美国签证申请表上的那些怪问题

Am I coming to the US to engage in prostitution? Do I belong to a clan or tribe? Do I have tuberculosis or infectious leprosy?

我是不是来美国从事卖淫的？我是不是一个宗族或者部落的成员？我有没有患肺结核或者是传染性麻风？

I have just renewed my five-year US visitor’s visa after truthfully answering “no” to the above and many other questions.

在给我的五年期美国旅游签证续签的时候，我如实地对上述问题以及很多其他问题做出了否定回答。

At the US London embassy the ticket-based queueing system was well organised, there was free coffee, the consular staff who interviewed me were good-humoured and my passport was returned with a fresh visa just three days later.

在伦敦的美国大使馆，人们有序排队，有免费的咖啡，和我面谈的领事馆工作人员态度和蔼，三天之后我就拿到了带有新签证的护照。

But as I filled in the application form before my embassy appointment, I wondered what the point was of asking “Do you seek to engage in terrorist activities while in the United States?” when those who plan to do so will surely click “no”.

但在来大使馆面签之前填写申请表的时候，我真的不知道问“你在美国的时候是否会寻求从事恐怖活动？”这种问题有什么意义，因为那些策划恐怖活动的人肯定会选“否”。

Why are some of the questions so imprecise? For example, on the form I had to fill in (as a journalist, I require a particular type of visa), I was asked if I had ever been responsible as a government official for “particularly severe violations of religious freedom”. What does particularly severe mean? Are mild violations of religious freedom acceptable?

为什么有些问题如此含糊？比如说，在我需要填写的申请表中（作为一名记者，我需要办理特定类别的签证），我被问及是否曾经作为政府官员“组织特别严重的违反宗教自由的活动”。“特别严重”是什么意思？轻微违反宗教自由就可以接受吗？

Or take an example from the Electronic System for Travel Authorisation (Esta) form that visitors with a US visa waiver complete (this includes tourists from many European and some other countries): “Have you ever been arrested or convicted for an offence or crime involving moral turpitude?”

再来看美国免签游客需要填写的旅游许可电子系统(Esta)表格（面向多个欧洲国家和其他一些国家的游客），上面有一道这样的问题：“你有没有因为道德败坏行为或犯罪而被捕或被判刑？”

What is a crime involving moral turpitude? Does agreeing to accept someone else’s speeding points count as moral turpitude when an opinion poll by the AA motoring organisation suggested 300,000 people in the UK had done that?

什么是道德败坏罪？超速之后拿别人的分数顶算不算道德败坏？英国汽车协会(AA)的一项民调显示，英国有30万人都这么做过。

And, finally, how did US visa application forms come to be such a curious agglomeration of questions?

最后，美国签证申请表怎么会有这么多奇怪的问题？

My first query – whether miscreants are likely to answer incriminating questions truthfully – is one nearly every visa applicant asks. “Clients constantly say: ‘Are you kidding? Does anyone answer ‘yes’?’” says Kehrela Hodkinson, a London-based US immigration lawyer.

我的第一个疑问：邪恶分子有没有可能如实回答关于犯罪的问题？这也是几乎每个签证申请者会问的问题。在伦敦工作的美国移民律师科瑞拉•霍德金森(Kehrela Hodkinson)说，客户经常问“你开玩笑吧？鬼才会回答‘是’呢！”

It is also the easiest mystery to solve. The point of asking these questions is that, if you answer them untruthfully, you have obtained a visa by fraud or misrepresentation and can be deported if you are found out, either on this visit, or if you subsequently win the right to live in the US.

这个疑问很容易解答。问这些问题的意图在于，如果不如实回答问题，就相当于通过欺骗或者误导获得签证，一旦被发现就可能遭到驱逐，不管是在此次旅行中，还是以后获得美国居住权的时候。

My query about the imprecision of some of the questions has a less precise answer. There have been many academic discussions – and even an entire book – on what moral turpitude is.

对一些语义不清晰的问题，我就不能准确地解释了。关于什么是道德败坏，有过很多学术讨论，甚至有一整本书都是讲这个的。

There is no statutory definition of the term. It is up to judges and the Board of Immigration Appeals to decide what it means, Mary Holper of Boston College Law School says in an informative paper. When deciding whether to deport someone, judges have to assess whether the crime in question offends the “moral standards generally prevailing in the United States”. This, Prof Holper says, “casts judges in the role of God”.

这个词没有法定的定义。波士顿学院法学院(Boston College Law School)的玛丽•霍尔波(Mary Holper)在一篇颇具启发意义的论文中说，它的意思取决于法官和移民上诉委员会(Board of Immigration Appeals)。在决定是否要驱逐某个人的时候，法官必须判断其所犯的罪是否违反了“美国的主流道德标准”。霍尔波教授说，这“让法官扮演了上帝的角色”。

In cases over the years, fraud, theft and many sexual offences have been classed as involving moral turpitude. Assault has been, too, “when the offence has an aggravating factor such as a deadly weapon”, Prof Holper says.

多年来，欺骗、盗窃以及很多性犯罪都被归为道德败坏行为。霍尔波教授说：“如果犯罪过程中有使用致命武器等加重情节的因素，”攻击也算是道德败坏罪。

As for severely restricting religious freedom, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom, a statutory body, says only one person has ever been barred on those grounds: Narendra Modi, tipped by many to be the next Indian prime minister, for his alleged complicity in the deadly 2002 anti-Muslim riots in his home state of Gujarat. (He denies responsibility.)

至于严重限制宗教自由，法定机构美国国际宗教自由委员会(US Commission on International Religious Freedom)指出，到目前只有一个人因为这个原因没被放行，他就是很多人认为有望出任下一届印度总理的纳伦德拉•莫迪(Narendra Modi)，原因是他被控参与了2002年在他的家乡古吉拉特邦爆发的反穆斯林严重骚乱（他对此表示否认）。

The reason US visa forms seem such an odd accretion of questions is that is what they are. They have been added to over the decades to confront whatever danger the US was dealing with at the time.

美国签证申请表之所以看起来像是很多奇怪的问题堆积而成的，原因就是它们本来就是这样的。这些问题几十年来不断累积增多，以应对美国在各个时期面临的风险。

Prof Holper points out that “moral turpitude” was introduced into US immigration law in 1891. Questions about issues such as prostitution go back to before visas existed, as do many health questions. Officials at Ellis Island used to keep visitors out because they had tuberculosis, says Muzaffar Chishti of the US-based Migration Policy Institute.

霍尔波教授指出，“道德败坏”是1891年引入美国移民法的。关于卖淫等一些方面的问题在签证存在之前就有了，很多健康方面的问题也是如此。美国移民政策研究所(Migration Policy Institute)的穆扎法尔•齐矢堤(Muzaffar Chishti)说，埃利斯岛(Ellis Island，原美国移民局所在地)的官员曾拒绝有结核病的游客进入。

Are the visa forms an effective way of keeping undesirables out of the US? “If we’re interested in keeping people who mean to do us harm out, it’s not very effective,” Mr Chishti says. Biometric screening, databases and finger printing are far more useful, he says.

签证申请表是不是将不良分子拒于美国之外的一种有效方式呢？齐矢堤说：“如果我们不想让有意伤害我们的人进入美国，这种方式就不是很有效。”他认为，生物筛选、数据库以及指纹图谱要有用得多。