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Comment by tossaway0 | Hacker News Reader

In a similar vein I was asked by an immigration officer at the airport what I would do if the US went to war with the country I'm from. It threw me completely off guard.

I told him that it's lucky that solid democracies seldom go to war against each other, but that I would probably flee to the Bahamas to avoid it.

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> I told him that it's lucky that solid democracies seldom go to war against each other

Democracies are relatively rare (in the history from which one might assess rates of going to war), but don't seem to go to war against each other any less often than countries in general when considering other factors associated with propensity to go to war, like geopolitical alignment.

It's unlikely you would ever be asked that question again, but I would try to think of a response where someone could not interpret that as that you might violate Bahamas's imigration laws (entering illegally or overstaying a visa, because then if you were willing to do that with the Bahamas, then you might do it with the U.S.)

I have no idea what response the authority is looking for, but I assume that "I'd return home" would be relatively inoffensive.

But what is the right answer to this question? It seems like a no-win one.

“Oh you’d return home to fight against this country?”

I agree- I don’t know what “right answer” the immigration officer was expecting.

"I would apply for a visa in another country."?

"Oh, so you're not committed to living in this country? You know US Visas are highly sought after and we expect those who are selected to make full use of them."

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