• The officers didn’t know where Saba or St. Maarten was
• Didn’t believe that Nathan was going to study, thought he was going to work
• Wanted his banking information to see how he could afford to go to Atlanta for 2 months (then questioned him whether using a line of credit for a “vacation” was a wise use of his money)
• Wanted a letter from the school saying that he wasn’t doing anything affiliated with the school (could you imagine if they school had to write a letter like that each time a Canadian student wanted to cross the border?)
• Wanted to know why he had a computer monitor (helps him study to have 2 monitors) and an iron (doesn’t want to bother the family he’s staying with each day when he irons his shirt)
• Needed a reference letter from the couple he was going to visit.
The bottom line was that they didn’t believe him that he was going to study, and the burden of proof was on him and he didn’t meet it and they made their decision.
So after leaving at 5am, he returned at 12pm. He spent the afternoon calling the US customs to talk to a supervisor to find out all the information he would need to try again. I know he was mad/upset about the trip hitting a snag, but I understand that customs has to be thorough and I guess it’s a good thing that they’re strict. It’s just frustrating when the “good people” are penalized but bigger picture, I know its right. Nathan’s biggest complaint was that after holding him for 3 hours, he was being walked out by one of the guards and the guard said, “You know, you should have just said you were going on vacation.” Nathan was upset by this because he was just interrogated for hours over telling the truth and this man told him he should have “lied”. Nathan wants a perfect record of border travel since we plan to do it often and telling the truth is big deal to us so there are no complications later, well, so much for that!
After a few hours of calming down, napping, and thinking it over, Nathan decided that he’d just stay in Boxall and study. My parents have an extra bedroom that he can turn into an office, it’s really quiet here, and it’s just too stressful to try at the border again and be turned away and lose another full day of study time. So, this afternoon I rearranged the craft room into an office for Nathan. I’m actually happy that he didn’t make it across because now he can stay here with me!
I think Nathan would have loved to go (so would I) but we’re getting better at realizing life doesn’t always look like the way you thought it would but it will always end up looking the way it should.
No comments:
Post a Comment