Retired couple grounded by ‘hostile’ US agencies

A FEW days ago my wife and I arrived at Dublin Airport to board a flight for a holiday in Florida, having previously obtained the visa waiver number from the US security authorities. In spite of this my passport was rejected on a new and purely technical ground and we were not allowed to fly. They told us I could obtain an emergency visa. As the next available flight was in two days we had very little time to get it.

It is impossible to contact the US embassy in Dublin, except through email, and when I finally got a reluctant return phone call from them I was told I would be granted an interview in a few hours and that I had to have all necessary documentation by then. This required a knowledge of computers well beyond my capabilities. Because of this and the very limited time allowed, I could not complete the documentation.

I turned up at the US embassy anyway and was treated with indifference and contempt. Their attitude was “if you haven’t all your documentation, buddy, don’t bother us”.

That evening my son, a computer expert, spent about an hour struggling to upload the photo needed for one of the forms and answering, on my behalf, a web form with a series of nonsensical questions along the lines of “do you intend to subvert the US?” It was then a question of trying to arrange another interview, knowing that if any one of the several required documents was missing or slightly incorrect, I would be refused. Worst of all, I would have to face the hostile US authorities again. I chucked it in. We abandoned our holiday in Miami and so lost more than €1,100 on the flights. Well done, US security. They may not be able to detect a young man with explosives whose father warned them of his hostile propensities, but they can certainly intimidate a couple of pensioners with hitherto good feelings towards their country.

David Herman

Meadow Grove

Dublin 16