Well, made it at last. Now I have a home. I note in passing that the 3G network went down at about the time Cameron became Prime Minister, and still isn’t back up. I wasn’t expecting the country to start falling apart quite so quickly. But now I have wi-fi in the cottage and can get on with normal life again. This is a huge relief.
Personal
Heading Out
I’m closing down the network in Darkest Somerset now and heading back to the cottage. In theory I’ll have Internet access there by midnight at the latest. If you see happy blogging from me later today you will know that all is well. If you see furious tweeting instead then I’ll be stuck using the iPhone.
Some Immigration Links
Those of you who have been asking what you can do to help me get back to the US, here’s a possible solution. A bill going through Congress will (if it passes) establish a new category of entrepreneur visa. So if anyone is willing to loan me $250,000 to start a business…
Yeah, right. But it is cheaper than the $1m I’d have to raise myself, so I had to ask.
On a more depressing note, here’s someone else from our community who got into trouble at a border.
And even more depressing, the UK government is being taken to court over what appears to be deliberate discrimination against LGBT asylum seekers.
Online Again, and Trains
The good news is that I have a stable broadband connection again. The bad news is that this has entailed going back to Darkest Somerset. I really do want to move into my new home, but I can’t do so if that means I can’t work.
Because I needed to get back here, today has been my first day using the magic rover ticket that Kevin found for me. That allowed me to go shopping in Bristol before heading down here. It is very nice indeed to be able to get on a train anywhere around the region and just go. I’m hoping I’ll be able to manage one day of tourism, assuming that the weather stops pretending it is November.
Right now, however, I have an awful lot of catch-up to do.
Still Travelling
I shall be headed back to Darkest Somerset one day later than planned. Kevin did some clever research on rover tickets on the trains which is going to save me quite a bit of money, but as it is a 15-day ticket and I need it to cover May 15th I had to start it from tomorrow.
More bloggery tomorrow when I (hopefully) have a regular connection again.
Phone/Internet Update
As I rather expected, BT refused to do anything to help expedite my Internet connection, aside, of course, from trying to sell me on their broadband service instead. Consequently I’ll be heading back to Darkest Somerset on Friday and will be mostly staying there until such time as I can actually get an Internet connection in the very expensive storage locker cottage.
Of course I did have a backup plan. I have got one of those mobile broadband services. The sort of thing where you stick a dongle in your computer. I would love to be able to use that from the cottage. But of course there is no signal. There’s also no signal on it from Somerset, or from Marjorie’s house, or from a whole heap of other places I have tried it. This is odd, because it is an O2 service and I have a perfectly good Internet connection from my iPhone in all of the places were the dongle can’t get a connection. Same company, same product, totally different service. Also, when I first got it, I used to get a perfectly good signal in Somerset. I could use it as a backup when the land line went down (which, you may recall, it did every time it rained heavily, thank you BT). But for several months now the service has been pretty much inaccessible everywhere I have been.
At this point there’s only one thing to do: send for Lily Tomlin.
For the youngsters amongst you, that was from the magnificent Rowan & Martin’s Laugh In.
Why I Get Broadband from Zen
So, here I am back at Marjorie’s place for a couple of hours to check email and try to sort out my Internet access problem. The good news is that despite the BT sales person assuring me that nothing could be done in less that 2 weeks, I now have email promising me a phone line by May 4th. That however, is only half the problem, because I need broadband access too.
Of course I could get broadband from BT, which would possibly be quicker, but it would be crap service. I get my broadband from Zen, because they do a great job, including having a “customer service” department that actually tries to help the customer rather than simply parroting excuses from a script. Case in point.
When I knew I would be moving, I asked Zen what I should do. They explained what I needed to tell BT in order to get both phone line and broadband set up simultaneously. I called BT and got some kid in call centre who insisted that there was no way that they would consider setting up broadband until the phone line was active. So I called Zen again and the guy there is sending me an email with the exact words I need to quote to the BT people in order to get them to do what I want. He also said they do about 40 of these simultaneous transfers a week, which kind of makes a nonsense of the BT guy saying it was impossible.
Of course I may well get stonewalled again by BT. That’s what big corporations teach their call centre staff to do. But with any luck I’ll actually have Internet access in just over a week, which is much better than the 3 weeks I was looking at yesterday. And it will be a good broadband service from a company that actually cares about its customers, which is a real rarity in Britain these days.
