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The first time I went to America, computers hadn't arrived. Immigration people looked you up in a huge, thick book the size of a planetary telephone directory. It took a long time - although it may have taken even longer for someone with a name like Smith or Patel.

Now we have electronics and the computerised visa form from the American embassy automatically types in NONE to questions that don't apply: such as the names of people travelling with you or the name of your spouse "even if divorced or separated."

You get a lovely glimpse of something that must have gone horribly wrong one day because at the bottom, in a note for embassy staff, there is a line of advice that starts: "If the applicant's name actually IS None..."

I have to take this form - which cost me $14 to download from the website - when I go to the American embassy in Paris in a week or two. I shall also take my Adventure Cycling maps of the Northern Tier, the only evidence I have that I shall be cycling and not picking oranges in Florida. Last year, I had to take a set of bank accounts as well. This time, not. I don't know why, although I have noticed many times that the moment an American hears his national anthem, he makes a grab for his wallet. From that I assume the embassy used to count up the money you had in the bank to see if you were likely to want to leave America at the end of the trip and go home and spend it.

When I went to India once, I was sent a form which listed all the obvious questions: 1, name; 2, address; 3, age - and so on. Whoever compiled the list had desperately wanted to have a nice round number of questions because, right at the end, when inspiration had failed, he had added "10, other...". Considerately, you were allowed to make up your own question and then answer it.

America takes no such liberties. Among the questions I am being asked at the Paris embassy will be:

"Do you seek to enter the United States to engage in export control violations, subversive or terrorist activities, or any other unlawful purpose? Are you a member or representative of a terrorist organization? Have you ever participated in persecutions directed by the Nazi government of Germany or have you ever participated in genocide?"

Now, if you tick "yes", you won't get in. If you tick "no" when the answer should be "yes", you would normally be thrown out as an illegal immigrant. This is unlikely to happen to practitioners of genocide and Nazi war crimes.

So what, I wonder, is the point of the question?

I may not ask.