Please supply your recent experiences with traveling abroad using the format below plus your comment / narrative. This is intended to collect experiences AT THE PORT OF ENTRY IN THE FOREIGN COUNTRY – Fall 2013 and later and being detained, denied or allowed in. NOT about re-entering the US and secondary inspection.
It is assumed that there were no issues before Fall 2013 / early 2014 and that there is always a secondary inspection in some form upon returning to the United States.
In the interest of organization please copy and paste the list and write your details between / over the ***. Any comments should be in direct response to the country in question.
1. Destination Country: ***
1a.Does this country require a Visa?: *** yes / no ***
1b.If Visa required, was the application denied (reasons): *** yes / no (reasons) ***
2. Date of Travel: *** Fall 2013 or later ***
3. Issues: *** denied entry / detained / etc ***
3a.If denied, was there a reason given?: ***
4. Currently registered: *** yes / no ***
4a.If yes, on public web site: *** yes / no ***
4b.If no longer required to register, reason for termination: *** Expiration / Court Order / Other ***
5. Offense child related: *** yes / no ***
6. Offense Level: *** Misdemeanor / Felony ***
7. Conviction expunged or dismissed: *** yes / no ***
8. State of registration (current or former): ***
Has anyone tried flying out of mexico (Tijuana ) and what experience did you have ?
How can we not ? Not fly there , drive. From what I understand , they are checking flight manifests departing from the US. Our passports are not flagged, our flight travel is.
1. Destination Country: CHINA
1a.Does this country require a Visa?: YES
1b.If Visa required, was the application denied (reasons): NO
2. Date of Travel: Jan 2014, May 2014, Sep 2014, Jan 2015, May 2015.
3. Issues: NONE
3a.If denied, was there a reason given?: N/A
4. Currently registered: YES
4a.If yes, on public web site: YES
4b.If no longer required to register, reason for termination: *** Expiration / Court Order / Other ***
5. Offense child related: YES
6. Offense Level: Felon
7. Conviction expunged or dismissed: no
8. State of registration (current or former): TX Current
When I go, I’m in China for 2-3 months so the local police in Tx de-registers me and marks me as ‘out of area’. I just check in with them when I’m back in the US.
What are the requirements, financial and otherwise, of filing a lawsuit to reverse this crap? I assume a federal lawsuit. Whom could we initially get to be the official complainants? Can a judge grant a class-action status? How much will it cost, including preparation, filing, and continuation through the appelate process (which will happen whether we win or lose, more likely)?
It’s one thing to ask to join a lawsuit; it’s another one altogether to work out the logistics and costs involved.
My guess is it would take about $40,000 to initiate the lawsuit, and another $80 to $100,000 to process the suit through the first court. How many months before we get a hearing? Can we get a stay from the get go (unlikely)?
Many, many questions, but questions that should be tackled one by one.
Mexico / CruisePosted on 07/10/15, 06:51 pm
RSO in Florida early terminated release of probation. Super excited to finally take a trip with friends of our to Mexico couples only. When we arrive to Cancun, we end up being stopped by immigration to be returned to US because of alert sent to Mexico with my fiance’s name. To our surprise we lost our vacation entire money and troubled throughout the entire process of in and out of customs and immigration. On a back end our local sheriffs office was notified with dates of departure and location and there was approval.
Next more important question. RSO has had permission to live with my son for past 3 years and his daughter. After waiting many years to take a family vacation we planned a cruise with our two children. We are not only afraid this may happen again in front of our children and lose our investment as well. We are traveling in the next few weeks to Bahamas through Carnival out of Miami.
Has this happened to anyone? Can you anyone give us any guidance?
FYI,
Just heard on the news, no more walking into Tijuana… waiting on more info.
The noose is tightening
New announcement from RSOL:
If you or someone you know was denied entry into another country as a consequence of registration, we want to hear from you.
A new group, supported by RSOL National, is examining the issues related to registered citizens traveling, including the practice of the US Government notifying receiving countries that a registrant is traveling there.
A representative of FAC will serve on the board of this new group. We want to make sure that your experiences areincluded in our efforts to enable registrants to travel freely and unmolested.
Please send any information you have concerning yourself, another registrant or yourself (if you were traveling with a registrant) with details including dates, where you traveled to, whether you were detained, whether you were denied entry, and other information to Paul Rigney, rigneypa@yahoo.com, who is based out of Dallas, TX and chairs the group.
Took a trip to Malaysia from Texas 3 years ago. No problems until returning to USA. 06/15/2015, i took another trip to MY and i was DENIED. They now share information with UNITED STATES and once your passport is SCANNED you WILL be DENIED>
My wife of 39 years and I were turned away from Puerto Vallarta two days ago, correction, they said my wife could stay. Really? My record was expunged in the mid 1990’s and I have traveled internationally without incident until now. I’m just fed up with having to pay again and again for my crime. If TSA knew of the restrictions of my entry into Mexico they could of handled it before we left, as soon as my passport was scanned. The whole experience was both embarrassing and humiliating. I was forced to sign documents I didn’t understand, I was denied translation of the documents, and I was denied copies of the documents. My passport was confiscated and not returned until boarding of the plane home. We had to spend the night in Dallas until we caught a plane home to California.
Jim, the reason TSA didnt mention it is because they can then say, “Oh, we didnt violate his Constitutional rights – we didn’t deny him the right to travel.” They can claim innocence: “We just notify other countries – what those countries do in response to the notifications is entirely up to them.”
http://news.co.cr/registered-sex-offender-from-the-u-s-denied-entry-to-costa-rica/41777/
This is crazy that there is really no information at all about this. It is through Interpol Green Notices?! Are they still sent if you are finished registering? If so, how?
