U.S./Canada border crossing discussion

[Devil's Advocate]

I suspect how people present themselves at the border makes a big difference. Show up reasonably well dressed (and as an airline retiree traveling on travel privileges, when I fly in I am always dressed to my airline's employee travel dress code (a t-shirt and dirty jeans does not qualify)) and you've already made the first step of showing you're low risk. Show up in tattered clothes and they're going to wonder if you have the money to support your stay in Canada. If you're driving, if you show up in a beater car with all sorts of junk in it (note earlier comment on page 1 about "old pill bottles rattling around in the back of the car") and it looks like you live in the car, I'd expect trouble.

If there was any doubt I could support myself the CBSA is authorized to request proof of funds in the form of cash, bank statements, check stubs, and credit/debit cards. They can also ask for proof of insurance and rummage through luggage looking for signs of employment or marriage seeking. Those actions might be annoying but ultimately forgettable. Instead the inspector mocked my actual reason for travel and repeatedly baited me into changing my true story. That was the part I was unable and unwilling to simply forget. It's like she only read the last chapter of the Reid technique and considered herself an expert. Which I guess is true, if the goal was to convince me it's not worth it.

 

[Tlcooper44]

I just crossed both directions, close to Niagara Falls, back in August and September (and made several back and forth trips from BOS to Billy Bishop in between the land crossings) and found both entering and exiting to be simple and easy. Crossing by land was easier than in airports.

It’s possible that crossing late at night into Canada with a wife who is a citizen and a sleeping infant helped. On the way back, there was about 12 mins or so of traffic, but the stop was not memorable in any way.

 

[jiml]

My recent entries to the US - all by land - have been downright pleasant. Actually it has been great since the pandemic hostilities subsided, with American officers seeming almost pleased to have visitors. I wish I could say the same about returning. Canadian officers are obsessed with guns and what you purchased. The last one even asked if I'd bought gas and included that in my declaration. I realize that's technically correct, but the first time I've had the question in my long history of crossing the border.

 

[AmtrakBlue]

My recent entries to the US - all by land - have been downright pleasant. Actually it has been great since the pandemic hostilities subsided, with American officers seeming almost pleased to have visitors. I wish I could say the same about returning. Canadian officers are obsessed with guns and what you purchased. The last one even asked if I'd bought gas and included that in my declaration. I realize that's technically correct, but the first time I've had the question in my long history of crossing the border.

Should have told him you were running on fumes.

 

[jiml]

Should have told him you were running on fumes.

They know that's how most of us got to the US in the first place.

 

[fdaley]

Back when the Atlantic was still running, the crews used to joke that the train arrived into Brownville Junction, Maine, running on fumes so that VIA could maximize its savings while refueling there.

In my experiences it does seem that the Canadian customs agents generally are much tougher on returning Canadians than on U.S. visitors. I have occasionally been subject to more rigorous questioning, and twice (out of dozens of crossing both ways) I had agents peek into every crevice of my car -- once entering Canada on I-87 and the other time entering Maine at Coburn Gore. Aboard the train, booking in the last day or two before departure seems to make one a candidate for extra scrutiny.

 

[PVD]

Canadian healthcare (amongst other things) is financed by taxes paid on things purchased, and many folks try and bring in goods to beat the taxes or to black market profit. They are justified in their scrutiny.

 

[Bob Dylan]

Canadian healthcare (amongst other things) is financed by taxes paid on things purchased, and many folks try and bring in goods to beat the taxes or to black market profit. They are justified in their scrutiny.

The Original NAFTA Treaty supposedly was going to Level the Field for Trade between Canada,Mexico and the US making Duties and Fees unnecessary!

Great in theory, but every developed Country has goods and services they want to protect, hence we'll never see Customs become obsolete!

 

[PVD]

Duties and fees are different from PST and GST on goods sold to final consumers, that's a separate issue.

 

[jiml]

Duties and fees are different from PST and GST on goods sold to final consumers, that's a separate issue.

Actually PST and GST are charged on top of any duties, excise tax and other fees collected at the border. The actual amount varies by jurisdiction. It can be quite a hefty total depending on the item involved. As @Bob Dylan correctly observed, some items can be brought across the border exempt under the NAFTA treaty (and its successor) but failure to declare them voids the waiver.

 

[crescent-zephyr]

I was told "What is that?" and "Why are you really here?" followed by several minutes of circular logic and intentional misunderstandings.

