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
Man- you have no idea how much of a process I went through just to get ready to cross the border. Fedexing my laptop, and I even spent the night on the Mexican side Nuevo Laredo, just to do a little surveilance of my own. All of this work and money, for 2 questions, then ‘you’re free to go’.
I am wishing to find a lawyer that will file a case for me on this in the Federal Court for Texas. (Not sure which court that would be.) However, of the two lawyers I spoke to, one said he felt I had no case as he agreed with the premise that the law was constitutional, and the second one said he did not handle those type cases and had no recommendations of a lawyer for me that could do that.
I’m 78 and don’t know how much longer I will be healthy enough to travel, but would like to be able to continue as long as physically able, without this law and the subsequent ones that will surely be following to block my life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for my remaining days. I only have one conviction from 1990 and a perfectly clean record since that time, but that does not seem to enter into the equation for which registered offenders will be further encoumbered with these overreaching laws.
Flew to Paris, 5 days vacation: Just arrived back at LAX. Secondary lasted a total of 2 minutes, checked to ensure my registration was current, out the door. No issues arriving at Paris. Easiest trip ever. Will update if I get a notice about having to get a new passport.
I arrived at SeaTac from Amsterdam on June 12th, 2018 and was diverted to secondary as expected. He looked at my passport for a while, then said everything was okay (never had any problems with SeaTac before) and I went downstairs and grabbed my luggage. Thought I was home free, but on the way out, I was diverted again. I thought it would just be a luggage inspection, but the guy stared at his monitor for about 15 minutes, asked for a supervisor. After that, he told me he had to confiscate my passport under the AWA. I mentioned that in previous cases, they normally send a letter of revocation and don’t confiscate passports at the airport. He was fairly polite (and even offered to help me with identification if necessary for the remainder of my journey), but wouldn’t return my passport.
Not sure if this is relevant, but I live in Sorna non-compliant state (Hawaii) and register both addresses (USA & overseas), so I don’t have to give the 21 day notice when traveling.
I am wondering what happens when a Registered Citizen moves to another country. And the destination country does not have registration laws. Does anyone have experience or knowledge as to what happens? Is the local US agency required to notify the foreign country? And what about returning to the US to visit?
Has anyone travelled to Oman or have any knowledge of the “issues” with travelling there. I looked on the Travel matrix but Oman wasn’t listed.
I have noticed that many comments about travelling overseas have included age of consent remarks. I have a question…………
If that was your offense, have you not learned your lesson and grown as a human being? If that is your sole reason for travel, then stay here in U.S. and stop fucking it up for the rest of us that want to get on with our lives. I mean to sound harsh, because it seems obvious to me anyway that some on this site haven’t learned from their mistake. There are millions of people out there that you can interact with that won’t get you put behind bars and screw the rest of us over. Granted, mine was not a contact or proposition offense, but an offense none the less. As someone that has travelled most of my life and has friends and family that I might never see again, it really erks me when I read travel comments like ” watch the age of consent” or ” the age of consent is lower in that particular country”. It means that is on your mind, and that is wrong and it hurts everyone.
Well the ministry says I can’t gain my birth right because my parents never filed the paperwork of my birth. Thanks mom and dad and your American dream attitudes.
FML. May just have to go about it another way and work through the 10-20 year process of getting it here. I’m only 3 1/2 more years away from being able to get permanent residence. Then another 5 years if they approve PR I can apply for citizenship which would null out the US one.
EUROPE – Smooth Sailing…
First and foremost I want to thank EVERYONE on this blog for helping prepare for my trip overseas to EUROPE.
I did as you all instructed and filed my Travel Itinerary well in advance. It was VERY DETAILED with all travels dates, addresses of hotels, ports of entry.
Well here is how it went…
We took off from ATLANTA without incident. We arrived into PARIS – Charles De Gaulle. I breezed through customs, actually cleared customs prior to my traveling companion – haha!
We took the ICE Train to Wittlich, Germany; passing through Mannheim without anyone asking for passport.
We drove to Switzerland, entered at Basel and again was not asked to provide passport.
We DEPARTED EUROPE via Zurich without any problem. ARRIVED ATLANTA and again breezed through customs. I used MOBILE PASSPORT upon entry. NO SECONDARY.
My travel overseas (my first on registry) was WONDERFUL and without any issues.
Thank you again to all on this blog. Your input and assistance helped a great deal.
Traveling to Poland in November anyone have any issues there? Thanks Chuck
“The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.” – Thomas Jefferson (Printed on the endorsement pages of my United States passport. Rather ironic.)
Anybody know if you are moving out of the country do you have to give them your destination country? I know you do for travel, but what if you are permanently moving? isn’t there something to do with freedom of movement where you don’t have to specify your destination?
Thanks
What happened at court today, Janice?
My local sex offender registration officer told me just to come in when convenient to give her the itinerary. Did not give me a 21 day limit. Of course, this is my first time to file an itinerary. I never knew it was required.
Why would Mr. D get a revocation letter if he has the new passport with the inscription? If he doesn’t, then it is fairly obvious that if the Angel Watch officer(s) notice he has traveled, they will require the State Department to revoke it.
Ever since the automated machines were installed, I get an X on my passport. There is nothing random about it. It looks for a sex offense in your record and stamps on the X. (maybe for any felony. I don’t know.) Until Angel Watch went into effect, the secondary was just a matter of checking their computer (for who knows what) and then telling me I was free to go. This last time with Angel Watch, I guessing they got all kinds of flashing red notices (from Angel Watch) on their screen and I was sent for a third level of security. Nothing more was done there other than delaying my longer and giving the person there time to do a little harassing. Then I was sent on my way – as was the notification to Angel Watch and to the State Department to revoke the passport.
