He was denied entry without explanation. That this has anything to do with some petition he signed at some point seems a bit far fetched.
Also: A positive ESTA application doesn't mean anything. For Germans on the visa waiver, ESTA is just a quick online transaction that is good for several years. It doesn't actually mean that there aren't "any problems with the visa or work permit".
If he doesn't have a German passport (came to Germany in 1971 with his parents from Bulgaria), I can see why somebody from Bulgaria coming to the US from Brazil might seem a bit strange.
So far, this is all speculation and really not worth the read.
> I can see why somebody from Bulgaria coming to the US from Brazil might seem a bit strange.
Sorry, I don't. What qualifies as "strange"? Is that an official term? There are loads of people who travel via countries they don't live in. There are also many people who were born in countries that don't exist anymore - how strange is that?
There are certainly degrees of "strange" that triggers various levels of scrutiny. I'm Norwegian. Live in England, and used to travel to California regularly on business. I never had any problems entering, the US thankfully.
But I repeatedly tried to print my boarding pass online in advance and check in using machines at the airport. In London that always went smoothly. At SFO, it almost always caused me to be referred to the ticket counters due to some undefined "problem". The staff were equally baffled every time, and the only thing they could come up with was that the system flagged me because I was travelling to England with no onward ticket and no visa (don't need one, as Norway is in the EEA which gives me the same residency rights in the UK as EU citizens) - they at least claimed that their systems did not give them any reason.
Mine was just a minor hassle, but I would be surprised if the systems "score" people based on tiny little unexpected deviations from the norm like that for various additional levels of attention. (I still printed the boarding passes every time, as whenever I couldn't check in, all I needed to do was look a bit baffled and walk over to the premium checkin and they'd get me processed very quickly)
and the only thing they could come up with was that the system flagged me because I was travelling to England with no onward ticket
This is quite likely the issue. The UK are an extreme stickler in this regard.
When you fly from Zurich, you need to show your passport to leave the Schengen part of the airport and in addition there are strict controls at the gates for UK bound flights, where your id is checked again.
Contrast this to flights within the Schengen room, where you scan your boarding pass (mobile, home printed, or airline issued) at a couple of automatic gates and you're in the plane. No id at all required.
From what I've read it's more and more the case that countries use airlines as cops to deny entry at the point of origin. If somebody with invalid travel documents, or missing visa gets onto the flight the airline can be heavily fined.
>That this has anything to do with some petition he signed at some point seems a bit far fetched.
That's an understatement - together with Juli Zeh he's co-authored a book about the surveillance state, has published numerous essays criticizing the US in Germany, he also didn't sign that petition, he _co-initiated_ it.
So it was at the Brazilian airport and American Airlines had something pop up on the screen when checking his passport and after some disappearance told him that he isn't allowed to board.
It's quite possible that his ESTA application (although at first automatically approved) didn't match up with the records (which might have not been updated either).
I-94 F: "Have you ever been denied a U.S. visa or entry into the U.S. or had a U.S. visa cancelled? If yes, when? ______________________ where?"[1]
Last year his work visa was at first denied. And only granted after intervention by the Washington University St. Louis.: "Schon vergangenes Jahr hatte das amerikanische Konsulat in München meinen Antrag auf ein Arbeitsvisum zum Zwecke einer Gastprofessur an der Washington University in St. Louis zuerst negativ beschieden und erst nach Protesten der Universität und einer erheblichen Verzögerung, die einen Teil des Semesters nutzlos vergehen ließ, das Visum erteilt."[2]
So possible simple explanation could be:
He assumed his visa was not denied and answered question F with NO, since he got one, but that didn't match up with the a possible record of his denied visa application. So his entry could arguably be denied on formal grounds only. Still bad style on not giving him any clue what went wrong. This would tell more about a bureaucracy state than a looming surveillance state, yet the two are not exclusive to each other.
Quite likely he also would have gotten in with an actual Tourist or Business Visa (B-1/B-2)[3], once approved they are way harder to revoke instead of relying on an over-automated process like Visa-Waiver/ESTA if you would have any unclear answers on an I94.
He was denied entry without explanation. That this has anything to do with some petition he signed at some point seems a bit far fetched.
Also: A positive ESTA application doesn't mean anything. For Germans on the visa waiver, ESTA is just a quick online transaction that is good for several years. It doesn't actually mean that there aren't "any problems with the visa or work permit".
If he doesn't have a German passport (came to Germany in 1971 with his parents from Bulgaria), I can see why somebody from Bulgaria coming to the US from Brazil might seem a bit strange.
So far, this is all speculation and really not worth the read.