Battleangel

A Canadian citizen was denied re-entry into the US on some very flimsy grounds. I vaguely remember a case like this a couple of years ago. Bottom line is don’t tell them you have an online journal with literally thousands of pages of text where they can look for things to use against you.

Hoder via Sabbah - Goodbye to America - I’ve literally become homeless. My new home is now hoder.com and I’m not joking.

The last time I decided to go back to Toronto for a night, I took a bus. A huge mistake, now I know. When I wanted to come back to NYC, I was obviously stopped and interviewed by US Customs and Border Security people at the Buffalo border (Peace Bridge), like everyone else on the bus.

But when they realized I was going to the States to speak at a blog-related conference (ConvergeSouth) they started to google my name right in front of me. Two officers, actually.

They carefully scanned the results and found this English blog. One of them, a very sharp guy in fact, started to read every single post on my blog. And it didn’t take long until he shocked me: “So you live in New York, right? That’s what you’ve written in your on blog.”

Now the result is that, apparently, I can’t visit the States at least for six months and even after that I should prove I’m established enough in Canada. I also have to explain why I failed to register my departure when the bus driver didn’t stop while crossing the US border to Canada.

P.S: Some of the readers think I had broken law by staying in the US. But as a Canadian citizen I’m allowed to visit and stay in the US for up to six month. It was only one month I was in New York City and I was staying with a friend. How that could be breaking the law?