you & when you retain composure they'll send you for a secondary interrogation as a final jab. In addition, in my experience immigration in most other countries has been better than the US. In that light, US personnel fall short.
Something needs to be done about the bad apples but given the debates being broadcast in the media these days, I suspect that the problem may only get worse. Sigh... if only well travelled Fodorites would volunteer for those jobs of Immigration Agents, we could solve the problem! :)

Thanks to all who added their replies; some good points were raised.

My email address is [email protected], I would much appreciate anyone who wants to weigh in (with a full name) for publication.


Thanks.

I believe that newspaper reporters can spin a story in any direction that suits their adgenda.

Yeah, you're looking for negative crapola? I would like to see you write a story showing how this unfriendly US immigration is protecting Americans. I won't hold my breath. ((b))

Could certain airports have more "attitude" than others? I've never had a good experience coming back through Miami. "Snotty" is probably the most apt description I can give officials there.

We recently had an unpleasant experience at one of our favorite restaurants. The waiter gave us a check with the math all wrong. I nicely pointed out the mistake and he grunted something under his breath as he walked away to make the correction. When he returned with the check it was still incorrect. So I did the math in my head and tried to help him but he got quite huffy. So I paid the bill and merely said that the amount that you overcharged me is your tip , so go figure it out with the manager.

A week later my wife didn't want to return to the restaurant due to the prior incident. I put my foot down and said that we've been going there and enjoying the place for years and I refuse to allow one jerk to ruin the place for me.

Surprise , he had been let go a few days after our visit. It was either his attitude or the fact that no one liked him that caused his departure.

In essence one bad experience should not negate one's return to a country , restaurant , or attraction.

As a U.K. citizen visiting the States next year, my thoughts are as follows:-
1. It is the first duty of any government to protect its own citizens which includes the right to carefully vet all visitors to the country.
2. If you don't like that or the prospect of being finger printed and photographed bothers you - don't go.
3. If you go, be mentally prepared for the worst in respect of delays and probing questions and you may find that the whole process turns out to be much less painful than expected.

<<< 2. If you don't like that or the prospect of being finger printed and photographed bothers you - don't go. >>>

That's what people are doing - not going to the US despite the extremely favourable exchange rate & overall low costs. Have a look at how much foreign tourism to the US has dropped in the past few years.

<i>That's what people are doing - not going to the US despite the extremely...</i>

Maybe that's what <b>you</b> are doing?

Yes, it's too crowded, so no one is going there. :-) I would say international tourism is doing well in the U.S.

http://tinet.ita.doc.gov/tinews/arch.../20061218.html

Snotty is what everyone gets at Miami International. I'm a U.S. citizen and I thought they were very rude.
I avoid that airport if at all possible.

&quot;Have a look at how much foreign tourism to the US has dropped in the past few years.&quot;

Are you serious? Can you tell us where this information is coming from? I can't speak for everywhere, but here in Southwest Florida there are constant reports about not only gigantic increases in foreigners visiting, but the vast numbers of them investing in vacation rentals and other real estate here as well.

On our recent Delta flights to / from Rome I would guesstimate that well over 60% of the passengers were Italian.

There were sure a lot of foreign visitors in SF when I stayed there for several days some weeks ago. And it looks like I have friends from Italy coming to visit me early spring..I guess US Immigration hasn't deterred them from returning to the US.

Doesn't Orlando still retain the &quot;most visited city in the world&quot; title?

ok, let's clarify something here about foreigners visiting US.....


it's true that the numbers of visitors are back to pre 9/11,

<b>but</b>,

overall, the world trend has left America behind. America's share of the market dipped 35 percent in a decade.


so no matter how one interprets this statistic, one does have to admit that we did loose many tourist $.


It's like saying that GM is doing ok because we see many GM cars on the road, but in a real business sense, GM has lost another few percentage points of market share to Japanese carmakers. Eventually that catches up to any company and people lose their jobs. Same thing is happening with US tourism.

I live in Southeast Florida. Do Canadians still count as foreigners , because we sure do have a lot of them here.

