If you have traveled to a foreign country after President Obama signed HR 515 / International Megan’s Law into law on February 8, 2016, please complete this survey to help gather details about the effects of this legislation. We will also share this data with the RTAG group for incorporation into their travel matrix. Thank you.
Go to International Travel Survey
For those of you wondering about Mexico and getting in, i think it’s completely random. I went 6 years ago before we had to give the 21 day notice in CA. I flew into Mexico City and they obviously knew I was coming even without the notice since they “greeted” me at the door getting off the plane. I was with my GF and they separated us, took me into a room for about 30-45 mins and asked me some questions. I kept telling them I was there on vacation with my GF. Finally once i started to speak Spanish to them it seemed like a “light” went on and they finally understood that it was, at the time 15 years since my crime and it was relatively minor when I explained the details. They had me sign a piece of paper and we were on our way to a week vacation. This was in Mexico City so I missed my connecting flight to Ixtapa, but the airline put us up in a really nice hotel. Good thing we did miss our flight because we came 1 day after a hurricane. The point of my story is it’s super random who you get and how they let people in or turn them away. I think speaking Spanish went a long way though.
For anyone interested, I was briefly “detained” and questioned by French police when I landed in Paris last September. (I wrote about it previously.) In December, I wrote to Interpol and asked for any documents relating to why I was detained & questioned. In January, they replied that they would research it and contact me. Then I received their answer last week. They said they had nothing in their records relating to me. …. but were quick to state that they would only have Interpol’s own records – that they do not have access to the member countries’ law enforcement files/records. So perhaps I will contact French customs border control. Or maybe not. (‘Haven’t decided it that’s a bear I want to poke.)
(But I can’t imagine Uncle Sam hasn’t been sending “green notices” about me.)
Oh, and I also received my U.S. passport revocation letter last week. (I paid $150 for it and, prorated, I have only used $50 of it. They should reimburse me the balance of $100.)
@David,
I traveled in September too and got my revocation letter in January. I had about 6 years remaining on my passport. I would say we could at least write off the prorated amount on our federal taxes since it was a loss caused by the feds. Yippeee!
Looks like you better travel to Europe this year or next if you are going at all. I’m sure they won’t give us one of the new Schengen VISAs!
https://www.msn.com/en-us/travel/news/americans-will-need-a-visa-to-visit-europe-starting-in-2021-—-heres-what-we-know/ar-BBUvfUF?ocid=spartanntp
This question is for any of you who had your passport revoked and had to re-apply for a new passport with the “mark of the beast” on there. How long did it take to get your passport? I’m going into week 5 of waiting and it still says it’s being processed online. Also, have any of you been denied a passport once you re-applied for the marked one?
Since I received my NEW AND IMPROVED passport with the mark of the Beast, I also ordered a clear passport cover online. Came in a 5 pack for under $10. I will not tempt fate by trying to conceal the mark with any customs officials. But the last couple pages tuck into the back flap of the passport cover very tightly. For car rentals and hotel check ins, I believe it will make a difference in my happiness… and my confidence that people won’t stumble upon the mark.
Well, looks like 2020 will be our last chance to even travel in West Europe. They are going to start issuing visas to US citizens in 2021. This will include a criminal background check. Any guesses whether they will be willing to overlook our convictions?
I too have been dreaming of returning to England and read about the UK Rehabilitation of Offenders Act which provides for “spent” convictions after a certain number of offense-free years:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehabilitation_of_Offenders_Act_1974
The British police have an FAQ section and I wrote this to them:
“I traveled to the UK in 2014 after visiting England many times previously, but this time I was denied entry at Heathrow (customs found my criminal record from the US on their computer) and made to purchase a ticket back to Chicago.
I have read about the UK Rehabilitation of Offenders Act and wonder if I could use that to be permitted to visit the UK some time in the future. I would qualify under the requirements for a spent’ conviction.”
I received this reply which doesn’t seem to address my question. Anyone had any experience with this? Anyone know a lawyer in London who could help?
“Thank you for your enquiry. The Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 does not apply to US visa law, we therefore advise that you contact the US Embassy in London, where a member of staff will be able to assist you further regarding this matter. The Embassy contact details can be found on the link below:
https://uk.usembassy.gov/
You can also contact UK Visas and Immigration via the link below:
https://www.gov.uk/contact-ukvi-inside-outside-uk
https://www.gov.uk/browse/visas-immigration/tourist-short-stay-visas
We also advise that you contact your local law enforcement agency to clarify if there are any travel restrictions that form part of your registration.
Regards,
PNLD
(EG)
From the new ETIAS Visa information page
Going to Europe with a Criminal Record: Requirements and How to Apply
“The UK considers a conviction ‘spent’ if more than 10 years have passed since the traveler last served jail time (sentences between 6 to 30 months). Jail time of over 30 months cannot be ‘spent’ and will always be held against the traveler. Imprisonment of less than 6 months or fines incur a shorter rehabilitation period of around 5 years or less.
