We have updated our main International Travel section. It features:
- List of Schengen Nations (allowing entry to registrants);
- Resources (including a CA DOJ Travel Notification Form); and
- User Submitted Travel Reports.
This post is linked from the Main Menu at the top of the site.
1. The 26 Schengen Nations (which allow registrants to visit)
As an agreement, Schengen was signed among the five out of ten countries of the European Union members back then, on the 14th June 1985. Under the Schengen agreement, travelling from one Schengen country to another is done without any passport and immigration controls or any other formalities previously required.
Austria
Belgium
Czech republic
Denmark
Estonia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
Iceland
Italy
Latvia
Liechtenstein
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malta
Netherlands
Norway
Poland
Portugal
Slovakia
Slovenia
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Note: US Citizens are visa exempt when visiting the Schengen area for up to 90 days in a 180 day period (List of Countries, Section B or map). The European Commission is proposing creating a European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) for such travelers, beginning in 2021 – which may or may not take criminal convictions into account. ETIAS Fact Sheet April 2018 – July 2018
—
2. Resources
Forms
Publications
- RTAG Travel Matrix
- IML Dispatch (SMART Office, Feb 2016)
- ETIAS
Old Posts
- International Travel after IML (2016)
- International Travel – Mexico (2014)
- International Travel (2013)
—
@TS @NotEasilyOffended @someone who cares
Thanks for your responses. Not counting maybe 50 times going to Secondary driving out of Mexico (where the most irritating thing was having the car X-rayed with me in it), I have gone to Secondary maybe a dozen times coming into LAX. They usually take my passport and tell me to go stand by myself, usually next to a pillar between the waiting lines and the checkout kiosks, and wait for an officer to come. That wait has been from 10 minutes to 40 minutes and it is a bit embarrassing with everyone looking at you and wondering why you are there. When the officer comes, my experience has been from the officer talking to me for about 5 minutes telling me that he could impound my cell phone and camera if he were so inclined, and then letting me go, to my most recent experiences where the officer escorts me down to the baggage carousel and watches me retrieve my luggage, then has me follow him to Secondary inspection through an empty corridor. In most cases, the officer expresses no interest in my carry-on items, but wants to search through my checked luggage. There is never much of a hurry. Yesterday, the officer left me standing there for about 35 minutes while he took care of “other matters”, before he came and searched my bags. This is pretty typical. Yesterday, our flight landed at 3:00 pm and I stepped out of the airport at just after 5:00 pm. Btw, there are a certain number of people who are directed to Secondary for whatever reasons, but us “special people” are the only ones who have our passports taken and held, and then get escorted by the officer to Secondary.
Observation: It IS sickening that you can travel to other countries and be treated with some respect, only to be treated like dirt by your own country when you return home. Even in Thailand, when I was denied entry, they were very friendly and apologetic. They said they would have let me in if it weren’t for the letter from “Angel Watch” which they showed me. They even let me wander around the airport by myself, where I ate lunch at Burger King, before heading back to the gate to get my return flight home.
Recommendation: When flying back to the US from other countries, if you have to make a connecting flight after you land, make sure you allow at least a 3 hour layover to the next flight. I have observed more than one person miss a flight waiting to get through Secondary.
Just saw this on SOSEN regarding new laws for traveling to Europe. Not sure how that would effect people on the registry, but I have a bad feeling.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/irenelevine/2019/03/08/new-requirements-for-traveling-to-europe-what-u-s-citizens-need-to-know/#5818edc91da4.
For more about electronic devices searches by CBP, Goggle “Kolsuz” and “Alasaad” legal cases.
At one level I am really envious of PK being able to live outside of this invisible lifetime prison that they have put me in. Since this country has permanently publicly branded me as a criminal, it would be nice to be able to go someplace else in the world where they would not do that. The thing is that with my means, i could probably do that.
I probably have about 200K in equity in my house that I could get out if I sold it. I have a consulting business that earns about 50K a year that I would need to close down, but I have an online business that earns about 120K per year that is growing. So technically, I could leave right now, but I would rather go someplace where I could be in the same timezone, because my online business needs support, and people need to be able to get a hold of me on the phone. Over 80% of my business is in the US, and so living in Europe would put me out of touch with most of my customers.
The problem is that no place south of here will let me in, at least not without some legal work with an immigration attorney from there, which I am thinking about doing, but I think even that can be an issue if the US decides to mess with me.
