The list of riders unable to make it to the 2017 edition of the biggest freeride event in mountain biking continues to grow. Rémy Métailler has been denied access to the US with border security stating that the "purpose of the trip is to make money as a professional athlete".
Rémy informed us that his original efforts to the border were with a valid ESTA (and his passport, of course), which is suitable for individuals who meet the criteria, including "planning to travel to the United States for business or pleasure". Since being denied access initially he has sought the assistance of lawyers, volunteered to refuse any kind of money as part of the event, whether prize money or the $5,000 in athlete expenses covered by the event promoters, and has had help from the French Consulate in Vancouver. Despite all efforts from the parties involved, he has been informed to obtain a work visa (which will take up to two months if expedited).
Unfortunately, the line-item stating individuals traveling for business are allowed entry with an ESTA appears to be somewhat misleading with it not covering athletes participating in events within the US. That would include all athletes, whether a young basketball or soccer team from another nation or a professional athlete, whether earning any money in the US or not. As stated on the B1 visa page of the
Work Permit website. "B-1 Business Visitor Ineligible Activities include;
Participating as a professional in entertainment or sporting events."
At this point, Rémy will not be attending Rampage unless he is somehow able to sort out a visa, and quick.
| No Rampage unless I can sort out a visa. The B1 B2 got denied because they still think that I'm going so I can make money.—Rémy Métailler |
Rémy's runs down the intense Rampage course have been among the faster there are, with him hitting the features as if there were a clock timing the run. Check out his 2015 and 2016 runs below.
Once you get refused it's giant pain to enter the US *EVER* again as you need a visa every time after that (no more ESTA for you).
Also, business does NOT mean making money, and it's easy, especially when English is not your mother tongue, to mess that up. If you're a bit difficult AND you get it wrong you will be denied every time, all the time. Even if you're not difficult you may get denied if you get that wrong. I have colleagues that got denied in 2010 for the exact same reason, and ALL immigration lawyers tell us all the time to be extremely careful about this very specific case.
I do hope Remy will be able to get there next time though, and it sucks he couldn't enter this time.
ps: here's one that always get my American friends eye's rolling: when applying for permanent residency, since Obama's 2nd term, you have to give a skin sample for DNA (in addition to blood, pee, and other "standard" stuff). For some reason they don't get the DNA from the blood samples (I guess it's standardized tests and blood is used to check if you have diseases)
Boohoo, somebody thought rules don’t apply.
BUILD THE JUMP!
MEXICO WILL PAY FOR IT"
- Donald Trump probably
Don't pretend this is a new state of affairs for the US! In 2007 I remember trying to fly into Vancouver, but unfortunately had a connection flight in the states. I was bluntly and somewhat aggressively asked 3 times what my 'intentions' in America were. I calmly stated each time that I intended to Canada, don't know why it took 3 goes but he got it in the end.
The US has had strict visas and entry requirements, and been cautious of its visitors for a long time, I'm not saying it's necessarily a bad thing, or a good thing, just an observation.
Also, don't drag Australia into this!!
You are right,
Its not a trump issue it's a plantation system issue,
And yes Canada is no better, hell no, even with Turdeau,
If at least people started to get what the stupids borders are all about...
How many miles of unpatrolled boarder does the US have with Canada? He should just have somebody pick him up in Montana.
When you go for work, it's just business, meetings, trade shows, ect....you are actually NOT working, but instead conducting business.
you mess that up and they will deny you entry
How many other non-american riders actually don't have a working visa?
Rest assured, there's at least 1 other person that doesn't think this is Trump's fault, and agree that people just can't seem to get past their personal political views.
For those in the US and those from other countries, rest assured, Trump has actually put forth proposals to change our immigration policy to a merit based system, which would be very similar to Canada's immigration policy.
For those not from the US that want to bash the US, please keep it off PB. It's disrespectful to the many that fought, died or were injured from our country that allows your country to still be flying your country's flag.
