It’s been a big day on several fronts and I’m hoping bad shit only happens in threes:
Qantas flight QF969 to Brisbane departed ½ an hour late due to the off-loading of 4 police officers. We had the doors closed and about to push back, when the phone rang of the guy sitting next to me – he loudly states “WTF do you mean the weapons didn’t get on?” and then brushes off the cabin crews repeated request for him to get off the phone. He stands up and seeks out the cabin manager, who has now opened the cabin and asks for four passengers by name to de-plane – one of them being the guy seated next to me.
Interestingly enough, the Captain comes on the PA to announce there is going to be a slight delay due to “some last minute document changes”.
In Brisbane, we all get in line to board Qantas flight QF517 to Sydney only to receive the announcement that our 09:05 flight departure is delayed 10 minutes. We receive another announcement that the flight is delayed another 10 minutes, then another 15 minutes, which I took to be incorrect as the piloted had just exited the aircraft and I received a text message from TripIt saying departure was 10:10AM. We eventually take off around 10:30, which gave me less than an hour to go from Kingsford Smith International Airport Domestic terminal over to the International departure gates. I literally walk straight off the transfer bus and up to Gate 9 as boarding for Qantas QF7 was announced.
The flight over to the US was passed with my nose stuck in a decent novel and keeping up my fluid intake in the shape of sparkling mineral water. I’d have to say that this was a marked difference to my very first flight over to Dallas when myself and my new found flight buddy’s in the smoking section of Row 72 of the Northwest Airlines flight across the pond, tried drinking the plane dry of most of its complimentary alcoholic beverages – as you do when young and stupid.
We get off the plane around 1 o’clock, clear through the paperless Immigration points and then come to the stamping of the passport, with the guy asking where I’ve been, where I’m going, do I have anything to declare and then “Have you been arrested in the US”, which I’ve never been asked with all my trips in and out of the US. Being totally honest, I answered “Yes, on suspicion of a DUI in 2000 which resulted in no conviction”. He then asks if I’ve ever been held for secondary screening, to which I reply – no, never. He then asks me to follow him, in which he deposits me into a secured holding area and says the officers may have some follow up questions.
Officer Pearce asks me to step up and asks when I was last in the US, which I thought was back in 2007, but wasn’t sure. He then asks about when I applied for my Electronic System for Travel Authorization (ESTA) Visa waiver program visa. I said I think January (it was July last year), but I wasn’t sure. He makes the comment to his colleague that he “remembers all trips he make out of the US and what documents Ï gathered for those trips.” I responded that I’ve done a fair amount of travel over the past decade, which has involved various governmental agencies, travel companies and vendors, so the details might be a little hazy. He opens my passports, flips through it and says – you do travel quite a lot.
He then asks me about my ESTA Visa Waiver questions, specifically if I answered the questions myself. I said to the best of my knowledge. He asks about what I answered to Question two – I really do not recall what any of the questions specifically ask, but I answered all of them to the best of my knowledge.
The officer then states Question Two as – Have you ever been arrested or convicted for a crime that resulted in serious damage to property, or serious harm to another person or government authority? Again, I respond that to the best of my knowledge the answer would be no. At that point he advises me to take a seat as he needs to get some direction on the matter.
Ol’ mate then gets on the phone for 20 minutes, hangs up and says he needs to come around the security screen to speak with me. I’m thinking I’m fair dinkum going to get a matching set of stainless steel bracelets and get banged up before being punted on the next tin crow out of the Land of the Free – shitting bricks was the term that instantly came to mind.
Officer Pearce says that his call was “escalated to the Washington DC office and they have cancelled your ESTA visa forthwith, as you responded that you had not been arrested, when in fact you had. Furthermore, you will no longer be able to use the ETSA program going forth.” He then goes on to say “he has the discretion to either exclude me from entering the US, or to set the cancellation date of the visa to allow me entry into the country. Either way I will have to visit a US Consulate or Embassy outside of the US to apply to be allowed into the country in the future”.
I said that based on the wording of Question 2 and how he also explained the question to me, I still believe answering No was the correct answer. He then says to me that this looks to be an issue with the respective authorities not filling that there was no charges or convictions recorded. I said I’d follow up with the legal counsel that handled the matter when I get to Boise. I do remember we did have an issue at the time with my insurance as the state of Idaho had not registered the decision – it looks to be clear they still haven’t done the entire job.
I asked Officer Pearce that if he cancels the ESTA when I fly to Mexico on March 27th, how am I going to get back in at the end of the trip, as I was headed back to Dallas and Austin. He said he push the ESTA cancellation out to May 28th and asked me to wait another 10 minutes for him to finalize the amendment on his computer.
He comes back to me and says “do you know what you’re doing with your expired Green Card?” I’m like no, I’m not sure where it is – thinking that he was asking if I returned it. He said that because it’s not been canceled, it’s a simple matter of going through a couple of interviews to get it reinstated if I wanted to and then said I was free to go.
I have to say that the matter was handled in a professional manner and I can see where he was coming from. Officer Pearce’s stance and demeanor softened considerably once the facts were established and it was clear I had no intention of bullshiting anyone and in chatting with him, he seemed a pretty decent bloke, just doing his job.
I get to the empty baggage claim area to find the only bag going round & round on one of the 7 or 8 available carousels, seemingly mocking me that it got through with no dramas – as it went past. As the only person in the Customs Inspection area, you guessed it – I got the full maintenance & service agreement from not one, but two Customs guys, of which one of them was the one who initially deposited me into the secured holding area.
Truth be told, the interaction was all pretty cruizy until they pulled out my visa to Cuba. Officer Reyes asked me about the visa, when I’m going there and from where. I’m thinking – oh shit … again … for the second time in an under hour as I know there is certain restrictions due to the embargoes in place. So like I did with Officer Pearce, I answered him honestly and he says no worries, then goes on to say that he’s never seen an actual Cuban visa and did I know that I can now fly direct to Havana from Miami now.
With that, I was through all airport screening and armed with an Avis Preferred loser cruiser, I was headed to Mike & Beks to catch-up with them and their teenagers Myah and Mikey.
Dinner tonight was at joint that the locals say is famous for its catfish – Smokehouse of Denton. When walking into the joint, us three adults looked like we didn’t make the minimum age for entry by about 30 years. I sure was hoping their Special Of The Day wasn’t puréed or a denture plan.