Originally Posted by
Dianeva
I have never been as upset as I am right now, and never in more need of venting.
U.S. Border Patrol. Holy fucking shit. I was supposed to be on a plane right now, sitting next to my significant other. We spent all night packing, we've been planning to leave for a month, to stay in Wisconsin for 5 months.
When my boyfriend was coming to stay here in Canada with me 4 months ago, he had a bad experience with the Canadian border officers. He didn't have a return flight booked, even though he was planning to return, so they suspected he planned to stay here forever. I was waiting to pick him up, and about an hour and a half after his flight was supposed to arrive, I got called to a room in which I was questioned for about half an hour. He'd been questioned for an hour, then had to wait while they questioned me, until finally they determined he was okay and let him through. I thought THAT was a stressful experience, felt so sorry for him.
So 4 hours ago, we were in the US Custom's line. We'd just passed through 5 previous levels of line-ups for boarding passes, baggage, metal detectors, etc. and were exhausted, and this was to be the last one. I was assuring him that nothing would go wrong; I've never had a problem at these things, just answer 3-4 questions like "where are you going?" "how long are you going for", etc., be direct and honest and then they let you pass. We were sent to different booths.... okay, I'm going into too much detail, I don't even feel like typing this much. The guy sent me to a back room with all these waiting chairs and about 8 booths, and told me to sit and wait, they're just going to ask me a few more questions. There were a few other people waiting. Although there were several booths, only 1-2 at a time were occupied by officers questioning people. So I waited....
The flight leaves at 6:15, usually boarding time is 20-30 minutes before that.
...5:20 *a little annoyed and scared because those people are scary and my boyfriend doesn't know where I am*
...5:30 Another woman waiting was afraid she'd miss her flight, so she asked one of the guards how long it would take because she's in a rush, and the woman responds "You may be in a rush, but we're not in a rush." *Fucking asshole bitch*
...5:40 *okay they need to talk to me and let me through very soon or I'm going to miss the flight*
...5:55 *Fuck I'm going to miss the flight... maybe if they talked to me right now and it was over quickly..... and then I ran to the boarding gate, I could make it...*
...6:10 *Extremely pissed off, I have missed the flight for sure now unless it's extremely delayed, wondering where my boyfriend was, if he'd gone back or boarded the plane, knowing it must be horrible for him not to know what happened to me*
At 6:15 I was finally called to a desk with a *nice on the surface* woman who questioned me for about 20 minutes about where I was going, etc. At one point she asked me how much money I have in my bank account. I gave her an estimate, she asked 'are you sure?' and I said it was that last time I checked, but I've bought things since then, so I don't know for sure. She says "don't lie to me, lying serves you no purpose here". I insisted 'I wasn't lying'. Am I suddenly lying if I'm not sure exactly how much money I have in my account to the fucking cent? Anyway, it went on for 20 minutes, until she told me to sit down again and wait for 5 minutes.
...... 20 minutes later, and by this time I was furious but trying not to show it (I think I just appeared flustered and a little irritated), she called me back up and told me they don't know if I'll be allowed in the US, and if I am, 5 months may be too long to stay and it may have to be limited to a shorter time. She had another conversation with me, about 30 minutes, in which I had to raise my hand and 'swear under oath' that I'd tell her the truth. Then she proceeded to type out everything I said, word for word. She printed the papers out in the end and got me to sign them. But I actually read the dialog, and she hadn't typed what I'd said exactly. In some cases, she got some key information wrong, so I had to correct her and she had to reprint it. Then, the guy border official in the booth beside me asks me if I've ever been arrested. I haven't. He then proceeds to take my fingerprints. Not just one, but each of my 10 digits individually as well as both hands had to go in a machine that didn't even work half the time. This probably took about 10 minutes. I wasn't given a choice in the matter. He didn't ask "do you (a Canadian) agree to have your fingerprints taken so that the USA can keep them in its records?" No, he just told me to put my hand on the thing.
After that, she made me wait again, she told me to relax and said she'll just be another 5-10 minutes while she discusses me with her superior. So I waited again... By this time, the average person sent to that back room would have been in and out 3 times in the time I'd been there for. I noticed while waiting that other people were getting through without a hassle. Families were brought back there with little kids, and they were treated well, the border officer just told them "okay hold on guys, I won't keep you here long, just a few questions and I'll get you out of here in a couple minutes!" It pissed me the fuck off.
So this 5-10 minute wait took about 25 minutes, and then she called me back and told me they will NOT allow me to enter the USA today. I am allowed, however, if I bring 'proof' that I have Canadian attachments, that I'm not planning to stay in the US forever or something. It was a blow to hear but I'd been half expecting it already. I suppose it could have been worse, they could have forbade me from the country for a number of years, but they're letting me cross at any time as long as I have certain proofs of my ties to Canada. That's as optimistic as I'm getting. I don't have a driver's license, which I'm going to get now. I need notes from my parents that they'll support me if something happens, and proof that they earn a suitable income, and proof that my bank account has money in it, and anything else I can come up with. Then, I can book another flight, go through all that shit again and hope that they let me in. I was then escorted out through a series of rooms by another officer. We went through doors I wasn't paying attention to at all because my mind was not working at this time, and at one point we went backwards through a big lineup of people, all of them staring at me and wondering what I'd done to be sent back with an escort, I heard a couple comments. I finally got out, found the information center, and the woman there was extremely nice relatively. By the way she and the people at the airline counter afterward were treating me, asking me if I need coffee, asking if I"ll be okay, I must have looked like absolute distressed shit, which is what I felt like. Someone at the airline place asked "and they JUST let you out?" so I take it it's rare what happened.
Anyway, I'm pissed off, and I'm sure my typing is terrible since I haven't gotten much sleep and I'm so upset. I haven't slept in 27 hours and the last night I slept I got only 6 hours of sleep. I have a terrible headache, I feel nauseous, I don't feel like sleeping at all, I feel too worked up and pissed off to sleep. I can't imagine I'll ever be able to sleep. So now I'm going to get my driver's license.... get all the shit I need and book another flight, and hope they let me in. I know little about government and policies and law but there definitely seems like there's something VERY VERY WRONG with the way customs officers treat people. It's like the pain that they cause is so bad that it isn't even worth whatever they accomplish by being such assholes.
I still haven't called my boyfriend. His flight should be getting into Chicago in a few minutes, and hopefully he has his phone. Hopefully he didn't do anything stupid and just went on the plane.
I didn't think the custom's line would be the last time I'd see him for who knows how long. We didn't even say bye. It was more like, we each went to a customs desk, didn't even bother to make eye contact or anything because we thought we'd meet on the other side in less than a minute. And that was the last time I saw him.... Leaving for the airport, packing, etc. was scary, but at least I was with him, and that made it okay. We were going to spend the next 5 months together, we'd somehow managed to do that and it was awesome. We've been living here for 4 months, spending almost all our time with one another, and now suddenly he's not here, and this room is fucking empty because I thought I'd be gone, and I have to put sheets on my mattress again... and FUCK.... I'm almost gonna cry so I have to stop typing. Sorry if I sound like anything annoying, this is the worst day I've ever had. I thought I was upset the day I found out I didn't get into the university I applied to, fuck, need to call him now.