Back in the day when I was flying across the Atlantic to/from Detroit every week I was always half expecting to get questioned at the US end given I was entering the country every two weeks. On my last trip the immigration person put a large black cross on my customs form so I immediately thought, "Here goes!" Noop - I got a very friendly, "Welcome back!" from the lady manning the customs desk.

The only time we nearly had a problem was when a group of us had a trip to Canada for a weekend*. On our way back into Detroit the immigration agent really seemed to not want to let us back in to the US trying to claim we were working there illegally (we weren't, we were representing the European businesses on a global project and our salaries were paid by, and in, Europe). I'm not sure what chaos would have ensued if he hadn't relented but after 5 minutes or so he did allow us back.

*For those who're not aware, Canada is literally across a bridge or through a tunnel from Detroit.

On our way back into Detroit the immigration agent really seemed to not want to let us back in to the US trying to claim we were working there illegally (we weren't, we were representing the European businesses on a global project and our salaries were paid by, and in, Europe)

a while back i went to San Francisco on a holiday, during the passport interrogation i was asked who i worked for, i explained i was a network engineer working for the UK HQ of a US company. The passport guy asked why a US company needed to employ a network engineer in London when there were plenty of engineers in the US. It was ~ 3am UK time and i'd been on the plane for ~ 12 hours etc but luckily i bit my lip and said i had no idea but the time difference was likely a factor in wanting local engineers & i was travelling to San Fran on vacation not there for work as the US office was in New York.

i got a stern look before he stamped my passport & waived me through.

I've not been back since with no desire to go back either & not just because of the warm welcome at the airport.

a group of us had a trip to Canada for a weekend

A friend had a similar issue. The problem is not who is paying your salary, the problem is that for a while you were working in the US, even working in the US for so long that you had time to take a side trip in the middle to Canada. Even if you are working for and getting paid by a European company, you are not allowed to work long term in the US without a work permit; you are only allowed there on short business trips for a limited time. So they expect you to get in, and get out. The fact that you are doing a weekend trip across the border to Canada gives the border agent the feeling that you are living and working in the US and going to Canada for a vacation. I suppose Americans rarely leave their country, so the concept of having a leisure trip outside of the US in the middle of a business trip to the US is too complex for the system.

Sounds like he got a cold, some would say Chile, welcome

I was on a job in Korea and had to go down to Aus (a conference or some such).

Going back to Korea, check in said I needed a return ticket, I told them it was, Seoul to Sydney and back. They didn’t laugh.

One (small) saving grace of the whole Brexit debacle (for reference, I'm an Englishman who voted against it), that the Friday afternoon calls from disorganised and panicking managers in our various European offices of "we have an escalation at customer X, you need to be here first thing on Monday morning" could be simply responded to with "Sorry, I'm not European any more. I'll need a work permit to do that job."

Given said work permits can take anything from a couple of weeks to about 3 months to arrange (depending on precisely which European country, as there is no such thing as a European work permit, they're all still individual), it became a very handy veto. Coupled with the famous quote from our HR team that "oh, Brexit won't affect us at all...".

And always fun to point out to American and Japanese colleagues that even though I work for the European branch of the company, I'm technically no more European than they are in terms of bureaucratic requirements etc.

I used something similar when my then boss was obviously wanting me to go to Thailand at relatively short notice. I pointed out that to do so I'd need a certificate from the relevant ministry for the medications I have to carry, in theory not a problem but it can take 2-4 weeks to come through, and that's after I've got the relevant statement from the Doctor's proving the need. I left the argument about business class flights in abeyance but our CEO is aware that, other than for short haul, I can't fly cattle class these days and would require airport assistance.

The UK is still in Europe; we just exited the EU. There's a big difference between the two.

Whilst I agree with the spirit of your post, I object to the "I'm not European any more"

My first job outta uni I got sent to the UK to do work, without any kind of visa at all, as Human Resources were neither human nor resourceful at this shop.

Blagged my way across the border armed with the kind of luck and entitlement bestowed only by youthful stupidity.

Have been terribly, terribly circumspect ever since.

You learned the truth about HR so early in your career. Well done!

My company, an India-based service provider, had talked on and off for months about sending someone from the UK to the US, but had done nothing about it. Then, suddenly, it was all systems go - notified on the Wednesday afternoon, confirmed on Thursday morning to be there on Monday morning. I applied for the ESTA like I was told to but on arrival in the US on the Sunday, I was told it was the wrong thing and that I should have applied for a proper US visa to work there.

Honestly, I wouldn't have minded to have been turned back (the whole thing was a mess and by that point, I really didn't want to get involved), but my half-hearted pleas that I would be leaving on Thursday ("I can show you my flight details if you want") seemed to have been good enough and my passport was stamped I was allowed in.

Long story short, the person who was supposed to be meeting me there from India didn't turn up, I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing other than a vague decree to visit about 8 sites spread across the US, literally all four corners and random bits in between, both north and south, in the space of four days, which I refused to do and eventually they relented and said that, yes, I could do everything by phone.

When I got back to the UK after doing, well, pretty much nothing, I was threatened with disciplinary action from HR as I had used an ESTA rather than a visa and it was only after a lengthy intervention by my line manager who said the same as me - that I applied for what I was told to and I was needed at short notice - that they finally got off my back with a "Don't do it again" warning.

Do it again? As we say in Scotland, aye right - just watch me.

That seems to be a lovely company that you work for...

Could you say ta ta to a company like that?

"The next week he applied to become a US citizen."

" The next week he applied to become a US citizen. "

Soon, that alone might get you arrested just about anywhere.

Not exactly flavour of the month.

I went to the US to meet with some government people.

While certainly not tourism, immigration was unsure if that was "work".

After an increasingly uncomfortable discussion, I saved my bacon by reluctantly telling that these officials worked for the NSA, and that I preferred no to go into much detail.

Problem solved!

"I went to the US to meet with some government people."

Why "meet with"?

It's with not with necessary with to with insert with a with spurious with with.

Why "meet with"?

Because it's grammatically correct?