Passport Usability
Yesterday, I flew into San Francisco International (SFO) from London Heathrow (LHR). As usual, I had an interesting time with the US Immigration but for once, it’s not about their lack of training or the paranoia that now engulfs American culture made explicit by the fingerprint scanners or digital cameras at each desk.
No, this time, it was my passport’s fault.
I’m in a fairly unique situation at the moment. One that is difficult to explain to any immigration official. A brief run down of this passport’s history:
- it replaces a stolen passport
- I had an American H1B visa to work for Trilogy
- I had a UK work permit to consult to a British client on behalf of Trilogy
- I had a Czech tourist visa (prior to them joining the EU)
- I had a UK student visa which also has expired
- I have additionally, stamps from visits to Hungary, Austria, Sweden, Germany, France, Finland, Estonia, Spain, Italy, Greece and Hong Kong.
Needless to say, this is a difficult passport to navigate. I was asked where I was coming from and resided. I currently live in the UK despite completing my studies but technically, I’m not a resident of anywhere because I have a visitor visa to the UK.
“Is this your visa?” “No that was my work visa there.” “This one?” “That’s the student one but it’s expired.”
Thus, he asked for a secondary proof of Canadian citizenship which I was unable to provide.
Instead, I gave him my Texas driver’s license which further puzzled him.
Eventually, I was able to pass without much hassle but I would have completely understood that the confusing nature of my passport was cause for concern.
My issue is this: Wouldn’t this process be much easier if they simply stamped my passport in a chronological order instead of wherever they happened to open it?
I don’t know what shows up when they scan my passport but clearly, they still need to look at the stamps on the passport to determine my travel history. I receive some stamps which are OVER five other stamps when there are perfectly good blank pages. This makes it impossible for the next official to discern what the hell is going on. It’s gotten to the point where I have to memorize what pages each of my visas are on.
To say nothing of the way none of the stamps are standardized. I like the EU stamps; They show your mode of travel, whether you’re inbound or outbound, the country and the date.
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