Similar. When I took the Maple Leaf to Toronto I said "I'm riding the train from Toronto to Vancouver" and the agent said "Why would you want to ride the train to Vancouver?" as though no sane person would do that. I said "Because I like trains" and that seemed to bother her more. I'm not sure if it helped or hurt that I then showed a business card for my then current employer... a tourist railroad haha.

She then was asking about my employment, how I could afford to travel if I "just worked at a railraod museum" etc.

Her questioning stopped when she realized I had pre-booked the entire trip so everything was already paid for.

 

[flitcraft]

Most of my border Canada-US crossings have been uneventful, but a couple stand out. Once I was going to a two day conference in Vancouver and had to leave Seattle at about four am to get there on time. So as not to awaken my husband, I kept the lights in the bedroom off as I packed my small bag. Unfortunately, I forgot my passport, left on the bedside table; this was only a couple of weeks after the new rules on border entry requiring passports had come in. I didn't realize I'd left the passport till I was practically at the border, so decided to give it a try anyway. I got into Canada just fine with my driver's license (after the obligatory questions about guns and pepper spray, neither of which I had) just a warning to bring the passport next time. But I was worried about re-entry to the US, which was still 9/11 touchy about borders, so when I got to my hotel, I asked my husband to fax me the face pages of my passport. On re-entry to the US, I presented by driver's license, the faxed passport info, and was told that this was completely unacceptable, told to exit the car and kept waiting inside the border office for more than four hours. Periodically someone would check on me and tell me that I couldn't re-enter the US with my documentation. Finally, after I was kept waiting long enough to serve as a suitable punishment, they let me back into the US--though eventually I would have gotten deported from Canada anyway, as I don't have landed immigrant status!

On an earlier trip, when a driver's license was fine for travel to and from Canada, my husband surprised me with a trip to Victoria BC by float plane. He instructed me to pack a bag for me and our five year old daughter sufficient for five days for a 'mystery trip.' It was a superb flight over the islands and we landed in Victoria harbor, where a customs boat came out to admit us. Problem was, my husband and I both had our driver's licenses but we had no ID for our daughter. The agent took her aside from us, and asked her, "Who are those people?" She replied, "They're my parents, not kidnappers." The customs agent let us in anyway...

 

[Northwestern]

Actually, there was a phase in which passengers had to alight from the Pacific International at Blaine and carry their luggage to an inspection point that had a computer terminal.

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I believe I took the Pacific International either in the late 1970's or early 1980's. I was on the Coast Starlight headed to Vancouver, BC. I think the train got into Seattle sometime around 8 PM, then a need to detrain and walk over and board the train to Vancouver. The train arrived in Vancouver after 11 PM. On the way back from Vancouver to Seattle, I believe the train left Vancouver around 5 AM in order to board the southbound Starlight.

However, I'm not sure it was the Pacific International that I was on. Possibly some sort of extension train for the Coast Starlight.



The arrival/departure board, at the Seattle King Street station, in 1981. The arrival/departure times of the Pacific International aren't in sync with my trip.

The Pacific International was the first Amtrak train to cross the border into Vancouver, I believe. It had a dome car..

 

[Willbridge]

*******************************************************
I believe I took the Pacific International either in the late 1970's or early 1980's. I was on the Coast Starlight headed to Vancouver, BC. I think the train got into Seattle sometime around 8 PM, then a need to detrain and walk over and board the train to Vancouver. The train arrived in Vancouver after 11 PM. On the way back from Vancouver to Seattle, I believe the train left Vancouver around 5 AM in order to board the southbound Starlight.

However, I'm not sure it was the Pacific International that I was on. Possibly some sort of extension train for the Coast Starlight.



The arrival/departure board, at the Seattle King Street station, in 1981. The arrival/departure times of the Pacific International aren't in sync with my trip.

The Pacific International was the first Amtrak train to cross the border into Vancouver, I believe. It had a dome car..

I don't recall the dome car, but in its life, it had a variety of unadvertised equipment. The one trip I best remember had the SP&S lightweight diner Columbia, with melted ice cream served in soup bowls for dessert due to a refrigeration failure at train time.

In notes written closer to the train's life I reported dome cars. Before Amtrak, GN would assign a dome coach in the winter, when Empire Builder ridership was down and train heat was a concern. Amtrak may have done this.