So far the list of countries that people will be denied entry to are;
-United Kingdom
-Australia
-New Zealand
-United States
-Canada
-Mexico
-Costa Rica
-Argentina
-Philippines
Any more?
i want to travel to the Philippines for 5-7 days
what are the “entrance” restrictions,
Upon arrival:
what “do you have to do” once you are there?
Laws that affect RSO’s,
& Upon arrival: if you need to register?
For possible marriage purposes marrying a Filipina in her country would it be less difficult?
Regarding the Constitution’s seeming failure to explicitly affirm the right to travel internationally, I recommend reading the following excellent pieces which provide a basis for such a Constitutional right:
http://www.uclalawreview.org/pdf/56-2-1.pdf
http://ir.lawnet.fordham.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=4593&context=flr
Also, I would like to mention, perhaps the most under-looked and under-appreciated, Amendment to the Bill of Rights, the 9th Amendment which surely anticipates the right to both leave and to return to the U.S.:
https://www.law.cornell.edu/anncon/html/amdt9_user.html#amdt9_hd1
I have a question for the group; I rent a home in a country that denies registrants entry by plane. I am able to drive to this country and have done so without incident since 2009 and returning home there is no problem other than waiting in secondary. I travel there once or twice a month, I have a valid passport. For $20 I can get a 180 day extended stay permit there. If I was to establish my residence there, would I drop off the registry after reporting I have moved out of the country? Would my passport still be valid and would there be any problem returning to visit my family and do a number of side jobs? Could be interesting. I would still be a citizen of our glorious country, just not one who is registered? Hmmmm…
This seems to be happened for UK RSO’s now.
We are required to submit information for any foreign travel.
After UK police get the information, they pass that onto Interpol who issue the Green Notice.
This is being picked up by Spain who will pull you aside and ask various questions, UK RSO are not denied entry as of yet.
This is becoming a worldwide issue.
Here’s some evidence that a particular cruise line is not prohibiting travel for RSOs:
https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/local-media-release/2015-09-29-000000/cbp-arrests-sex-offender-getting-cruise-port
I can only assume that the statement about “CBP is committed to intercepting sex offenders who try to circumvent the laws” has to do with the fact that the passenger arriving on a cruise that went to Mexico was arrested on an outstanding warrant for failure to comply with sexual offender guidelines. What this might mean is that the registered citizen did not provide law enforcement in Florida with 21 days advance notice or did not give notice at all that he/she would be traveling out of the country on a cruise? It would be interesting to learn more about this case.
Yesterday, 10/14/2015. Flying to Cancun, MX from Dallas, TX. My girlfriend and I booked a 6 night reservation and flew American Airlines. Once we got to the gate in Cancun, Mexico there was an announcement on the plane which called me out by name and asked me to get off the plane first. When I went to the front of the plane an immigration agent along with 2 police officers were waiting. They took me and my luggage past customs to a small office and asked me to fill out the customs form and another paper which asked if I had ever been convicted of a crime and what nature. The officer also took a picture of me on his cell phone. They then took me to a small room. They had an order to not allow me into Mexico. My girlfriend of course opted to return back to the US with me. We were both placed on the next flight home. My conviction was a misdemeanor possession of CP. 311.11 (a) in California from this past November, 2014. I am on the non public registry.
My boyfriend and I went to my home country (Colombia) and he was sent back due to being a rso. This happened last month. The immigration official was extremely rude and they made him sign something in Spanish but I wasn’t there with him so we don’t know what he signed. We are very sad about this, he wanted to meet my family and we were planning on getting married there.
Jon, I can’t believe this happened to you. Are you on probation because of this, any jail time? It was a misdemeanor, and you are not on the public registry. How can they still deny you a vacation to Mexico. I get so angry hearing these stories.
2 years of informal court probation. No jail time. 2 days of community service and yet. . Deported. . And to @tiredofhiding and @commenter1.. not all of us know better apparently. . No need to get rude though. I’m simply sharing my experience for others who might consider traveling to Mexico or abroad. . Some people may find it helpful to know it can happen to them just like it did to me. .
Tiredofhiding, I appreciate where you’re coming from. I would also say that I don’t accept that my life will change forever due to some nonsense Scarlet letter I’ve been forced to wear. The government will try and continue to limit where we can go and what we can do. . But unless we simply give in, I believe it’s time to fight back and raise these issues as unconstitutional. Janice has already made major strides in this area and I’m excited to see things continue to change for us.
Can you travel to Utah or Arizona, or will you have to register there after a certain amount of time? It is just so much to research, and if someone here has more insight, it might be easier to find the answers, or at least get put into the right direction. Thanks.
What is the feeling that this “ban” on travel will ever go away. Will I ever see my family in Thailand again? Because if the answer is no, why put in any effort. I’m being very conceited about this point, but it’s my future and hope.
Perhaps the most fundamental issue at the heart of these policies is: “Can the U.S. government provide damaging information (i.e. that which limits liberties as well as safety, security) about its own citizens to other countries, said to be in exchange for similar information being given to the U.S. by those other countries?”
This is where a constitutional law scholar comes in and successfully (one hopes) makes the argument that they cannot.
I can say that such a policy is manifestly unjust and surely unconstitutional, but I cannot make the legal argument for why it must be so since I am not such a constitutional scholar nor am I familiar with court precedents that may be of relevance.
We need some serious, professional help with this.
I am told that we may soon have it and, if so, we need to get behind such a challenge.
To address your question, “What is the feeling that this “ban” on travel will ever go away?” I would say that, on a gut level, I believe that it may go away. But I’m fairly certain that it won’t go away unless there is a concerted effort on our parts to MAKE it go away.
We really need to get organized and to stay engaged in fighting this terrible injustice.