Hacker News Reader

Comment by knightinblue | Hacker News Reader

I'm surprised all of these ppl stayed in the US. I would imagine it's a lot harder to track someone down if they disappeared to the other side of the world.

View on HN

Harder to visit your family from across the world.

Sounds like a job for video conferencing if you ask me!

But it does remove the need for a fake passport.

I suppose it's quite hard to cross a border without some kind of ID.

It's also harder to blend in as a foreigner, and as an undocumented immigrant you'd have extra problems if you get into any trouble with the foreign authorities. In your home country you can blend in just by acting like everyone else.

Blending in isn't really an issue when you're on the other side of the world, hence the attraction. Documents can be easily obtained. And as long as you don't have to work or do business, you rarely have to deal with the authorities.

If the problem is money however, then that's a valid issue. Because all of the above cost significant amounts of money.

> as an undocumented immigrant you'd have extra problems if you get into any trouble with the foreign authorities

Pick the right country and that's not a problem at all; a couple of strategic bribes can get you out of trouble in most of the world.

I'd be interested in seeing your proof for this claim. My experience has been the opposite: a stateless individual must entirely vanish from the map.

But the one guy supposedly did a lot of travelling for work. He could have faked the death while on a trip in another country, leaving his passport somewhere so people would know it was him.

Depends on the border. Biking around Europe I passed from Germany to Czech Republic with nothing more than a wave to/from the border guard.

Also, U.S. Mexico border is not that hard. Tons of people and drugs do it daily.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com