If the imprisonment is considered ‘spent’ then the traveler does not even need to declare the conviction, and it cannot be used against them even if immigration officials are aware of the offense.”
I spent no jail from and yet I was denied entry to the UK in 2014 based on my 2006 conviction with only probation. I didn’t “declare” the conviction at UK Customs, it popped up on their computer as I presented my US passport.
Sounds like EU/Schengen customs will continue to be receptive even with the new Visas.
Curiously, they refer to the UK spent conviction provision on the ETIAS webpage:
https://www.etiasvisa.com/etias-news/travel-europe-criminal-record-requirements-apply
If the imprisonment is considered ‘spent’ then the traveler does not even need to declare the conviction, and it cannot be used against them even if immigration officials are aware of the offense.
See below under 2014 Ammendments:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rehabilitation_of_Offenders_Act_1974
It would be ironic if the new ETIAS visas make it possible for us to travel to London again.
Apparently another case against someone failing to provide the 21-day notice. The article says this is the 2nd in the OH district. Does anyone know of any other cases and why they were charged?
https://www.smart.gov/smartwatch/february2019/case-spotlight.html
Entered Germany at FRA with zero issues carrying my new and improved (aka marked) passport. He scanned the passport, must have had no alert as he acted totally normal, flipped to the first stampable page and stamped it and closed it.
Further flight a few days later within Schengen also no issues. Last time I was in Europe I had no issues at passport control (old passport) in Germany but then got pulled aside in Spain after an intra-Schengen flight. We’ve now heard that a few times within Schengen so I was expecting it. So I have no rhyme or reason for this. I’ve been registering for over 20 years and do wonder whether the authorities (if they are getting the data collected by USMS like date of offense ) take how long ago it’s been into consideration??
FWIW the clear passport cover has worked wonders at settling my nerves about renting cars and checking in at hotels. The last two pages of the passport fit snugly in the back flap of the passport cover. I took it out of the cover for passport control as I would not want to try to evade whatever was going to happen there. He did not look at the endorsements page and I was watching.
So, I’ve got an online business, and we need developers, and would like to go to South America to grow our business, but IML is keeping us from moving down there. We’re waiting for May or June for the US Supreme Court to find a problem with legislation of SORNA being delegated to the US attorney general (executive branch), and perhaps finding relief from registration, and the ability to travel there without the worldwide scarlet letter that they have saddled me with.
I’m also in Texas and was sentenced over 25 years ago to 10 years differed adjudication. There were no registries at that time, so I think I should be able to get off if the Texas Supreme Court (that also tends to rule before they adjourn in June) will find a problem with ex post facto stuff that they are supposedly going to rule on, which may also relieve me of these chains keeping me from traveling to conduct commerce.
Interesting u-tube video.
When I was in Amsterdam, I went to the resistance museum. The Dutch people keep close to heart the atrocities carried out by Nazi Germany on their citizens. The museum besides glorifying the few leaders who gave their lives to attempt to save their “marked” citizens; drove home the message that non-action was compliance. The final exhibit was a film stating that no markings/identifiers are acceptable on passports or id’s. No markings of people worn, tattooed, etc. are acceptable. I sometimes have cringed when I have heard or read comparison’s of our registries to the Nazi’s.
After being in Amsterdam, seeing the Ann Frank House and seeing the Resistance Museum; I feel no hesitation. The US government, the money oriented prison system, the money oriented “sex offender therapy” system, polygraphs, GPS monitoring etc. are not just following Nazi ideology, they are breaking new ground. America will, if allowed, use this political agenda to expand it’s influence. As money and power are it’s goal. . . .
Non-action is compliance.
Compliance is choice.
Again, why are there no direct legal challenge of the IML and the marked passport? It is clearly punishment. There is no due process, it is retroactive and punitive. I know Janice tried to push some type technical challenge, which, I was disappointed in, that was never appealed or reintroduce.
Couple things: 1) traveled to France several weeks ago and didn’t have any issues. 2) FYI – https://www.justice.gov/jmd/page/file/1143886/download – 60 “investigative leads” and 1,789 notifications. I would have thought there would be more than that traveling but maybe not…
Pertinent line:
Strategy: Improve communication and coordination with Federal, state, and local partners
regarding international traveling sex offenders.
The USMS continues its collaborative role with the DHS Angel Watch Center as part of its authority under the International Megan’s Law (P.L. 114-119). In FY 2018, the USMS processed and directed 1,789 international travel notifications from state or jurisdictional sex offender registries to INTERPOL. The USMS verified the status of 2,743 sex offenders and submitted 60 investigative leads to USMS criminal investigators for assessment of possible International Megan’s Law violations.
