I flew from Britain to Montreal for the 2009 Worldcon. I could have flown via Newark from my home airport, Edinburgh but I would have had to go through US Customs and Immigration if I did so even though I would never have left airside to transfer to a Montreal flight. I would also have had to preregister with the US State department at my own expense before I got on the plane and I could have been arbitrarily refused "entry" to the US and sent back to the UK at Newark, and remember I was going to Montreal in Canada not visiting the States.
Instead I flew to Charles de Gaulle airport in France and caught a direct flight to Montreal from there without involving the US authorities in my travel plans. Nowadays I couldn't even do that so if Montreal gets the 2017 Worldcon I probably won't attend it. On the other hand if Japan wins their expected 2017 bid then I'd have no problem -- I'm just back from a trip to Japan on a tourist visa and I went through Immigration there at a slow walk (they do take a picture and index fingerprints though which is a little bit more intrusive than it used to be).
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2013-05-30 08:52 am (UTC)Instead I flew to Charles de Gaulle airport in France and caught a direct flight to Montreal from there without involving the US authorities in my travel plans. Nowadays I couldn't even do that so if Montreal gets the 2017 Worldcon I probably won't attend it. On the other hand if Japan wins their expected 2017 bid then I'd have no problem -- I'm just back from a trip to Japan on a tourist visa and I went through Immigration there at a slow walk (they do take a picture and index fingerprints though which is a little bit more intrusive than it used to be).