[pct-l] PCT Manning Park to Cascade Locks - entering the USA

[ilja@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Ilja Friedel)]

Hi,

I'm new to this list and my name is Ilja Friedel. I'm an international
student in Pasadena, CA.

On Sat, 19 Apr 2003 m.karon@attbi.com wrote:
> When you enter the USA you are suppose to get the permit. When you
> leave you are suppose to surrender it.

At least before 9/11 there was a different situation. Canada and Mexico
where special for international visitors coming from the US. Many students
on a single entry visa would (when they wanted to go home for holidays)
first go to U.S. consulates in Tijuana or Vancouver and apply for a new
U.S. visa. If the visa was denied, they still could legally return to the
US (the same day?) For that reason they did not surrender the slip in
their passport when leaving. I don't know if this worked for B-2 visitor
visa (for pleasure) or the visa waiver program.

> If you fly directly to Canada, you will have no USA permit at all. Are
> these permits checked? Don't know.

Yes they are checked. But if you are from a wealthy western nation they
don't care that much if you "forget" to hand over the slip when leaving
the US. (You can still send it in to the US embassy in you home country
later. This _might_ be an opportunity to play tricks (say, using two
passports). But today the airlines hand over quite a bit of data to
US immigration. Just don't know what would happen. In the worst case
it might be impossible to reenter the US for a decade.

I'm really interested in this topic and will check with the international
student office here.

Ilja.