Home / No Home
Well the good news is that today I signed the rental contract and got the keys to the cottage.
The bad news is that it looks like it will be several weeks before I can move in.
Why? Well before I agreed to take the place I checked that it did indeed have a working phone line, because I need one for my broadband connection. Then of course I was told that I could not move in for several weeks. Now I have been told that it is my responsibility to arrange for a phone connection, and that will take several more weeks to sort out. I could, of course, have been sorting that out while I was waiting.
As it happens, I have to be in London Wed/Thurs, and I have train tickets from, so I’ll stay in the cottage for a couple of nights. After that I’ll need to go back to Darkest Somerset until such time as I can actually work from the new home.
Can you tell that I’m not very happy.
The Last Lap
Today I packed as much stuff as I could into two suitcases and headed off to Wiltshire. I’m staying with my friend Marjorie for a couple of days and Monday, if all goes according to plan, I’ll move into the cottage. It will be a great relief when it is all sorted.
In the meantime I shall be busy. My friend Gareth Powell has a book launch in Bristol tomorrow, and we’ll be taking the opportunity to do a bit of BristolCon business as well. While I’m over there I shall probably make a start on buying kitchen gadgets, a favourite hobby of mine, and one I now get to indulge in all over again.
Sunday I am going to do something mad and impetuous. Keep an eye on Twitter.
Over the next few weeks I shall be exploring the neighbourhood. This will probably involve a lot of stuff in Bath, including bathing, but there are many other interesting places around here for me to report upon. I’ll make a start now. This evening Marjorie and I had dinner at a very splendid Italian restaurant. What they don’t mention on the web site is that they have a very impressive collection of malt whiskies as well. I can see this getting expensive.
Right now, however, sleep.
Voting Can be Hard
You wouldn’t think there would be anything complicated in voting in an election. You just turn up at the polling station and fill in the ballot, right? Well, yes, as long as you have a stable home.
Currently my official residence is here in Darkest Somerset. As of next Monday, if all goes according to plan, I shall be resident in Wiltshire, in a different constituency. However, the deadline for registering your eligibility vote is tomorrow. As I’m still legally resident here, I can only vote here. Only I won’t be here on election day. So today I have been into the council offices and filled in a postal ballot request form. My ballot paper will now be posted to me, and I can post it back. Except I’m not 100% certain where I’ll be when they post it out. Contracts haven’t been exchanged yet. So I’m having the ballot sent here, because I’m fairly sure I’ll be back at least once between the ballots being sent out and polling day.
Yes, I’m being dogged about this. Voting matters.
Of course it doesn’t matter as much as it should. The BBC has an interesting web page that calculates how the election will turn out if the current polls are an accurate representation of how people will vote on election day. Using today’s Poll of Polls figures, this is what we get:
Labour: 28%, 280 seats
Conservative: 33%, 247 seats
Liberal Democrats: 29%, 94 seats
Others: 10%, 29 seats
Guess which of the main parties is most keen on electoral reform.
Note that the “others” are primarily Welsh and Scottish nationalists and the various parties unique to Northern Ireland, though the chart appears to show one seat in England going to an “other”.
I see also that even today’s YouGov poll, which gives the Lib.Dems. 33% of the vote, is not sufficient to topple to Conservative candidate here in Darkest Somerset. Therefore my vote on matters in as much as it will help show how unbalanced the system is.
Another Year Older And…
… well actually debt is one problem that I don’t have. My health is good as well, and I’m very grateful to Jay Lake and others for reminding me how lucky I am about that. If I wiggle my nose hard enough, maybe some of the good wishes I’m getting today will go to help my friends who are sick.
The trouble is that when you start getting on in years birthdays cease to be a time of celebration and instead become and excuse to wonder whether there is any point in carrying on living. That’s a particularly daft thing to so on such a beautiful day as today, but of course the fabulous nature of the weather only serves to remind me of where I had intended to spend today, and who I had intended to spend it with.
Even more annoyingly, if I was in California I would be facing the very real possibility that I’d be stuck there for the foreseeable future. The flight I had been intended to catch back to the UK has almost certainly been canceled by now.