02/09/2016
SHARE
ICE authorized to create Angel Watch Center to expand child protection efforts following passage of International Megan’s Law
Operation Angel Watch was created to stop the spread of child sex tourism
ICE authorized to create Angel Watch Center to expand child protection efforts following passage of International Megan’s Law
WASHINGTON – U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has been authorized to create an Angel Watch Center to expand efforts to alert foreign law enforcement partners about the intended travel by convicted registered child sex offenders from the United States to their countries, following the signature of International Megan’s Law by the President on Monday.
“ICE’s Operation Angel Watch plays a crucial role in the global fight against child sex tourism. Under this unique and innovative initiative, we are able to send actionable information to our law enforcement partners around the globe so that they can assess the situation and respond appropriately, whether that is to deny an individual entry into their country, or to monitor that individual’s travel for potential danger to children,” said ICE Director Sarah R. Saldaña. “The creation of a formalized and expanded Angel Watch Center further enhances our efforts to protect children around the world.”
Initially created in 2007 by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Operation Angel Watch is managed by the Child Exploitation Investigations Unit of the ICE Cyber Crimes Center and is a joint effort with U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and the U.S. Marshals Service.
Operation Angel Watch targets individuals who have been previously convicted of sexual crimes against a child and who may pose a potential new threat: traveling overseas for the purpose of sexually abusing or exploiting minors, a crime known as “child sex tourism.”
Through Operation Angel Watch, HSI uses publicly available sex offender registry information and passenger travel data to strategically alert foreign law enforcement partners through its HSI attaché offices of a convicted child predator’s intent to travel to their country. In Fiscal Year 2015, HSI made over 2,100 notifications to more than 90 countries.
In addition to creating the Angel Watch Center, the new law provides the authority for the center to receive information from other countries about convicted child predators intending to travel to the United States, and it directs the Secretary of State, in coordination with the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security, to seek agreements and use technical assistance with other countries so that the United States is notified in advance of incoming foreign sex offenders.
Angel Watch is conducted under HSI’s Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators. Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 14,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children. In fiscal year 2015, nearly 2,400 individuals were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative and more than 1,000 victims identified or rescued.
HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators. From outside the U.S. and Canada, callers should dial 802-872-6199. Hearing impaired users can call TTY 802-872-6196.
Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST.
For additional information about wanted suspected child predators, download HSI’s Operation Predator smartphone app or visit the online suspect alerts page.
https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-authorized-create-angel-watch-center-expand-child-protection-efforts-following
Love the wording- child sex predators….yea like that’s who they are stopping
@America’s
Did it take 3 months to get your passport? I’ve been waiting for 9 weeks and it still shows being processed. I guess I probably should have paid to expedite, but it killed me just to pay for a new one since i had 6 years left on the one they revoked.
I have so much anxiety about this whole passport marking. I want to leave here, but am having a hard time with dealing with the shame of the marking. Especially since this, like everything else these days, I am having to deal with by myself.
There is a fill able form for 21 day notice of international travel, I discovered this with a CPRA request. Is this the form everyone is using?
So is everyone from California that’s traveling abroad just giving 21-day notice to your local registering office.?
Nothing to the feds?
@Steve What state are you in? I too have run into a dead end in trying to submit the 21-day notice of foreign travel. I asked the Chicago Police officer when I went in for my annual renewal in Feb and he said there was no 21-day requirement in Illinois, that I would simply give the same three days in advance notice of “change of address” when i traveled anywhere, foreign or domestic. The Chicago police will NOT accept a notice of travel more than three days before leaving home. Illinois is a non-SORNA compliant state but I still thought the IML 21 day rule was a federal law, and I don’t want to be pulled off my plane before it departs. My wife and I are planning a vacation to Portugal in September. We are flying on TAP Air Portugal. Somehow that seems safer than a domestic airline like United. No mark on my passport; I haven’t traveled abroad since that started.
@TS Send WHAT in? A handwritten letter saying I’m going to Portugal on a certain date? Is there a prescribed form? Where to I get it? Do I need to include flight, hotel info? Who do I send it to? Chicago Police Department or Illinois State Police? To anyone’s attention? This entire process is crazy. How would USMS know I’m on a particular flight? Do you think they cross check every flight manifest with the sex offender registry of every state? That seems completely implausible. If the UWMS does pull me off a plane, what am I supposed to do — present them with a copy of a letter I allegedly mailed to someone? Would that satisfy them?
Has anyone actually done this (mailed in a notification letter). Can you provide details and results?
If you yes his comments to find you your alternative is just to stay in your house for the rest of your life. No one is going to ask you why you have a marked passport, more more people are going to end up with it before things are all said and done.
I wonder if the US government has ever taken a registrant’s travel plan under the IML, and based on conviction involving minors and prediction of travel patterns, if they ever fabricated that person’s information to make it sound like that he/she is a risk to commit harm against children and then notices get sent out?