next »

[tee_bee]

... the whole passport thing now.

So Americans need passports now to get back into the US? I thought it was just Canadians needing them to get in.  I've heard that a smaller proportion of USians carry a passport than Canadians.  

Yes they do, to leave and to get back, as of June 1st.  Although I guess an airline or a border guard might slip up and allow someone to leave without it, I would doubt it.

This was supposed to go into effect last year but Bush delayed it when it caused a run on the passport offices, delaying the regular process from 4-6 weeks to several months or longer.  Many people were in a panic about vacations to the Bahamas etc.  I have a feeling that many people put it off again when the deadline was extended so anyone who is just now applying for a passport or renewing, can probably expect a delay again.  Yikes, I am in that group because I need to renew mine but I have nothing international planned at the moment.

And, FWIW, this whole discussion is relevant only to entry via land borders. To fly in and out of Canada one has needed a passport for some time now. I thought this passport cards were being phased out, but maybe not, for land borders. I can't get a straight answer. Best bet: just get a passport. It's a drag, but it may relieve some confusion.

[barred_owl]

Good one, tee_bee.  And, I agree on the border guard attitude.  When I went to Alaska from the lesser 48 a few years back, the Canadian guard only asked me, "So how do you like that Poke Boat?" (I had a Poke Boat strapped to the top of my car.  A Mountie also asked the same thing while I was gassing up the car in Grande Prairie, AB!)  When I got to Alaska, I got all sorts of questions from the U.S. guard, who was quite surly.  And this was well before Rush and Cheney, too!

[normative_]

The Canadian border agency, or whatever it is called, varies a lot by entry point. I've had problems at Toronto and Montreal significant enough to put me off flying in there if I can help it.

What I'm hoping is that the whole passport thing will lead to both countries introducing machine-readable identity cards (same size as a drivers licence) that can be used as passports. We use them in Europe all the time. Very convenient; it's in your wallet, so you never lose it or have to go digging (without losing your entire wallet, that is).

[relationalista]

True, the Canadian Border Services folks can sometimes be testy. But not nearly so testy nor so often as the American border guards. I've been grilled on new museum architecture in my town (at the airport) to ensure that I really was an art historian (and we go through US Customs in Canadian airports, by the way, not upon landing). I've had border guys demand to know exactly how it is that I know "these friends of mine" in various parts of the US (vague answers of lifelong friendship wouldn't do). And, perhaps most amusingly, I once had an American border agent ask me, when I declared that I was going to the US for a few days for pleasure, rather than business, "What, you can't have fun in Canada?"

[malcha]

I've had rude people both sides of the border (as well as many trouble-free crossings).  The Canadians once opened every tin of tea I had with me (yes, there were several) and sifted through them, much to the detriment of the tea.  But it was an American who threw out Malchakitty's Canada-tainted cat food.

And every time a carload of medievalists told border folk on either side that we were going to/returning from a medieval studies conference we got the "oh, do you dress up as things?" response.

Mostly, though, I've had very little trouble driving across the border; most of my bad experiences have been flying or (shudder) crossing on a Greyhound bus.  I have declared myself too old and feeble for Greyhound travel now.

[svenc]

True, the Canadian Border Services folks can sometimes be testy. But not nearly so testy nor so often as the American border guards. I've been grilled on new museum architecture in my town (at the airport) to ensure that I really was an art historian (and we go through US Customs in Canadian airports, by the way, not upon landing). I've had border guys demand to know exactly how it is that I know "these friends of mine" in various parts of the US (vague answers of lifelong friendship wouldn't do). And, perhaps most amusingly, I once had an American border agent ask me, when I declared that I was going to the US for a few days for pleasure, rather than business, "What, you can't have fun in Canada?"

Don't take any of it personally.

I've got a cross-border family, and travel back and forth a lot by both land and air.  There seems to be a common strategy (for both U.S. and Canadian border personnel) to follow up on mundane statements with detailed questions.  I'm sure it's part of their training - presumably the questions are meant to be easy for anyone who is telling the truth to answer, but would throw a bulls***ter for a loop.

[sugaree]

Border issues are obviously shaped by individual guards and their day-to-day attitudes (as well as weather, star and planet alignments, political crises, etc.), but I also think they are affected by your documentation. I am an American ex pat in Canada, and thus have a US passport. No trouble with US border guards at all. Before I got my landed residence status approved (and somewhere there's a thread on those particular stresses that were ongoing for years), Canadian border guards treated me like an invader bent on "Middle Power" destruction (yeah right, what am I going to do? threaten them all with demands for cheap beer that you can buy at the grocery store? destroy medicare? get my American cooties all over them? whatever). Since I've gotten my residency card, things have been better, but there are still occasional incidents (on both sides). And yet, I've also had really good and supportive experiences at the Toronto airport of all place. So, you never know.

I have adopted a live and let live border attitude. No point in getting mad or impatient. It is what it is.

[llanfair]

My Canadian-citizen father and his American-citizen wife have homes in both the US and Canada, so they cross the border quite frequently.  Most of the time it's no problem - they're recognised by border officials on both sides, since they usually cross at the same entry point.  However, on one memorable occasion, they were hauled into the US Customs Building, taken to separate rooms and grilled to see if their stories matched - they even read her diary!

She was so mad she tore up her Republican Party card.  Since she was a State Senator for 12 years, that's saying something.

[scampster]

And yet, I've also had really good and supportive experiences at the Toronto airport of all place. So, you never know.

I had my US passport stolen in Toronto (Hello! I have gone on vacation in places like Haiti! You'd think I'd know better than to put my purse on a chair - I have apparently been living in the rural midwest too long and forgot to recognize Canada for the crime-ridden country it is :-)). I was actually pretty impressed that I had no hassle at the Toronto airport trying to get on with just a faxed photocopy of my passport.

I was only my college squash team and we used to pay University of Western Ontario and our coach got extensively questioned at the border going into Canada - we weren't sure if was because he liberally wore the clothes of a major squash apparel company has a logo that looks very much like a marijuana leaf or he was British :-)

[temporaryname]

As an undergrad, a bunch of us drove to Canada for spring break one year, and we all got in with no problem--except for the British citizen (in the US on a student visa) who got taken into a back room for about 45 minutes while the rest of us chatted and joked with the rest of the Canadian border guards (it was a slow night, apparently).

Also, I remember driving back into the US from Canada (a different trip, solo), and telling the US border guard I was a student at Small-State Flagship Public University, and the guard asked me "So what's Small-State's nickname?" I replied with the nicknames I knew for the state (you know, like Missouri's the Show-Me State, Florida's the Sunshine State, and so on). The guard was visibly very taken aback and puzzled, and then recovered after a long-feeling five or so seconds silence and asked "No, I mean the college's mascot" to which I replied "Oh! The Bizarre Animals!" and he waved me through.

[llanfair]

That's so funny - I had a similar experience at US Customs in Toronto Airport.  The guard saw my J-1 visa stub, still in my passport from a 1-month fellowship at a US university, and asked about it.  I explained, and he turned out to have gone to the State U in the same city.  He told me he'd only let me into the US if I could tell him my favourite restaurant in that city.  When I started rhyming them all off, he laughed and wished me a good trip.