Dear kind people,
I am a foreign trained dentist who just travelled to the US for my exam which can only be taken in the US and was met with really rude immigration officers who put me through strenuous questioning and went through all of my whatsapp chats with family and friends and I know there were no potential red flags there, if anything, there was tons of discussion on the exam prep and variety of clinical topics and innocuous chats. There was however one standalone conversation about people getting PR in the states through marriage which seems to be the one they honed in on and grilled me about. So much of what happened is a blur and things keep slipping as time passes and I find myself in a state of shock. All I remember is they asked me to leave US 15 days before my intended date, called me a moron and may be some other stuff my brain has since deleted. They kept insisting I was trying to immigrate, an innocent text from my little sister wishing me good life was blown out of proportion to insinuate immigration intent. I did have a return ticket on me. Had my vaccination proof as well as negative covid tests. All of that aside, I was entering on a valid visa, very legally and all of this felt so unnecessary. The verbal abuse, the F word, most of all. And one officer even asked me to never come to the US again, exact words escape me now. They refused to speak to my contacts in US for verification of my story.
I apologize if this sounds like a rant but the entire experience felt undeserved and I am scared if they made some unwarranted remarks on my file or elsewhere and if it actually means I am not to step foot in the US again.
If someone has kind insights to offer, please do. Someone advised me to get an immigration lawyer from the very region/city the incident happened in. Someone offered that getting a lawyer in the picture was premature and to not attract attention by doing so. Another person said these were scare tactics and the officer was probably having a bad day himself and to simply leave the country 15 days before I was going to originally leave US. Some warned me against the officer having made some comments or notes in the system and to give up on my dream of pursuing studies in the US. I do not know if I should just chalk it all out to one bad experience and focus on my exam or sweat over the futility of having to give any exam at all, I mean what would be the point if I cannot come to US again?
I appreciate your time and thank you for any advice you may have to send my way.
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source https://www.reddit.com/r/immigration/comments/rfhhin/rude_immigration_officersunkind_experience/