It Now Costs $14 for a Tourist to Get into the USA
From 2012.
North’s first law of bureaucracy is this: “There is no official regulation that will not eventually be enforced insanely.”
A recent example is the ESTA. “What’s that?” you ask. I’m glad you asked. It’s the Electronic System for Travel Authorization. It is run by the Department of Homeland Security, whose slogan is: “Your papers, please.”
To enter the USA as a tourist, you must now fill in a form and pay $14.
This is sort of like DisneyWorld. You can’t get in for free. I call it ObamaWorld.
This $14 fee doesn’t get you on any of the rides inside ObamaWorld. You have to pay for those.
Why $14? Because that covers the cost of processing the form.
What form? Why, the “Keep ObamaWorld Safe” form.
You see, we are under attack by terrorists. So, in order for any terrorist to get into ObamaWorld, he must identify himself on the form.
Spies must also identify themselves.
Any Nazi collaborator must identify himself. Or perhaps his guardian can do it for him. Surviving Nazi collaborators are getting into the Alzheimer’s age group.
This form is official. It is illegal to provide false information on this form. The form keeps Americans safe.
You can visit the ESTA site here. It is not what I would call user-friendly. Here you will read the following:
Paperwork Reduction Act Statement: an agency may not conduct or sponsor an information collection and a person is not required to respond to this information unless it displays a current valid OMB control number. The control number for this collection is 1651-0111. The estimated average time to complete this submission is 15 minutes per respondent. If you have any comments regarding the burden estimate you can write to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, 1300 Pennsylvania Avenue, Room 3.2.C., Washington DC 20229. Exp. Mar 14, 2014The ESTA logo is a registered trademark of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Its use, without permission, is unauthorized and in violation of trademark law. For more information, or to request the use of the logo, please go to help.cbp.gov and submit a request by clicking on “Ask a Question.” When selecting the Product (under Additional Information) use “ESTA” and the sub-product “Logo Assistance” to expedite handling of your request.
This is written by a bureaucrat for his bureaucracy.
Continue Reading on nytimes.com.
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Published on March 20, 2012. The original is here.
The fee is still $14.
Notice that the form complies with the Paperwork Reduction Act.