How a 3 week business trip to the US got reduced to 3 hours

This was somewhat surprising to me, but appears that he was accurately quoted the law. If you go through the flowchart on the State Department's website for the Visa Waiver Program, which would be my #1 suggestion for someone coming from the Netherlands,<p><i>For the purpose of the Visa Waiver Program, "business" generally refers to business activities other than the performance of skilled or unskilled labor. Examples of activities that are allowed include: engaging in international commercial transactions, which do not involve gainful employment in the United States (such as a merchant who takes orders in the U.S. for goods manufactured abroad, or who travels to the U.S. to purchase American-made goods for export from the U.S.); negotiating contracts; consulting with business associates; and participating in scientific, educational, professional or business conventions, conferences, or seminars.<p>The performance of any skilled or unskilled labor - even if it is unpaid - is most always prohibited. This includes performing work in the U.S. as a trainer or consultant. Activities allowed on the VWP parallel those activities allowed with a standard "B1" category business visa. Please see our B visa information page for more details.</i><p>Working visas are, as stated, not exactly trivial to get. (And if you're already at the airport it is too late.)

Something similar happened to a co-worker of mine.<p>The company maintains offices in New York and Boston, with significant expansion at the Boston office. The powers that be decided it would be a good idea to have another experienced dev in Boston to help get the newer guys up to speed. They consulted with immigration attorneys and made sure all their ducks were in a row for a three month rotation through the US.<p>My unfortunate co-worker showed up at the border and presented his UK passport, with a place of birth located somewhere in central Africa. The border guard decided that he planned to overstay his visa and denied him entry. He was then given the choice of arrest or deportation.<p>This is really not a good way to endear the US to foreign business interests.

I learned years ago doing conference talks that even if you're giving a tutorial, when asked at the border what you are doing there you simply say: "Attending a conference". NEVER give more details (except what the conference is about, which they will ask).

I can report that some elements of the US Immigration/Visa system have gotten much smoother in the last 15 years. In particular, coming from Canada to work at Netscape in 1996, I was turned back the first time, and the third time, because the inspector did not like my paperwork (The first time, kind of made sense - it wasn't particularly well prepared. The third time, though, had been prepared by a law firm. The inspector indicated that my Diploma wasn't clearly from a University Level organization. They were the only inspector in 12 years to ever make that comment and refuse entry on that basis)<p>For a while, in 2000-2002, they were kind of snarky when they had seen that I'd come in multiple times on a "Temporary Visa", though perhaps that was just to remind me that my trip to the US was, indeed, temporary. Eventually, after 5 or 6 minutes of grilling, the would grant me a multiple-entry TN Visa.<p>Since 2008/2009, though, the process has been streamlined to a single letter with a single diploma, (literally) five-seven minutes waiting in their waiting area at the airport, and one minute at the counter, $50 Payment, and I'm good for another 3 years. If I want to, I can even apply by mail.<p>So - properly accredited Canadians (2 Year Diploma+, letter from an employer properly formatted) who want to work in the United States as Computer Systems Analysts, have a system that's as streamlined as you can get it, without having completely open borders.

I'm bit shocked that the Dutch American Friendship Treaty (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAFT_(treaty)" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAFT_(treaty)</a>) doesn't apply in reverse...<p>The treaty allows Americans like myself to start a business in Holland easily and get around the notoriously-bureaucratic Dutch immigration department.<p>I always assumed it worked the other way around, but apparently the 'friendship' is unidirectional...

As someone who travels to the United States from Canada on a very regular basis, this does not surprise me at all. The first mistake he made was to say that he was "self-employed". That one little phrase, from my experience, sets off a very large red flag and almost always ends with being secondary'ed and very likely a complete entry denial.<p>Generally, every question that the CBP agent will ask revolves around money: who pays your salary, in what currency, are you attempting to get in to the USA to find a job, will someone be giving you money for whatever reason (e.g. honorarium for giving a talk at a conference), etc. Additionally, trying to explain the concept of telecommuting to an agent is usually a lost cause.<p>Canadians do have a slightly easier time getting in &#38; out of the United States, but only marginally.

Any economics experts around? What would hypothetically happen if all countries lifted all immigration laws and allowed people to come and go wherever they liked?

Seems like the solution is to be paid to prepare the course (in your own country), and then come to the US and give the course for free.<p>How do conferences like OSCON deal with paying the speakers they fly in from other countries?

I'm not an expert by any means, I'm not even an amateur, but to my untrained eye it seems like allowing "self-employed independent trainer" would be a fairly large potential loophole for abuse in a visa program?

I went to the US many times in 2009-2010 on VWP. I was working as a software dev with one of the largest companies in the world and wanted to hang out in the US to see a girl I liked.<p>I used to go 3 months at a time, sometimes one month, rent an apartment, work in the company's offices downtown. I straight up said I was there to see a girl and "telecommute" in the office with my colleagues back home. Never had a problem.

Some countries still think they are the centre of the world and that people would do anything to get there (like applying for a bloody business visa for a conference). It's not like that anymore, wake up. The world is full of opportunities in more open countries and business people are like web users: id the usability is low, they simply go elsewhere.

Though experiment: let's say he lied to the customs, what are the odds of him getting caught?

someone remind me, why employment is at all restricted between first world countries?

Yeouch, a lesson to any non-American who gets a paying gig in the USA!<p>Make sure everything is in order before you get on the plane to the States.

The domain name is quite apt for this post. (The trip turned out to be a no-op. <a href="http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/n/no-op.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.jargon.net/jargonfile/n/no-op.html</a>)

So unfortunate we don't see that non-american minds want to positively contribute to American society.