Date: Wed, 17 Jun 1998 10:49:07 -0500 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: don morrison <dmorrisn@u.washington.edu>, Frank Pawlak <fpawlak@execpc.com>, lcremean@tidalwave.net, Joao Carlos Mendes Luis <jonny@jonny.eng.br> Cc: chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: US Immigration (was: Funny, but true...) Message-ID: <19980617104907.02051@papillon.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <3.0.5.32.19980616221819.00811210@dmorrisn.deskmail.washington.edu>; from don morrison on Tue, Jun 16, 1998 at 10:18:19PM -0700 References: <980616221213.ZM10797@darkstar.connect.com> <199806131959.QAA25251@roma.coe.ufrj.br> <19980613174107.42635@st-lcremean.tidalwave.net> <19980615125757.61980@papillon.lemis.com> <grog@lemis.com> <980616221213.ZM10797@darkstar.connect.com> <19980616181307.09604@papillon.lemis.com> <3.0.5.32.19980616221819.00811210@dmorrisn.deskmail.washington.edu>
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On Tue, 16 June 1998 at 22:18:19 -0700, don morrison wrote: > >> The US is particularly unusual in its treatment of foreigners. I >> haven't seen questions or waivers like this in any other country. The >> INS people also seem to have been trained to be nasty, a trait shared >> only by the English immigration people. In Europe, you usually don't >> need a visa, and any inspection is pretty cursory. In Asia, you will >> need a landing card which concentrates normally on things they could >> more easily get out of your passport. In some countries you'll need a >> visa (Australia is one of them), but most don't worry any more. China >> and India still need visas, and some people (including Australians, >> but excluding US citizens) need a visa for Japan. > > Well, I can think of one other country which a bit nasty with foreigners. > In Japan, I hear, if you're a foreign resident you must be fingerprinted > and carry your fingerprinted identification with you at all times. They probably got that idea from the US. I forgot that we also had to be fingerprinted to get our 1957 US visa. > Also, it takes a foreign merchant about two to three days to get > goods checked through customs while in the U.S. it can take as > little as a half hour...The first piece of information I heard from > a personal account, the second from a newspaper; can anyone tell me > if these pieces of information are incorrect? (I don't want to > offend anyone from Japan here...) I don't have any direct experience of that in Japan, but since I am surrounded by hordes of Japanese who just happen to be planning to send a whole lot of stuff to Japan tomorrow, I asked them. They say that the total transport time (from Austin TX to Tennoz in Tokyo) is between 5 and 7 calendar days. That would suggest that the customs clearance takes less than that. On the other hand, I've seen problems clearing customs in most countries, including the US, so I don't doubt your account, but I don't think it's typical. Greg -- Finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key See complete headers for address and phone numbers To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message
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