Again, I feel like they have put invisible walls around me, and have given me ex-post-facto life imprisonment, only they call it freedom, because I can live and for the most part people think I’m just a normal person, but I have a full head of gray hair, because I have been under this condemnation that there is no redemption or restoration from for over 25 years. I feel like I might just die an early death under it if I don’t get out from under this status of scarlet letter living.
Typically if you don’t like someone you tell them to get out. You remove them from your presence. You send them away. Well, ok, I will leave. I want to go. I will leave the USA, and go someplace else that wants me….But the USA won’t let me go… They stop me…They poison the well for me anyplace I try to go, and they tell these other countries that I am a SEX OFFENDER. They actually notify them of this so I can’t even set foot there. Not that I am a former sex offender. They don’t tell them that is what I am. They don’t tell them that I agreed to a plea and they changed the deal on me after the fact to brand me for life…
The thing is that when they maximize the heinousness of what i did, which was a touch, they also magnify the amount that my former victim (who is a family member, and we both love each other, and she has forgiven me) thinks that she is damaged goods. Their unjust dealings with me has been much more of a mind-F on her than it otherwise would have been if they had stuck to the original plea of 10 years probation, and a deferred adjudication.
@E: Thanks, I was feeling simultaneously creative and mad.
@James I : What they’ve done is put us in a glass cage labeled “EVIL-PERVERT” so they can make us live with our prior sins for life, as they assume our prior victims have to live with being damaged-goods. It’s a generalized bias where they fill in all the blanks of the story of who we are, what we did, and what our victim has to endure with their imaginations. So, their emotion driven conclusions from some other worst-case perpetrator/victim story that they’ve read at some time prior becomes the narrative of every one of our stories.
@AJ: 1. I wouldn’t want to put her through that. We just don’t talk about any of that stuff anymore, and 2. I don’t think it would go very far in Texas.
@Mike G: I’m sorry that you’re in that situation. Perhaps you could speak to the Mexican attorneys that RTAG has been working with about a plan, and then change your permanent residence to Mexico so you won’t have to register or notify anyone as you go back and forth.
Hello,
Are there any challenges you know of against IML and passport notifier? I’m sure we’re all tired of this bs but just want to know what we can do to challenge this?
INTERPOL is a problem. You may never really know if they list you in their database and you might, as some have, manage to slide into a country without notifications, but this is probably down to inefficiency and ineptitude rather than being a clear signal of policy. Because, under this scenario, you’re not traveling under a different, non-U.S., passport, there is every reason to believe that the U.S. will not yank you off of INTERPOL (which they control for their own citizens). Even if you can manage to stop registering by reason of no longer living in the U.S., you will still be a U.S. citizen, no matter where you live, and one traveling under a U.S. passport (marked or not).
For what it’s worth, I was approved for TSA PreCheck. Didn’t bother with Global Entry as any felonies are excluded. Approval took a little while longer than the standard 3 days but evidently they follow their own rules about old criminal convictions outlined on their site.
I’ll be flying into Munich in a couple of weeks for a layover. What can I expect?
@steve
Here is part of my post from April 24:
“We flew into Munich, Germany. When we got to the customs person, I handed him both our passports. He scanned my passport, and then stared at the screen for what seemed to be a long time. Then he sat my passport aside. I’m thinking, “oh boy – here we go”. He scanned my wife’s passport, then immediately turned it to a blank page and stamped it. Then he turned to another agent and spoke to him for a few moments. After that, he reached over and picked up my passport, opened it to a blank page, and stamped it. He handed me back both passports and said “have a good visit”. He did not look in the back of my passport for my “branded” page.”
I don’t know if something would have been different if I had been arriving by myself.
Hope this helps.
Thanks for the repost. Well… I am traveling by myself as I put my family on a different flight so they wouldn’t have to deal with anything. Was Munich a layover for you?
Has anyone traveled with the identifier on the passport? if so what countries where you allowed into? any issues at hotels that ask to see your passport ?
Tomorrow could be a HUGE day with Grundy decision. Should have a direct impact on IML and hopefully Janice would move quickly if we get a good decision.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2019/06/02/supreme-court-gundy-rapist-227038
Mike G Mind telling us which six foreign countries?
Anyone travel to Portugal? I know it Schengen and shouldn’t be a problem, but I still worry. Flying nonstop from Newark to Porto.