AA...tourism is a fickle thing. trends and tastes change like the wind. america has had some bad international PR over the last few years (iraq war, katrina, 9/11, etc). but i don't think the sky is falling.

with the weaker US dollar and perhaps jitters among some people who aren't well travelled, more americans are staying in the US for travel rather than going abroad. that's good for the US travel industry. anyway, it seems like things are now evening up and more americans are travelling abroad and more people are going to america again.

many traditionally popular tourist destinations have seen many travel 'disasters' over the last few years - SARS, tsunami, terrorism (UK, spain, turkey, etc), wars (eg israel, lebanon), riots/civil unrest (paris), etc, etc. i somehow think that the US can survive her own problems. many of these other markets that had problems have survived without the massive domestic tourism market that the US enjoys, the maturity of the market, nor the market position enjoyed by america.

I do agree with some of your analysis, but not all. The return of foreign tourists up to the levels of pre-9/11 is due to the weak dollar and it's nice to see, but a 10 year drop-off is not a trend, it's a problem.

That's why the major travel, airline and hotel companies CEOs met with the president earlier this year to push some &quot;adjustments&quot; to our border controls and supposedly got some promises from the president to look into it and make the appropriate changes. Whether anything did change is still up for debate. The surveys conducted by them clearly shows a drop off in tourism to the US because of our new HS directives.

Many of the Europeans choose to go to other parts of the world and they don't even need a visa to visit US.

The rest of the world and most do need a visa will simply just skip the process unless it's a family visit.

We cry and moan when we need a visa, but for us it's basically just a little inconvienience. Some cash, an hour trip to the post office and a couple week wait to get your passport back.

We require the person to show up in person at the nearest consulate with bank statements, family history, etc,etc., stand in line all day, apply for a personal interview, pay some serious cash, then finally be granted the personal interview, and there is no guarantee of getting the visa.

I wonder how many Americans would be willing to put up with a similar procedure to visit a foreign land? I bet, not many.

UK had a terrorists problem for years, with many soldiers and civilians killed, yet they didn't shut down their borders. Italy, France, Spain Germany had/have similar problems, albeit on a smaller scale, yet they didn't make it difficult for the casual tourist to visit their countries, in fact they promoted and encouraged tourists to visit during troubled times.

Interestingly enough here is a today's article about this subject but dealing with business travel.

<i>For growing numbers of international business travelers, visa and customs regulations are making trips to the U.S. a thing of the past.

Companies say U.S. rules have become so onerous in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks that it's often simpler to meet customers, business partners and employees elsewhere.

Exxon Mobil Corp. has resorted to customer meetings in a London branch office. Ingersoll-Rand Co. says it took one of its Indian engineers three 18-hour trips to get his U.S. visa.

<b>Problems created by the entry requirements have become so evident that the man who initially helped enforce them -- Tom Ridge, the first U.S. secretary of homeland security -- is now working with a business group to change them.</b>

&quot;Our challenge now is to continue to meet our security needs while striking a better balance with how we welcome foreign visitors,&quot; Ridge said.

The number of business travelers to the U.S. fell 10 percent in 2005 from the previous year, according to World Travel Market, a London-based trade show group. </i>


http://tinyurl.com/tsvhr

Very interesting. But now I'm curious if the numbers of business trips from the US to Europe have been reduced as well. I sure know a lot of execs who used to travel all the time to Europe on business, but now use teleconferencing, and all those other technical things I know nothing about instead of a constant back and forth.

Quite alarming to see that a fair number of people think that processing immigrants/visitors automatically necessitates agressiveness and intimidation by officials. That it's 'part of the job'. Why?!

Believe it or not, you can check someone's credentials and question them about their trip thoroughly without being rude or overbearing.

As someone who as been subjected to such hostility on entering the US, and who has seen tourists shouted at and manhandled by gun-toting officials, for (shock-horror!) simply changing immigration queue when theirs was moving slowly, I can tell you the report isn't a myth.

Yes, it's your own country. Yes, you can do what ever you like. But you should know that in the process it helps re-enforce every negative stereotype people have about the US.

<i>Quite alarming to see that a fair number of people think that processing immigrants/visitors automatically necessitates agressiveness and intimidation by officials.</i>

If you want to make believe that is true I can't stop you, but I don't see it.

I'm not 'making belive' - try reading GoTravel's post for a perfect example of this.

Have to say I've found the American people to be very pleasant and welcoming on all my visits - just can't work out why immigration are so unpleasant.