OSRIN.net

I have a question that one of my readers might be able to answer, nothing whatsoever to do with technology or technology policy, just something that I have been curious about for a while.

I’ve been traveling to the USA on a pretty regular basis since the late 1980s and apart from the eight years I lived in the Seattle area the entry process has always been pretty much the same for me, entering under the eternally simple I-94(W) visa wavier program. Basically filling out a simple green form as I depart as apposed to having to go through a complex visa application process as I still have to for many other countries.

This months issue of KrisFlyer magazine talks about the process being simplified further with the introduction of an online process that the US Dept of Homeland Security will make live on an optional basis on the 1st August this year and mandatory on the 1st January next year, filling out an online form that will provide US multiple entry for a two year period – if I understood the article correctly then the I-94(W) will be replaced by this new online process.

According to the KrisFlyer article, on the 1st August the URL for the new service will be https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov.

Before it disappears altogether there is something I have always wondered about the back of the I-94(W) form.

All entrants using the visa waiver program are asked to answer the following set of simple yes or no questions;

Do you have a communicable disease; physical or mental disorder; or are you a drug abuser or addict?

Have your ever been arrested or convicted of a crime involving moral turpitude or a violation related to a controlled substance; or been arrested or convicted for two or more offenses for which the aggregate sentence to the confinement was five years or more; or been a controlled substance trafficker; or are you seeking entry to engage in criminal or immoral activities?

Have you ever been or are you now involved in espionage or sabotage; or in terrorist activities; or genocide; or between 1933 and 1945 were involved, in any way, in persecutions associated with Nazi Germany or its allies?

Are you seeking to work in the U.S.; or have ever been excluded or deported; or been previously removed from the United States; or procured or attempted to procure a visa into the U.S. by fraud or misrepresentation?

Have you ever detained, retained or withheld custody of a child from a U.S. citizen granted custody of the child?

Have you ever been denied a U.S. visa or entry into the U.S. or had a U.S. visa canceled?

These types of question are not unique to the United States, you find similar questions on the various entry cards around the world, so apologies for picking on just one countries process here, it is just timely given that this particular one might soon disappear.

For years I have been ticking all the “No” boxes (because they are the correct answers!) and wondering quite what the goal is of asking these questions.

I’m no lawyer so I can only hypothesize about why these questions get asked, and what the process hopes to gain by asking them.

In our younger years myself and my traveling companions joked about how these questions might trick the habitually honest thug into declaring their hand at the border, obviously an unrealistic expectation.

In recent years I have wondered if being dishonest on this form gives the Federal Government some level of legal recourse that they would not have otherwise.

In reality I suspect that these questions are there simply to prompt the applicant to go and talk to their local U.S. embassy before getting on a plane if they have to answer yes to any of the questions, answering yes to any of these questions probably disqualifies you from entering under the visa waiver program.

Is anybody able to clarify what purpose these questions really serve?