Mike G Also, would love to know which cruise line/destination you managed? I know some lines are NG for us. Details would be so appreciated.
Anyone else have good/bad reports about cruises? My wife I could love to do the Panama Canal (Ft Lauderdale to LA), but it there are many stops in Central America and Mexico. I have heard that you don’t have to go through customs and show passport when leaving the ship for a day stop, you just use your ship ID.
Alaska is probably out since all ships seem to end in Vancouver.
Mike G I think most of the Panama Canal cruises don’t have a port day in Panama. One that we are considering on Holland American Line 17 days Ft. Lauderdale to San Diego cruises in the Canal for three days, but “cruise only.” There are several stops in Mexico on the way up the Pacific Coast, but I am guessing/hoping that there will not be customs those days.
Anyone have any experience with Princess Cruises or Holland American Line? They both have Panama Canal cruises.
Has anyone heard any recent reports about cruises? I am especially interested in NCL Norwegian Cruise Line. Their cruise from Ft. Lauderdale through the Panama Canal to San Francisco. There would be several stops for a shore day in Mexico, Costa Rica and other no-goes, but I understand that you don’t need a passport to disembark, you don’t go through customs, and use your ship IP instead.
Just sent in for my new passport. Sad to part with my passport card. It was nice for hotels and European casinos. As always the USPS and everyone in the system has no clue how to help registrants. Thanks to all who have helped. It is really appreciated.
Hi everyone. Question I seen that people are being turned away flying into Mexico,is it possible to just walk into Mexico?? Or would you be turned away from there also.
OK, but if I’m in a non-SORNA state (Illinois) and the local police adamantly refuse to take a travel change of address more than three days before you leave the state, how exactly do I give the 21 days notice? To whom?
I 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 is 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. I don’t want to be pulled off my plane before it departs, but there’s only so far I’m comfortable arguing with a police officer.
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.
Has anyone had an actual experience with this? Submitted a 21 day foreign travel notice to the police in Illinois (or other non-SORNA state)? Or, had this rejected?
The SORNA regulation states that you cannot submit the notice to them directly but must give it to the police in “your jurisdiction” but what if the police won’t take it?
So our Europe trip has begun. Made it through Munich without a hitch. Passport scan and stamp and he didn’t blink twice. Waiting for my connection to Paris.
@steve So thoughtful of you to take the time to share your wonderful news. Europe seems to be the dream location. Hopefully my wife and I will sail through customs when we arrive in Porto, Portugal.
Well, as to 21 day foreign travel notice in Illinois, in the face of the many concerned comments (thanks for your time), I called the Illinois State Police Sex Offender Registration Unit in Springfield and had a talk with the officer who answered. He assured me that all I need to do is comply with what my local registration office in Chicago specifies — 3-day in advance notice of change of address when traveling out of the country (or the state). Yes, he understood that this seems to be contrary to the IML/SORNA rules, but he assured me that if I do what I’m told by the office where I register that I won’t get in trouble. He said he had heard from a number of others who had the same issue and did what they were told, and that no one had been arrested or had any problems.
So, I’m going to take that advice. I don’t think it prudent to make a big scene over this or call too much attention to myself. As you all know, the police have very great discretion over what they can do to us, and I have been successful through the years flying under the radar. I have asked the highest authority and received the answer. By the way, no SOR police unit (Chicago or Springfield) has an email address, and the State Police will absolutely not accept any kind of registration notices from individuals by mail or in person.
Nicely done, Steve…I was kind of worried for you.
No one likes this, but you took some good advice and can rest easier now.
I know that you, and I and most of us, like to travel under the radar…but on this you really had to protect yourself…(better than you were doing).
Where you are isn’t perfect, but it should be adequate.
Lastly, if you don’t mind me asking, how detailed were you in your itinerary? Pretty specific, (actual hotels and dates), or more general, (ie Munich then Salzburg, Vienna) and fly home?
**********
Since we are discussing 21 day notice….how do people feel about US Priority Mail? I use it frequently for important stuff…it has mailed date and tracking so you know that LEA have at least received it. A problem I see is that your US Post Office Receipt will not say what was in the envelope…but this would be true for certified mail also.
I’m just thinking out loud here.
Best Wishes, James I
Bon voyage, everyone! I just received my extra special you-are-welcome-everywhere US passport! Oh, did I mention that it’s specially monogrammed just for me??? 🤮🤬