However, life happens, and you get to contemplate other things. In my case right now that’s mostly an exercise in frustration. I can’t do anything much about the future until I’ve actually moved into the cottage. I have another week of chewing my nails to go yet. After that I can just let the nesting instinct take over and I’ll have a bunch of projects to concentrate on.
Meanwhile, of course, I continue to contemplate online stuff, because that’s the only way I’ll get to interact with most of you from now on. I won’t be able to go to the US, and once I’m paying rent I won’t be able to afford to travel much (this year aside, as I’ve made commitments that I don’t want to back out of, even if it does mean eating into savings).
One thing I have noticed is that I’ve had more birthday greetings than ever before. That’s mainly though Facebook, but also through Twitter as well. I have finally found something that Facebook is good for. Of course now I’m feeling guilty that I don’t send birthday greetings through Facebook myself, but with the number of “friends” I have I’d be sending out 2-3 messages a day, mostly to people I’ve never met. That, again, is Facebook for you.
Anyway, thank you for all of the kind messages. In two weeks time, when I’m settled into a place of my own, I shall get around to celebrating, and probably having a little shopping spree for kitchen gadgets. Until then, it is back to worrying about the future.
A Parallel Experience
This morning friends in New Zealand forwarded me a link to this sorry tale of an experience with US Customs & Border Patrol.
Obviously bekitty had a much worse time of it than I did. As I have said, the CBP officers that I dealt with were very sympathetic. I was very lucky. However, strip away the abuse that gets handed out to suspected illegal immigrants in Los Angeles and you are left with a fairly similar story. Except that bekitty had a perfectly legitimate visa.
This is the sort of problem I am facing. Even if you have a visa, CBP can and will make life difficult for you if you come and go too often. They can and do deny people entry because they suspect them of traveling for purposes other than those stated on their visa. And the key word there is “suspect”. If they suspect you, no matter how wrong they may be, you are guilty until such time as you can go back to your own country and spend a lot of money on lawyers to prove your innocence.
I also note that the visa descriptions are drawn so tightly that it is pretty much impossible to avoid violating their terms if you travel regularly and for more than a few days at a time.
Hopefully this will help explain why I am taking things slowly and carefully. I don’t want to waste any more money on lawyers or plane fares until I’m pretty certain that I will be allowed to travel.
Brief Status Report
First up, a huge thank you to everyone who expressed sympathy with my travel difficulties during Eastercon. I did have to go through the story rather a lot of times, but I was happy to do so because everyone I spoke to was clearly interested and friendly.
The thing I was telling people at the con, because I found out about it a day or two before the con started, is that I now know why none of the lawyers have got back to me yet. The H1B temporary work visa has a season. There are a limited number of them available, and in the past they have run out very quickly (under Dubya sometimes in a matter of days). So the period around the opening of a year’s allocation is the busiest time of the year for immigration lawyers. The opening date is April 1st. I’ll expect to hear back from people in a couple of weeks time. When visas are concerned, patience is a virtue.
I am currently back in Darkest Somerset and have all of my computers working (though I am now afraid to move the netbook, which kind of defeats the object of having an ultra-portable PC). Email has been attended to. The next job is to catch up on blogging. I also need to start packing up my stuff so that it can be transported to the cottage.
Status Report
Today’s good news is that I have been deemed a suitable person to rent property (many thanks to my accountant, Geoff, for coming through with the requisite references).
The bad news is that I can’t move in until April 26th. However, I think I am OK for places to stay between now and then. Also it gives me time to sort out the utilities, get my broadband service moved, and go back to Darkest Somerset to pack stuff. I don’t have a lot of belongings in the UK, but a lot of what I do have is books and there’s more than I can easily transport by train. This may involve bribing someone who has a large vehicle at some point.
I’m afraid that there will not be a house-warming party. The entire ground floor of my new home could fit into the lounge/diner of our apartment in California, so there’s not really room for parties. Indeed, as the dining table will be permanently devoted to being an office desk, and be covered in computer equipment, even having friends to dinner would be difficult. Afternoon tea is about the best I can manage.
Also there is no spare bed, not enough room on the floor for a sleeping bag, and the sofa is only long enough to sleep Hobbits. Sorry.
One of the best things about the place (aside from the low rent) is that it is very fully furnished. I won’t need to buy anything, although knowing me I will start to invest in stuff like kitchen equipment. After all, if I am going to have to stay in the UK, I will need to furnish an apartment sometime in the not too distant future (hopefully next year). My first priority will be a good wok.
