Not surprised re Port Angeles. They always have been hardcore. When doing crew changes there in Valdez/Puerto Armuelles ships, every piece of luggage/gear was torn apart by Customs and Immigration aboard the launch alongside. Long Beach A Pier entry requires your TWIC to be placed under what’s either a scanner or camera before you’re let in.
You can show some dock guard your MMC and say you couldnt get one without a TWIC, and they are still going to ask to see your twic card for the same reason - they just do what their boss tells them, and the system is set up so everyone shows them the same thing every day.
As a foreign seafarer I visited the US on many occasions. The extensive background checks were completed with my application for a D2 visa that all foreign seafarers are required to possess. The information held by this application together with our passports had to match with the notice of arrival documentation given 5 days before our arrival.
I also had a visitors visa ( C1?) for when I vivited the US with my wife to visit family.
3 photos in one passport that didn’t look the same. The old adage " if you look like your passport your too sick to travel.
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For a while I used my MMC at the airport, but I had too much trouble with it not scanning, and they requested a different ID.
Now I use the Global Entry Card or my Passport. TSA knows that they are required to accept those whether they scan or not (they scan reliably about 90% of the time).
I hear more stories about slow and invasive (phone and computer searches) customs and immigration inspections, but I have not had any problems.
So from this thread’s personal experiences we can say that:
Port of Virginia
Port of Corpus Christi
Port Angeles
Long Beach
Have all successfully integrated TWIC more or less in the way it was intended. Anyone else got anymore ports/facilities that have actually integrated TWIC into their secure access?
I’ve never seen a TWIC scanner. It’s very rare for me to be asked to show a TWIC Card.
For whatever good a TWIC might be , can’t the Real ID driver’s licenses and MMC’s accomplish the same thing?
Why should we need to apply for, renew, pay for, and carry around a bushel basket of different ID cards?
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To keep us safe from Al-Qaeda of course? Al-Qaeda members don’t have a lot of pockets. Also with government efficiency & our political correct society, if a terrorist applies for a visa, social security card, drivers license, twic, cdl, mmc, a library card, Costco Club Card & Shell Gas Card, maybe, just maybe one of those places will have someone employed who will actually use some common sense & wave a red flag.
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