April 11, 2011Dear Sir,Here is an extract I found online about visiting Bermuda…..“LENGTH OF STAYMost bona fide visitors with a confirmed return ticket and place of accommodation will have no difficulties with Bermuda Immigration Control. There is a special Secondary Immigration Control section at the airport to deal with any arriving passengers who are in unusual circumstances. Bermuda Immigration authorities may restrict length of stay, for example; passengers arriving with an open return ticket will have a time limit imposed upon them. An application to extend the length of stay must be made in person either at the Secondary Immigration Control on arrival, or with an Immigration Inspector at Immigration Headquarters in the City of Hamilton between 9am and noon on any working day — no appointment required.”Unfortunately this is far from the truth. immigration officers at the airport arrivals area make extended visitors feel like criminals. I recently had my 70-year-old mother arrive, after a complicated 48 hour flight from her home. On arrival she was made to feel very unwelcome because her return ticket (which she had – see above) was for a return day just over three weeks from arrival. The officer stated that she should not assume that they will allow her to stay, and that she should not have booked a return flight over three weeks from arrival. Now this is somewhat confusing when you compare this to the version above.She was kept back half an hour, and came out struggling to keep herself together, and as we left we saw the usual “Welcome to Bermuda” sign – yeah right!A very simple question for the Ministries of Tourism and Finance: Do you want to have a tourism industry? And if so, then you seriously need to do something quickly about the welcome committee at the airport. I would normally be charitable and assume it was a bad night, or an officer was having a bad day, but my father (also 70) arrived at Christmas and had a similar experience.Sadly for the Island, if it wasn;t for having family here, they would be very unlikely to come back, having been made to feel so unwelcome, and even more sadly they will, as I'm sure others will, pass on their experiences.CONCERNED RESIDENTCity of Hamilton