I had a great flight to Vancouver from Brisbane via New Zealand and Los
Angeles, but was staggered at the ridiculous process for transit passengers
at LAX.

It runs something like this:-
Queue up to get off the plane
Queue up to go through immigration - "But I'm in transit to Vancouver in
Canada"
Get issued with 6 month tourist visa which I did nt want
Queue up to get baggage
Queue up to get baggage xrayed and searched
Queue up to put baggage into non existant transit baggage service
Exit terminal at arrivals - ie go outside into an uncontrolled area where I
could have bought a small thermo nuclear weapon (for personal protection of
course)
Re enter terminal at departures
Queue up to get to ticket checkin (although bags checked in Brisbane for
Vancouver)
Checkin with tickets and get allocated seats and baggage tags
Queue at baggage checkin for baggage to be xrayed and searched
Go to personal checkin queue
Put cabin baggage through xray machine and self through metal detector -
steel in shoelace rings sets off alarms.
Enter "suspect queue"
Get frisked by someone whose frisking training was a bit light - but he did
have a magic wand with a "low battery" warning lamp flashing away which did
not buzz when he ran over my belt buckle (it did in Brisbane). Take off
shoes and belt. Re enter metal detector and nothing happens.
Get dressed again - shoes on, belt on.
Thanked frisker for his time and efforts - stunned look on frisker's face.
Go to departure gate lounge and F...ING queue again to get on the airplane.
No one takes the immigration tab stapled to my passport - so for all intents
and purposes I suppose I'm still in the USA.

In contrast the arrival in Vancouver.
Bags arrived before I did at the carousel.
No queue at immigration - ok I lie there was 10 people in front of me.
Immigration guy says "Hi, can I see your passports, staying long?, we're
busy in the city at present I hope you have hotel reservations (stamp, stamp
on passport). Have a pleasant stay"
Go to customs green lane, dogs sniff at bags, passed through with a have a
"pleasant stay".

So my advice to all would be illegal immigrants to the USA is to just buy a
ticket which transits through LAX. In fact I shall be writing to my MP
suggesting this as a viable solution to illegals arriving in Australia
rather than putting them up on Pacific Islands for months.

Let the flames begin

On Mon, 29 Nov 2004 08:10:22 GMT, "Roger Martin"
wrote:

I had a great flight to Vancouver from Brisbane via New Zealand and Los
Angeles, but was staggered at the ridiculous process for transit passengers
at LAX.

It runs something like this:-
Queue up to get off the plane
Queue up to go through immigration - "But I'm in transit to Vancouver in
Canada"
Get issued with 6 month tourist visa which I did nt want
Queue up to get baggage
Queue up to get baggage xrayed and searched
Queue up to put baggage into non existant transit baggage service
Exit terminal at arrivals - ie go outside into an uncontrolled area where I
could have bought a small thermo nuclear weapon (for personal protection of
course)
Re enter terminal at departures
Queue up to get to ticket checkin (although bags checked in Brisbane for
Vancouver)
Checkin with tickets and get allocated seats and baggage tags
Queue at baggage checkin for baggage to be xrayed and searched
Go to personal checkin queue
Put cabin baggage through xray machine and self through metal detector -
steel in shoelace rings sets off alarms.
Enter "suspect queue"
Get frisked by someone whose frisking training was a bit light - but he did
have a magic wand with a "low battery" warning lamp flashing away which did
not buzz when he ran over my belt buckle (it did in Brisbane). Take off
shoes and belt. Re enter metal detector and nothing happens.
Get dressed again - shoes on, belt on.
Thanked frisker for his time and efforts - stunned look on frisker's face.
Go to departure gate lounge and F...ING queue again to get on the airplane.
No one takes the immigration tab stapled to my passport - so for all intents
and purposes I suppose I'm still in the USA.

In contrast the arrival in Vancouver.
Bags arrived before I did at the carousel.
No queue at immigration - ok I lie there was 10 people in front of me.
Immigration guy says "Hi, can I see your passports, staying long?, we're
busy in the city at present I hope you have hotel reservations (stamp, stamp
on passport). Have a pleasant stay"
Go to customs green lane, dogs sniff at bags, passed through with a have a
"pleasant stay".

So my advice to all would be illegal immigrants to the USA is to just buy a
ticket which transits through LAX. In fact I shall be writing to my MP
suggesting this as a viable solution to illegals arriving in Australia
rather than putting them up on Pacific Islands for months.

Let the flames begin

What did you expect to find... a gulag for transient arrivals?

Ive a number of friends from other nations that pass through LAX
fairly regulary. They often time their flights on to their
destinations so I can pick them up at the airport, and take them
shopping for a few hours or even a day or three with the occasional
side trip to my home up north (145miles each way) for a day or two,
then back to LAX and on to their destination.

Chuckle..its quite simple to enter the US. In both north and
south..you simply walk or ride across, take a cab if you so desire, or
if out of a city, simply walk across in the woods/desert/plains etc.

Think how hard it would be to stop someone from coming ashore in Oz.
A rather big shoreline..G

Its only in a few places that the US even has official border crossing
points. And the illegals simply walk or drive around them.

Now when we get the mine fields and lethal voltage fence wire up....

Gunner



Come shed a tear for Michael Moore-
Though he smirked and lied like a two-bit whore
George Bush has just won another four.
Poor, sad little Michael Moore

Diogenes

I missed the staff meeting but the minutes show Gunner
wrote back on Mon, 29 Nov 2004 10:32:42 GMT in
rec.crafts.metalworking :

So my advice to all would be illegal immigrants to the USA is to just buy a
ticket which transits through LAX. In fact I shall be writing to my MP
suggesting this as a viable solution to illegals arriving in Australia
rather than putting them up on Pacific Islands for months.

Let the flames begin

What did you expect to find... a gulag for transient arrivals?

I think what has him "irked" (or at least has me irked) is that he was
issued a temporary visa (good for six months) for a six hour stay. He's
"changing planes", not "visiting the country". He's transiting the
airport, not the country! for crying out loud! (I used to "transit"
Austria every time I went to Switzerland from German. "Reisen durch
autotramp" usually meant walking across the border.)

The US hands out "temporary" visas, and then has no means of checking
to see if the person listed left the country. "Border control" doesn't end
at the border.



tschus
pyotr


ps. My brother managed to get through two years of traveling in Europe with
only one Border Control stamp - going into Liechtenstein. (That only
occurred because his father took all the passports in to get them stamped.)
He was, upset.)


--
pyotr filipivich
When did the word "mosque" take on the meaning "store house for weapons"?