{"id":18131,"date":"2025-06-27T04:31:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T04:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/18131\/"},"modified":"2025-06-27T04:31:14","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T04:31:14","slug":"b-c-firefighter-denied-entry-to-the-u-s-i-dont-know-what-ive-done-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/18131\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. firefighter denied entry to the U.S.: \u2018I don\u2019t know what I\u2019ve done wrong\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A B.C. firefighter who once fought with the American military says he has now been <a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/tag\/denied-entry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">denied entry<\/a> to the U.S. and he is not sure why.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Jamie Flynn is a British citizen and a Canadian permanent resident who lives in Squamish.<\/p>\n<p>On Wednesday, he attempted to fly out of Vancouver International Airport to Alabama to represent Vancouver firefighters at the World Police and Fire Games in Alabama.<\/p>\n<p>But he was denied.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s annoying because I\u2019ve spent three months training for this event and everything just crumbled in a second,\u201d Flynn told Global News on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Flynn, who is also a search and rescue volunteer and does not have a criminal record, was set to compete in Jiu Jitsu at the games.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>He was told his ESTA pass \u2014 Electronic System for Travel Authorization \u2014 had expired and wouldn\u2019t be renewed.<\/p>\n<p>He says he was given no reason and no chance to appeal.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/national.jpg\" alt=\"For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n<p>For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll that pops up on the app is \u2018travel not authorized,&#8217;\u201d Flynn said.<\/p>\n<p>He added that neither the U.S. Consulate nor the ESTA program offered him any explanation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think this is a clerical error, but the fact that I can\u2019t speak to anyone is just super frustrating,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI feel like I\u2019m an upstanding member of society, like I don\u2019t know why this has happened.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t know what I\u2019ve done wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: '\u2018It was very strange:\u2019 B.C. resident describes car search at additional U.S. border checkpoint'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/WEB_BORDER_STOP.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:49<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\u2018It was very strange:\u2019 B.C. resident describes car search at additional U.S. border checkpoint\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tTrending Now\n\t<\/p>\n<ul class=\"l-inlineStories__posts c-posts c-posts--inline \">\n<li class=\"c-posts__item\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11260771\/critical-minerals-canada-jobs\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/1750998674_211_2023012711010-63d3f56c90b3641aa39e874bjpeg.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tHow Canada\u2019s critical minerals push may spur hundreds of thousands of jobs\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<li class=\"c-posts__item\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/news\/11263079\/major-projects-bill-c-5-senate-passage\/\" class=\"c-posts__inner\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-posts__thumbnail\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/cffa71d6ea588ed6f85096e01c0846b39808dad33b6b5a719eae65fc311f94c8.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"336\" height=\"224\" alt=\"\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tCarney\u2019s major projects, internal trade bill becomes law\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>ESTA is a way for individuals from low-risk countries to enter the U.S. instead of applying for a visa.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Eligible applicants fill out a form online to visit the U.S. for up to 90 days.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you ever violate it or are found ineligible for ESTA, you can never, ever apply again, so you now have to apply by law for an actual visa at a U.S. consulate or embassy,\u201d immigration lawyer Len Saunders, who is based in Blaine, Wash., told Global News.<\/p>\n<p>Flynn said he has applied for a visa but the next available interview appointment is February 2027.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s absolutely no way that I can get down there unless someone steps in and tells me why I\u2019ve been denied or resets my ESTA,\u201d Flynn said.<\/p>\n<p>Saunders said the lesson from this story is that anyone who is in Canada and eligible for Canadian citizenship should apply.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(Then they) never have to worry about entering the United States with visas,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can just show your Canadian passport at the border and you\u2019re good to go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A B.C. firefighter who once fought with the American military says he has now been denied entry to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18132,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2147,17370,17371,50,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-18131","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-canada","9":"tag-canada-us-border","10":"tag-denied-entry","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-u-s-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}