I truly hope and pray that this latest round of increased rules and regulations that they keep slapping on us is found unconstitutional and that they are forced to remove them. I have no idea if Chris Smith has some kind of obsession and misinformed information about sex offenders, or whether it is just his way of making a name for himself. But, it is time that those individuals are slapped on the wrist and told to stop.
Am I the only one who has sent back my revoked passport and applied for a new one?
I had no luck finding out how to apply for a new passport and to assure that it is valid with the Scarlet letter printed on it. (Note: I’m being humorous again. I don’t expect a scarlet letter to be on it, but just that new endorsement that the Angel Watch people are requiring be on the passports of sex offenders.) Anyway, I was told to just apply for a new passport and to attach a copy of the State Department letter to the application to assure that they knew what was taking place. I also sent my revoked passport to the State Department under separate cover by registered letter.
It did not work. Today I received a letter from the passport office telling me that they could not proceed with processing my application for a new passport because I did not inclose the previous valid passport issued to me in 2009. They said that if it was lost or stolen to fill out the enclosed from DS-64. The form was not attached, but I did go online to look at it and it has no place to declare your passport was revoked, just lost or stolen. I called the passport office and explained the situation and was told that the local passport office would be calling me to clarify the issue. We’ll see.
Just return from Europe yesterday on a business trip. I recently found out I needed to give a 21-day notice so this was the first trip where i did that. Didn’t have any trouble getting into any country. On my return, this was only the 2nd time in 7+ years I was not required to go through secondary screening – I travel very frequently. (Not sure if was because I gave notice or the officer didn’t now what is typically done, he only asked if I was bringing anything into the country, which I said candy, and he sent me on my way. I was in very surprised! Ironically, the last time I went through secondary the woman was extremely intrusive.)
Now I wait to see if I get the revocation letter. Unfortunately, I will need to travel again near the end of August so I’m hoping if I do get the letter it is sooner than later. Can anyone tell me about the process they went through once they got the letter? On the passport application it only asked if this is first time for passport and if not (and not expired) if my passport was stolen or lost. No place to say revoked. I would need an expedited turnaround so if anyone has actually been through the process would be great to hear from you, what you did, and how long it took to get the new passport with the identifier.
I will post if and when I get the revocation letter. Good luck all.
Just participated in the most depressing meeting ever – the phone conference.
We learned that the court dismissed the challenge to the IML.
We also learned that at least one Supreme Court Justice believes the only reason some men travel to certain destinations is for the purpose of having sex with children.
We heard that we can probably expect more and more intensive sex offender restrictions and that it is virtually useless to challenge them.
Really, at 78 years old I had hoped to live out whatever days I have left traveling and enjoying myself. I feel like I should be permitted that right, since I have remained completely within the law ever since my offense back in the 80’s, over 30 years ago.
Is there no reason and are no laws being passed based on solid research instead of unfounded fear and prejudice?
It is unbelievable that none of the jackass politicians that introduced these unconstitutional and ex-post-facto-punitive laws believe in scientific verification, peer-reviewed research findings, statistical data, etc.
Would it be a good idea to get some immigration representatives from other countries that are reasonably curious & open minded and invite them over to a conference to let them know about the IML and the notices being sent out?
I said I’d keep you up to date on my passport application. It has now been 8 weeks and still no passport. Their telephone information line still says “being processed.” They told me the final stage would be when they say it is “final processing.” So, I guess it’s still weeks away.
From my experience, I’d advise anyone that has had their passport revoked to 1. send it in with your application and 2. pay for expedited processing.
Anyone travel to st. Barthelemy in the Caribbean?
Latest update: 7-27-18
I got the passport today. They even sent it overnight mail.
The endorsement is on page 27 as others have said. It is actually printed twice, one under the other. I have no idea why they did that.
It does have printed on the photo page (that everyone looks at) “See page 27.”
So, lets hope that everyone ignores that. Won’t know until September how it travels. I am only going to be in Western Europe and not Great Britain, so hopefully everything will be ok.
@E…
U.S. VI I usually stay 10 days, register in in st Thomas as I arrive from US mainland. I usually E-mail the lady in charge of registering to give heads up on my timing. (The ferry to St John is on a schedule). I stay at canael bay which was destroyed by Irma and Maria. I’m searching for a new winter vacation spot.
My traveling friend has not traveled since Belgium/Amsterdam. He’s going to Portugal may or later 2019. Again, he had no problems traveling with the identifier. The only issue might have been at hotels but I checked in for the four of us most of the time and had a normal passport. (our other travel mates are not on registry).
Fascinating recent decision from the DC Circuit worth reading for fans of this thread:
https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/0/EB6F9B47E530A701852582D0005708D7/$file/16-5065.pdf
Reposting for fellow travelers:
🛫 Flying?? 🛬 ‘Ever feel like you’re being watched? (Oh sorry, that was a really stupid question!!) :
http://apps.bostonglobe.com/news/nation/graphics/2018/07/tsa-quiet-skies/?p1=HP_SpecialTSA
Here’s more:
https://www.npr.org/2018/07/29/633686726/-quiet-skies-tsa-surveillance-program-targets-americans-without-warrant
___ and ___
https://www.vox.com/2018/7/29/17627734/quiet-skies-tsa-flight-surveillance
So…. how long before some airlines choose to ban Registrants from their flights?