News German hacker blocked from entering US

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/2007/07/31/german_hacker_blocked_from_entering_us/1

A German hacker who was scheduled to hold a teaching session at the Black Hat convention has been blocked from entering the US.

 

He will have to apply for a visa at the US Embassy back in Germany before he attempts to return to the US, every single time. Unfortunately, since he's been rejected under the Visa Waiver scheme once, he will never be able to use it again. Which sucks for him.

 

It's easy to scream "Paranoia!" but it seems he's come over with a holiday visa and admitted he's come to do a paid job of work.

Stupid boy. Nil points for intelligence.

 

yeah, if he'd just filled out his H-1B visa form in advance, he should have had no problem. It's not like the Blackhat convention was a spur of the moment event

 

Wouldn't it just have been easier to cross over the Mexican border?

 

Its not as straight-forward as that - you *can* travel to the US for business on the visa-waiver scheme. I've done it frequently for the last 8 years. There's an option on the waiver forms to indicate you're travelling on business...

edit: he was stopped by customs, not immigration, specifically for carrying course material. Stupid boy - should've DHL'ed them..

 

haha. I was about to say the same thing. lol its only costs $10 for the trip if you hire a "guide".

 

Wait ... you're allowed to enter the US with a "normal" visa on a business trips but customs won't allow you to carry a few printed out sheets ??
Who/What's stupid here?!

 

He should have said he came for ice cream.

 

Meh. Just have him teach it via webcam.

 

this is kind of sucky....

 

He can still teach, he just needs to hop the next flight to Mexico first.

Also how did they know about this material, you mean to say that the gov can use an xray machine to see what my printed documents say in my carry on luggage?

So if I carry a picture of an Islamic person in my bag and they see it in the bag clearly I will be arrested then for questing.

I just do not understand how they figured all this stuff out with him simply telling them or with out them violating some sort of right that used to exist in this nation.

 

There's a separate US customs form to fill in with a question asking if you are bringing "commercial material" into the country. This covers everything from promotional brochures to course material. The reason for this is they may have a value and therefore be liable for customs duties. If the guy was honest & ticked this box, and was obviously carrying an extra suitcase, then he would have been pulled over & questioned. Then again he could've just been caught in a random search. In my experience when commercial material is found, it's confiscated until they can work out a value & therefore how much duty is to be paid.

The fact they then rechecked his immigration status and found a technicality does raise the possibility they didn't like the look of the material and decided to play hard-ball..

 

that would really suck, traveling X amount of hours only to turn around and go back

 

It depends who's paying you. If it's the company you work for back home, it's not a problem. In this case he had a contract with an American firm.

An American coming to the UK (or Dullien's home country, Germany) to lecture for a fee would need a Work Permit. Works both ways. He hadn't read the manual.

Maybe this will help

 

I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not. So I'll answer this as if it were sincere: The airport now (and for some time after 9/11) maintained the right to do "random" baggage searches on individuals. It can be for any reason, or no reason at all. This is why you can't have padlocks on your luggage anymore on the US-side. They break them off to get into your bag. >.> It is why all my electronics come on my ONE (only amount allowed now :S) carry-on bag. (Just don't try bringing milk aboard, it might be considered a liquid explosive. >.> )

So at anyrate, they search through your stuff if they feel like it, and then if they find something they don't like, you get detained, questioned, and possibly get your stuff messed with or busted up. And that's flying States-side, or from the US-out. Its probably even worse coming from the US-in. Especially if you're not a citizen.

Rights? What rights. Its the United States of America, what did you expect to find?
( ::mutters:: stupid police state of upper middle class pompous bureaucrats ::mutters:: )

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As far as the Visa issue, I know nothing about them. The only Visa I mess with is my Debit Card.
Though teaching it via Webcam would probably work like Tulatin suggested.