I can tell you there are lots of people nervous of travelling to the US because of the hostile treatment they hear about.
Years ago me and mates went to LA and the F**kers draw a gringo tash on my passport ! Didn’t go down too well !!
I once got pulled aside for screening because I had scrapes all over my knuckles. I told them it was from hitting brush while dirt biking in Arizona, I wasn't even 17 at the time....
Although, I'm the type of person that has all documentation ready to go and i don't cause a fuss, so I've never had an issue in any airport I've ever been in.
" goin down to ....... to ride my bike for fun and visit friends" is the best line ya can give them.
yes sir, no sir, thank you sir.......
you are in!
and with washington state being the first stop......
You are definitely not a Mexican, we have to go through a process to get a visa and you sometimes get threated like shit even though you are not a "bad hombre"...
These guys get paid to ride for a living. The vast majority of riders are getting paid indirectly for competing. The language of the law is that if prize money is awarded it's a competition, whether you get any money or not. This is important when it comes to things like insurance and visas.
It's all a vague line, even if there are (sometimes overly) strict rules. I just think it's overkill to say he looks like whining punk and deserved this.
Hire an immigration lawyer
Apply for rehabilitation.
If it's really been 15 years, you should qualify to renter Canada again if you take those steps
@fracasnoxteam: 5k is probably just enough to pay for flights and accomodation+food for the rider and and his diggers. but it is a salary, thus you need a work permit. it is handled like that all over the world. i'm sad we're not gonna see remy shred at rampage, but isn't that kinda on him? Others didn't had that problem
By the way, " if some1 offered me money to ride my bike": that's a point you have clearly not understand, he's not paid to ride his bike, he is paid to represent brands.
But yeah, 5k still a lot of money, I've to work for 4months to earn it, so you see, not so spoiled after all ;-)
Simple, honest mistake, but absolutely not surprising he got denied. Likewise, it’s not smart to lie and say you’re not entering for work, then show up all over the internet waving a big check a couple of days later.
Sorry, but no sympathy here, at the end of the day you’re just a guy entering a country like everyone else.
Red Bull is not some fly by night company, and this is not their first dance, so I'm guessing they had everything in order, sent out the procedure, and someone got it wrong.
Now, I guess we can argue all day whether it's his fault or his sponsors, but generally, athletes don't take care of these things themselves. They have people -- managers, agents, sponsors, etc. -- that take care of these things for them. Athletes have their jobs; sponsors/handlers have theirs.
We already have enough idiots here
Now call Jordie lunn asap Rampage organizers !
Now;
1. Nicholi Rogatkin
2. Jordie Lunn
3. Adolf Silva
And give this next guy a chance.. remember that story that Red Bull put on here with Carson Storch, Darren Berrecloth and a guy that wants to get involved with Red Bull Rampage...
his name is
Sammy Mercado
Let him be another Rookie on Rampage this year!!!!
Best would probably be to move Utah out of the US. Maybe shift that Mexican paid wall a little, that'll do.
My friend did the same thing showing up at an Ontario crossing to USA with his mini-van loaded with gear for a year of living the snowboard life. Denied. Then he tried hours later into Detroit. Denied and file flagged.
Here's the BC crossing conversation ...
"We see here Mr Métailler that you were recently denied entry at another crossing. Please explain yourself."
If this is accurate and you actually know this for a fact I’m blown away, trying again at another border crossing? Wow.
Like, does anyone seriously believe that US immigration only randomly checks a selection of people crossing the border. There was literally 0% chance this could have worked. And now he’s even more screwed.
How long is the US-Canada border? Is there nowhere in Saskatchewan where you can just stroll over into Montana? I mean these are big f$ckin empty states no?
She was held in a small room with numerous other people for 24 hours without food and then sent back to Japan.
When I did get a chance to speak to her she said the agent asked to see her phone and looked at the photos and social media posts. Lots of photos of her DJing. She had mentioned that she was attending a music festival as a guest not a performer but, the agent didn't believe her. I spoke to immigration lawyers but there wasn't much they could do.