As for the visa situation, I have explained my problem to several immigration lawyers. None of them have yet got back to me. This does not surprise me, but neither is it very encouraging. I continue to expect that I will not be able to get back into the US without a very good reason and/or a very large sum of money to spend. What I need to do is work on generating those things.
Border Issues
As many of you will already know, Peter Watts had his day in court yesterday, and has been found guilty. He now faces the possibility of up to two years in prison, although the final sentence could be a lot less (possibly even non-custodial).
Much outrage has already been vented around teh intrawebs, but before you add to it I strongly suggest that you read Peter’s remarkably measured and calm analysis of the case.
There is a tendency, especially amongst those of us who have training in IT or science, to think that laws are something simple and fair; rules by which one can easily be judged guilty or not. That’s often far from the truth, especially when cross-border issues and/or juries are involved. Often laws leave massive room for lawyers to argue a point. Cross-border issues tend to bring out the worst in people. And whether someone is “guilty” or not can often depend very heavily on the views of the jury members (see this article about the Christopher Handley obscenity case for another example).
Peter’s case is, in most ways, much more serious than mine. He has already faced massive legal bills, and could face much worse. Two things, however, we have in common. Both of us have a chance of being on the Hugo ballot in Reno (both through Clarkesworld in different ways) and won’t be able to attend the ceremony if we are. And both of us are caught in a situation where, regardless of the rights and wrongs of the case, we are going to be deemed guilty because it is a border issue and people get very irrational over such things.
In such situations, all you can do is go forward as best you can, and make as much lemonade as is possible of the lemons that life has thrown you. Judging from his blog post, Peter is holding up fairly well. I wish him all the best and hope he can stay that way.
Brief Progress Report
This morning I put a deposit down on the cottage. I still have to pass vetting, but my credit history is very good so hopefully that won’t be a problem. More on that as it develops.
Meanwhile I have an entirely different sort of problem. Galaxy has introduced a new chocolate bar that is like an Aero only with that lovely, creamy Galaxy texture. It is called Bubbles. I think I am addicted already.
It Never Rains
Well it is a good job I’m not planning to be on a plane to Orlando this morning, because I woke up to news of a major software problem with a client. It is nothing I have done — either Microsoft or a third party vendor is at fault — but I still need to provide a fix or work-around for my client. Oh happy days.
This, of course, put paid to my plans to go house-hunting in Bristol today.
Trying to Make Sense of It All
There has, inevitably, been a small amount of speculation around the blogosphere about my travel problems. On the one hand there are the people preaching doom and gloom about how the Evil TSA are Out To Get Us All. On the other there are people muttering darkly that I must have done something Very Bad. We do love our dramas. The reality is much less interesting and also far more complicated. I’m not sure that I understand it myself. But now that I’ve had a chance to decompress I’m going to try to explain what the problem is.
Entry into the USA is controlled by two different government departments: Customs & Border Patrol (CBP), who man the desks at airports, and the State Department, who run embassies and issue visas. These two organizations have different, and sometimes competing, aims.
The CBP generally dislikes the visa waiver scheme, because it means letting people into the country without any proper vetting. Their job is to protect the US from undesirables, and visa waiver makes that hard. State, on the other hand, is constantly besieged by people wanting visas. Anything that they can do to cut down the size of the queue is good, and from that point of view they love visa waiver.
An additional complication is that CBP and State have rather different views of what constitutes “businessâ€. As far as the CBP is concerned, anything that isn’t obviously tourism is “businessâ€. If you are attending a conference, or a board meeting, or doing anything for a charity or non-profit organization, that’s still business, and potentially suspicious. But State is concerned with the economic welfare of the USA, and will only grant a “business†visa if what you are doing obviously involves trade.
Then there is the question of visa categories. There are many of them, and they are all very tightly drawn, so if the purpose of your travel is anything out of the ordinary you may find it very difficult to find a category that fits you.
The final piece of the puzzle concerns the rules for visa waiver. There are certain things that prevent you from using the visa waiver system. Many of you will have had a good laugh at the questions about being convicted of genocide or being a Nazi. But it is also absolutely forbidden to use visa waiver if you have been denied an ordinary visa by State. Because, after all, if you were denied a visa then you must be a potential danger to the country.
