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Comment by danm07 | Hacker News Reader

I'm Canadian running a company in California, and every time I cross the border, I get pulled into the office for an hour.

There was one time last year where I got detained for 8 because they didn't believe that a college dropout could run a company, even calling me "full of shit" at one point. They had my computer and went through my email one by one asking me to cite specific dates of employment at 3am in the morning.

They ultimately rejected me on the basis that I got one of the dates wrong. Can't say I've ever had a good experience with any US customs official.

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what does this even accomplish? Are there quotas for rejecting people?

The only reasonable explanation apart from quotas I can come up with is that they want to harass people.

When you give stupid people just slight power they will always abuse it to the max. That's what happened.

Why run a company in California?

Not sure about the OPs case, but usually it is when you care about investors' money more than the company/product.

Apropos that you're saying that on a social media platform run by a Venture Capital company out of Mountain View but your statement is a pretty damn cynical view of it. California may the epicenter of tech related VC but it's also the startup and tech company capital for plenty of other reasons besides VC such as the amazing local culture, awesome weather, friendly legal environment (e.g. CA's strong anti-SLAPP laws), experienced local hiring pool, state & municipal tax benefits, etc.

We were in the online-video space, which made sense to be based in LA.

Our investor was also based in California, which made sense to leverage his network there to raise subsequent rounds of funding.

Can't you use NEXUS to avoid all contact with them?

If you have been rejected recently you will be pulled in for secondary screening even if your on NEXUS.

Also, its difficult to get a NEXUS card if you have been rejected recently, but they wont take yours away for being turned back unless you did something against the rules of the program like fraudulently applied for a visa.

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