As you have probably guessed from the fact that I sold my WFC membership, the trans-Atlantic travel situation is still not good. Kevin and I continue to investigate options, but so far we’ve had no luck, and of course we are hampered by not being able to throw money at the problem.

The DHS has recently launched an appeals scheme for people who think that they have been denied entry unfairly, so we tried that. No luck. The response we got from them was largely boilerplate legalese, and it didn’t look like they had investigated my case any further than establishing that it was not a case of mistaken identity. They did point out that I was eligible to apply for a tourist visa, which I know. However, they also stated that no one would be denied entry under visa waiver unless they were ineligible for the scheme or were one of “those whose travel would pose a law enforcement or security risk”. As the State Department insists that I am eligible for visa waiver, I can only conclude that the DHS has me in the second category. That in turn suggests that any visa application is likely to be denied. And even if it wasn’t, the DHS still reserves the right to refuse entry.

Also, of course, if I am listed as a security risk then there’s a reasonable probability that I’ll be on the No Fly list. They won’t tell you if they are, but I have no intention of spending around $1000 on a flight to Canada only to find out that the DHS won’t allow me to board.

So there we are. The next stage of the process will be to actually apply for a tourist visa. But I’m not going to do that until I have a really good excuse to go.