So here’s the problem. In late 2008 the CBP says I travel back and fore too often for their comfort, and they want me to get a visa. I talk to a lawyer and in early 2009 I try to get a visa. State says that the sort of travel I am doing is exactly the sort of thing that visa waiver was designed for, and in any case I don’t fit into any of their neat visa categories so they can’t give me one. They tell me that I should carry on using visa waiver. So I follow their advice, and that appears to work. I am let in twice during 2009, once after a lengthy grilling that doesn’t once mention any visa application.
Then, last week, I get hauled in front of CBP officials. My records now say that I have been denied a visa and consequently a) I can’t use visa waiver and b) I have told a lie on that little green form you have to fill in on the aircraft. As far as I’m concerned I haven’t told any lies, I have done exactly what I was told by State. But proving that is likely to be a lengthy and very expensive process. And even if I do manage to clear my name, I have now actually been denied entry, and can no longer use visa waiver. And I can’t apply for a proper visa because there is no visa for the sort of things I do when visiting.
The net result is that I am totally screwed. As I’m sure you can see, much of this is due to the way in which the system is set up. Changing it, however, is an uphill struggle, and any attempt at reforming immigration laws is liable to get the froth-at-the-mouth brigade very excited. I’ve been talking to an immigration lawyer who campaigns for change in the system, and I hope that my story will provide her with useful ammunition. As far as I’m concerned, however, the only things that are likely to get me back into the US are a) if I become very rich, or b) if I manage to start making a living from the science fiction industry. The former requires a lottery win, and given that many of our top writers have to keep their day jobs because they can’t make a living out of writing novels, the latter is almost as unlikely.
Moving On
Having found myself somewhere to stay for a week, I have bid a fond farewell to the Clutes and am now residing in Wiltshire for a few days. Tomorrow I am going to indulge in some retail therapy in Bath, partly because a visit to Lush sounds like a really good idea right now, and partly because I have very few clothes with me and could do with another pair of jeans. On Monday I get down to the serious business of looking for a permanent place to live.
Coming Up for Air
Hi folks,
I am currently back in the UK and trying to sort out the various disasters that have been caused by my being unable to enter the USA. It is a long job, but I think I’m through all the important email now so here’s a status update.
1. Thank you so much for all of the messages of support.
2. Contrary to much of the speculation, this has little to do with anti-terror legislation and the like. It has been caused mainly by the fact that US immigration is the provenance of two separate government organizations — the State Department and Customs & Border Patrol — and in my case they don’t appear to have communicated very well.
3. As I result I appear to have inadvertently contravened the regulations, and therefore I will never again be able to use the visa waiver program. Nothing can be done about this.
4. The chances of my getting a visa are approximately equal to my chances of winning a lottery, because at my age, with my job skills, being able to invest a substantial amount of money in the US is the only way I am likely to get a visa. Just like any other country, the US grants visas to people who will be good for their economy, not for other reasons.
5. I would like to thank the two CBP officers who dealt with my case. They were particularly understanding, and it can’t have been easy for them to deal with someone who was in floods of tears much of the time. They are not to blame for this mess – they had no choice but to deport me.
6. Online outrage, letter writing campaigns and the like will not have any positive effect on my situation, so please don’t waste your time and energy.
7. The knock-on effect of this is unclear, but judging from the scowl and furious typing that greeted my arrival at passport control in the UK my status as an international criminal is already attached to my passport number and winging its way around the world. I don’t think this will stop me traveling in Europe, but it may mean that I am unable to visit New Zealand or Australia without a full-blown visa, which will make the Worldcon trip vastly more expensive and complicated.
8. Various people have been asking what they can do to help. As far as the US stuff goes, unless you happen to have the President’s private phone number there’s probably nothing you can do. However, I am currently homeless. I have places I can go in the short term, but I do need a long-term fix for this so recommendations as to places to live in the UK would be appreciated. The chances are I will be unable to rent anywhere in my own right. I am also going to need help with various sfnal projects that I have underway and will now be unable to run as effectively because I can’t travel, but that’s a subject for another post.
Update: I now have somewhere to stay for the next week, which is a big relief. I can now start looking at a more long-term solution.
Also please note that I don’t need money. Or rather, I need money in much larger quantities than you kind folks could possibly supply, so I’m not asking for anything other than suggestions as to where I can rent crash space.