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Comment by brc | Hacker News Reader

I was having dinner with American colleagues once. We were talking about passports or visas, and I told them about the stupid questions - are you a nazi? Are you a spy?

They didn't believe me until I found a copy of the form on Google images. You literally have to declare you are not a nazi spy to gain entry to the USA. Something not many Americans are aware are of.

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Why do you think those questions are stupid?

How many people are still alive could possibly be members of the Nazi party? It hasn't existed for 70 years. That's stupid.

Asking me if I'm a spy? Has anyone ever answered yes?

I just assumed those questions were so that they could charge you for lying later if you did turn out to be a spy/terrorist/etc.

Not sure why that would matter when you're also getting arrested for spying / committing a terrorist act, but whatever.

Right, if you're arrested for spying, hardly seems worth it to throw in a 'lying on visa form' charge as well. Pretty sure you're not going to get another visa if convicted.

I assumed it was easier to force someone to leave because they "lied" on that form than going through the proper process.

My family was searched and questioned crossing into the US from Canada, on our British passports. The American relatives we were visiting were unimpressed.

Yeah, that's my understanding of the reasoning. If someone admits to doing one of those things, the US doesn't let them in. If someone denies it and the US catches them lying, it's one more justification to give them the boot and / or prosecute them.

The Nazi question is still relevant, if barely. There are still a few of them around.

I know you probably seem special, and many people of all nationalities are searched coming over that border. In fact, most of the parties searched on that border are either American or Canadian. They do very thorough random inspections of _everyone_. Once you are flagged in the system there is no way out. I'm sure in the questioning they dug into your background, and they do this with everyone... "Why did you go to Canada, you are an American?" (as if that actually makes any sense) As a further fun anecdote from US land borders, they asked a German friend of mind when he was crossing from Mexico > US via a land border whether he lived in West or East Germany (this was in the early 2000s). They did this to see if he was actually German or travelling on fake papers. lol. The correct answer of course (which he gave) is, "west and east Germany don't exist anymore"

It seemed ridiculous at the time. I was 12, my sister 10 and my brother 6. We'd arrived together in Canada the previous day, so Canadian customs hadn't had any problem with the travel. We had return plane tickets for about 4 weeks later. The border police didn't ask us anything, but questioned my parents and made them empty the car and suitcases.

I've since had the stupid questions. "It says you're going to a science conference. You don't look like a scientist." "Why is your passport empty? Don't Europeans travel a lot?"

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