So yeah, this kinda bullshit happens all the time.
Since the new tax reform the USA can't afford to let any money flow out of the country LMAO
I don't think that professional mountainbikers or DJs are considered a terrorist threat, though, except maybe they have the visual appearance of a Jihadist.
The tax reform, however, reduces the federal income by about 5,000,000,000,000.00$ a year on a statistic basis and since the underlying principle is "America first", it's only a logical consequence that money flow from U.S. to the outside would be at the very least massively impeded, if not frozen completely.
It is just rational thinking and economic reasoning.
You’re so wrong. If anything it’s actually worse because they still perform the same checks, you just get a little more freedom, the same rules still apply and if you get caught lying while using nexus priveledges you’re even more screwed. Also, as a fellow Canadian PR travelling on a foreign passport (as Remy is) then the majority of nexus priveledges don’t work.
True. All the time. I feel sorry for the immigration officials t.b.h. It is a hellish job where in order to do your job properly, you have to tell some people they can't come in. It's not going to make you popular is it.
I was travelling to the UK with my daughter (her mum is Japanese, but that time she wasn't with us) for a holiday to see my folks in the UK...
So,think about what they see: A single male traveller in their 40s with a female child (whose appearance is somewhat different to the male) under ten years old and no sign of a mother. If they DON'T stop me and question me, you could say they are not doing their job properly.
And to make matters worse, the UK Passport agency had printed her DOB the wrong way round (E.g. 21st instead of 12th), so when they asked me her DOB and I told them, all they kept saying was "That is not what I have here SIr on the passport" and me saying "Well, I saw here head pop out of her mum on the 12th, and I don't care what the passport says... get people who can read birth certificates properly in the office then!"
An hour later, they said they were prepared to believe me and not the passport, and in we went. Poor buggers, I called them all kind of names.
Lucky SOB
MAGA my arse, America is already great. You are being divided by cynical forces to be conquered more easily.
That said, I haven't seen any of this shit, anywhere, in real life. It seems to be coming from a very few outliers on both sides of the political spectrum.
@SimonBros: wtf is a liberal? Is that the same as a n****r lover?
@NYShred: Quitchyerbitching. Don't you have a safe space to occupy or something?
Seriously, you know the country is a joke right now and is going full retard on border control so why wouldn't you double check what visa you need?
its also normal to tell porkie-pies (lie) too, but you take a risk there ...
So because he has US based sponsors who he gets paid by that mean B-1 is not valid option.
surely Visas and insurance that covers travel and competition are #1 and #2 a pro athletes pre trip check list. bike, helmet, gopro, huge balls all come further down the list
Remy I feel really sorry for you. To spend so much time working towards something to have it taken away sucks. I hope that it is sorted for next year and best of luck!
But not bothering? When you're going to what is said to be the most important event of your season and your career? That's not professional. Costs be damned. If not being at Rampage is a career limiting move, you organise it properly.
Don't believe me? www.actionsportslawgroup.com
So yeah its not just the US, its a lot of counties.
Pretty simple really. Business is for meetings only.
My wife often flies into Vancouver and drives down to Seattle for work. She finds it easier to do the border crossing with her Canadian passport than flying directly into the US on a NZ one. Less questions asked.
Just build the trump wall so Métailler can do a sick whip over the M#$thaphukkah and land in Mexico.
(Any argument more political has no place here)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=toL1tXrLA1c
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnM-zVwUM20
- Walter Sobchak
aclu-or.org/en/news/nightmare-pdx
haha America is an international joke!
[takes a look around at Brexit Britain.................... slinks off quietly]
It's is becoming a global problem and pretty soon any misdemeanor, however small, will negate your ability to travel anywhere outside of your home nation.
If so, F*#K YOU
This is horrible news and so unfair!!!!
lirl
I don’t expect anything less when visiting elsewhere.
Jesus, why am I trolling America?
@AntN
1776 BOYS WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO