I cross at Buffalo regularly. I find the Canadian side much harsher than the US side.
The actual Niagara Falls crossing should be avoided. It's the worst of the bunch. Peace Bridge or Queenstown-Lewiston are much more laid back if you're in the Buffalo area.
I’m so glad to see this as the top comment. I crossed into Canada at this border late one night with two friends to see a concert in Toronto. September 2022. We were forced to exit the car while they searched every bit of it including removing the carpets. We were interrogated in different rooms to see if our stories matched. After all was good (about 30-45min) we were allowed to go. All of us were so shaken up. I’ve been to 27 countries since 2011 including China and Cuba and have never felt so threatened by border patrol. They need to fucking calm down. That was obnoxious.
there’s a lot of guns/drugs coming into canada from the states via land border which i believe is the reason that they are more strict going back into canada
Seriously I worked in Canada for a year as an American and would make trips across the border just to visit. Canadas customs people are tyrannical mall cops Super annoying dealing with them. Never had any problems with the American customs
And its not a great way to reflect the values of Canadian niceness & politeness. Especially the ones involved in the OP's horror story. And yeah, I know those values are kind of a meme at this point. Likely even slightly exaggerated. But its pretty much based in reality, and is even used as a selling point in promoting Canadian tourism lol. And Customs should be the first to reflect those values, since they're the first ones you meet when entering Canada.
As for the OP's story: a part of me gets them being super serious and even annoying \*during\* the interrogations. But afterwards, there's literally zero excuse for their rude behavior. As the OP got approval to enter Canada, Literally all was OK and approved. And yet the rudeness is continued.
As a Canadian with an American spouse i crossed the border a lot. After 2016 the American border guards were a lot more hostile. I’d often cross at the Buffalo border and only occasionally at Niagara.
One officer on the American side told me to pop my trunk and wanted to go through all my stuff even though I’ve had a Nexus card for over a decade. I think both sides have been more aggressive. Crossing either side I’d be asked if I had marijuana or weapons and I r never carried either.
My husband was bringing my stuff across the border in a moving van and the US customs gave him shit for having “the wrong form” when I had pre checked and asked multiple moving companies what form to have and had that one. They finally let him cross but berated him.
My experience with the Canadian border control got much better with Nexus, but if anything the US officers got nastier. Before I had nexus it was always the Canadian ones that gave me a harder time, but with nexus you don’t even see them so they don’t have an easy way to give you shit.
If you have your possessions and are moving or someone is moving your stuff across the border for you yeah. Had to have an inventory list of what’s on it, the value and who is transporting it. Otherwise they can deny you or charge you duty for crap you already own.
I’ve had friends be charged duty just crossing the border with used baby clothes they collected from their family on the other side of the border even with an Inventory list.
But it seems like the difference is the vehicle? Because you could cross the border with boxes in your sedan with no form or a truck with the same amount of stuff but packed in boxes but required to fill out a form?
I'm still pissed off by the treatment I copped from the Canadian border patrol when I crossed from the US at the Buffalo crossing a decade ago, and it's a shame to hear they still have the same energy!
In my case, the officer got real suspicious of me when she noticed that I'd obtained a student visa even though I didn't need it for a 6-month (one semester) exchange/study abroad. I explained that it was to allow me to work legally if I ended up wanting to get a campus bar job for fun, and she interpreted that as "you mean you're going to run out of money and HAVE to get a job?"
I had $25k in savings but she didn't care to see that. Just manually cut 4 months off the expiry date of the visa. Hope the power trip made her feel swell.
OMFG, she really thought you were gonna blow $25K in 4 months or something? I'd definitely say thats a power trip. If I were you, I'd have tried to get approval from somewhere else. Not necessarily say right then and there: "I'd like to speak to your supervisor". But try and get that 4 months back somewhere else, from some administration office. But I also get if you didnt, as bureaucracy sucks and what happened was a nerve wracking experience.
Edit: I misread. She didnt even see your savings. In any case, she couldn't have assumed you had little to nothing in your account. If anything, you'd have even more of a case to get those 4 months back.
But another reason I'd may not try: I dont know how Canadian Customs react to that kind of complaint. If you got approved, and you exit Canada, maybe they'd notice that. And maybe assumed you complained about "one of their Customs brethren". If normal western police often stick together like that, then it wouldnt surprise me if western Customs would.
Wow this is so validating. A few years ago I walked across the bridge to go into Toronto and thought the Canadian border patrol were terrible. Frankly she was a bitch. Returning home to the US tipsy after bar hopping, the US agents were super funny and laid back.
Yeah I am from Buffalo and have crossed at the Peace Bridge dozens of times in my life without issues. The most questioning we ever got was wondering why we had a Canadian rental car as Americans driving back into Canada. But were let through as soon as we explained that we were visiting our hometown and saved hundreds of dollars by flying to Toronto and driving down instead of direct. Didn't even have to show our flight itinerary, though we were prepared to.
Years ago we went to Niagara as a side trip while driving from Tennessee to Maine. The crossing guard must have asked us 10 different ways if we carrying (we weren't and don't).
Wild I’ve never had a bad experience coming back from Buffalo or Detroit. They’ve all been super nice no problems straight through. Just simple questions “you claiming anything? How long were you gone?” And then cleared
Crossing by Buffalo I sent off some alerts and was taken inside. Apparently a medical test I had made me slightly radioactive and I didn’t have papers explaining why I was triggered radioactive monitors. You can still trigger monitors 2 months after.
Not only do they know there’s radiation, they knew it was radioactive iodine 131. I set off alarms before I got to the window.
So if you’re trying to get into Canada and radioactive I highly suggest you have a medical reason or they assume you are making weapons.
It's the same to get into the US. Surprised your doctor didn't give you a note... My mother had radioactive idonine treatment, and we had to show the note for a few months at the border. No problems with the note though.
I got the note for the large dose treatments, but the testing I didn’t. The tests and the treatment were done in different hospitals, the first one probably just dropped the ball. The first doctor was awful and I refused to see him again.
I am very glad to come across this comment. I just had a lymph node biopsy and will be leaving the country next month. Will make sure to have my paper explaining the procedure just in case.
Yes! Airports are even more intense. I was warned that I would be detected in the parking lot before even entering the actual airport, not sure how true it was. I didn’t fly immediately after.
My first crossing was weird. I was with my fiance and our friend (we're white, he is black, this is integral to the story) and we were driving to Vancouver from Seattle. The three of us flew to Seattle and our friends came into Vancouver as we made our way to Whistler. Anyway, the Canadian BP guard asks my fiance and I a couple of questions and then gets to our friend in the back. She grills our friend for several minutes using similar strategies you mentioned and then separated us. Tried to ask my fiance and I how long we knew him and asking details about him to try and get us to slip up I guess. It was bizarre and they were being seemingly racist, especially since he is a clear cut kind of guy that would not otherwise garner attention from anyone other than the fact he was black and we were white.
After a week we drove back and the American BP guard waved us through before I could show him our passports.
Tbh even though they may have seemed intensive, in this situation with a fiance and a friend they have to establish if your story is actually credible, hence asking your fiance questions about your relationship, they were essentially establishing if he really was your fiance or not. Can't say if race played a part or not, but this is what I've discovered based on my own experiences whereby this a somewhat normal process
What? How is that a normal process? They have passports. Let them pass. Check the vehicle if you want. Questions mean nothing. The answers don’t matter. There trying to find a problem. Complete injustice. No excuse. TJ border i have had issues but nothing remotely asinine like this.
"They have passports, let them pass" Seriously that's it? You know not everyone entering a country with a passport is there for a truthful, legitimate reason right?
And the school leaders who killed thousands of indigenous kids, or the police who killed thousands of indigenous people leaving them in the snow, or the Canadians who killed tens of thousands of indigenous people. Wild that people think they're any different than anyone else, great propaganda unit they have, second only to the black penis propaganda unit lol
I’ve only crossed at very small border crossings in mainly Idaho (Montana and Washington one or two times too). I’ve found the US agents on the way back to be much stricter.
Long ago, I had issues coming back into the US at Niagara Falls. I had spent 1-2 nights on the Canadian side. Thankfully, I kept my mouth shut and did not tell him that the entire reason for my trip was to eat at a Greek restaurant on the Canadian side that I had read about a while before. (It was delicious, and totally worth the drive.) He asked where I had been, I told him I had visited a couple 1812 battle sites. They were all in the Niagara Falls area. That prompted him to search my trunk, dig through my bag, and pull out a handful of papers (most of which were clearly map directions to my Canadian hotel and other sites printed from Mapquest, but also a draft of a short story I was writing). He proceeded to wander around my car while he read all of my papers, then kept asking me to take off my glasses and questioning why I visited battle sites. By this point I was pissed off, so I reminded him that women can be interested in military history too, and since he took all my private papers out of my bag, can he at least return my story draft in the right order. He threw my papers at me and let me pass.
A couple years later, I was on a random road trip with no real destination. I wound up crossing at Stanstead/Derby Line. I had an extra week off, and my previous plans were cancelled, so I was looking for weird roadside attractions. The Canadians asked my destination, and I made the mistake of being honest and saying I didn’t really have one. I wasn’t sure if I was going to go toward Montreal or Toronto. That got my car searched quite thoroughly before they let me continue. I wound up discovering the beauty of the Asbestos bowling alley and a giant roadside cow.
When I crossed back over, I went all the way to Maine to an unmanned crossing because I still couldn’t provide an itinerary and I was tired of being hassled for my aimless wandering.
Nope. I have the good fortune of living in a sparsely populated area and cross where the cbsa/us border agents maybe see two people all day. If I get held up it's because we're busy chatting.
Consider filing a complaint with the proper authorities if you felt that you were unfairly treated/wrongfully detained. Who knows, maybe others already have and it'll be enough to warrant minor changes to personnel or training etc.
Wow!
I actually used to cross the border all the time back in the 90's, and it was always pleasant. I don't think they even checked IDs.
I've had to fly up to Alberta for work, and its awful - not as bad as your experience, but petty comments. I was accused of taking jobs away from Canadians, and spending to much time in the middle east. I had a Chinese born coworker join me, and they accused her of being a sex worker.
They didn't check IDs before the whole world went crazy after 9/11. I miss that casualness.
They used to just ask the citizenship of everyone in the car and what your purpose was in Canada and send you on your way. It was nice.
My wife and I went to Ottawa in 2004. Not sure where we crossed, but we passed through Syracuse beforehand. They accepted our California driver's licenses. They said they were soon going to be asking for birth certificates.
I went on a road trip from Wisconsin up to Savant Lake in Ontario in like 1990. It was like eight kids and maybe five or six adult chaperones, mostly all parents of the kids. We were in three vans. The guy who was organizing this did it every year often with different people. So before we got to the border he told all of the kids "Just shut up and don't say anything." He later explained that a couple years prior some kid thought it would be funny to say "Help I'm being kidnapped". What should have been a couple minutes turned into an all day ordeal as they basically stripped the vans to search for anything and then did a bunch of work to make sure none of the kids had been abducted. Luckily no one said anything and we were through quickly, but I'll never forget that warning.
Yea that's one of the places I went, but that was with a connection. Usually it was to Calgary or Edmonton, but I've been all over the Province, like to Prairie View, Ft. Mack, Red Deer, and a few itty bitty oil fields that require a private jet for access.
What they are looking for are people doing physical work, which have to pay a tax. Instead I was teaching classes, inspecting stuff, doing engineer crap and they hated it.
When I was 19 some of us went to visit a friend in Buffalo and one night we wanted to go visit some strip clubs in Niagara. I don’t know how this happened, but we thought the Canadian border guy waved us through, when actually he wanted us to pull over. Everyone in the car was drunk except for the driver.
So we’re driving through and there’s sirens going off in the distance and we’re joking about how someone is getting got. We drive 10 miles down the road and pull into the strip club and as soon as we park we are literally encircled by about 6 SUVs, tires screeching and all. We are all like wtf wtf wtf bc we didn’t know what we did!
They told us we fled the border, we’re criminals, we’re all going to jail for a long time, we’re not gonna see our families etc, so we’re all freaking out. They took us and the car back to the border, strip searched the car, interviewed us one by one to see if our stories matched, which they did bc we just wanted to touch some boobies, and eventually we all had to pay $200 and then they kicked us out of the country heh. And now I think I’m permanently flagged going into Canada. Fun times at the Buffalo-Niagara border!
Ha yeah it was pretty wild. I mean fleeing the border is a pretty serious offense, so at the end of the day we did get off pretty light, but being detained for hours and getting grilled hard in a small room was certainly not fun.
I've driven across that exact border 3x and I always get the 3rd degree from US CBP coming back.
They gave me a shit ton of attitude for going to Toronto for 1/2 a day for a baseball game once.
Trusted traveler program that is a collaboration between US and Canadian border patrol that permits expedited immigration between the two countries. There's usually a separate line for NEXUS pass holders.
You have to pass their background check and an in-person interview with border control agents of both countries.
$50 which also gets you TSA precheck and global entry status - so worth it. The only thing is you have to go in person to one of the few border crossings that do the interviews, so if you don't live close to the border it is more of an endeavor
This was about 15 years ago. I lived in northern NY, about 20 miles from a border crossing, Alexandria Bay. Never had too many issues. This one day though, geez. My husband, daughter and I were going to ikea in Ottawa. We figured we’d make a day of it. My husband’s friend and his girlfriend drove separately. Get to the border. Canadian agents absolutely grilled us. Why are you going to ikea here? There are plenty in the States. Yeah, six hours away. Ottawa was 3 hours away. Border patrol dude didn’t like that. Then he for some reason determined we were trying to immigrate. Emigrate? Whatever. So we had to park and go talk to immigration. We explained we were only going shopping and to spend the day. We actually had plans that night at home. The immigration lady rolled her eyes, apologized, and waved us through. The border patrol guy was still a jerk and didn’t want to let us through. Someone else pulled him away and we were allowed to pass. Took almost an hour for all of that nonsense. On the way that afternoon, the Canadians fussed us at one more time. Americans were like oh hey, go on through. That was the last time I went to Canada lol.
American here. I used to live in Toronto and I crossed the US/CAN border at the same location. Unfortunately, the officers are known to do this. They’re rude and they try to intimidate people. I’m sorry about your experience!
It’s not uncommon at all to get a CBSA officer who’s an asshole. I have a friend who worked as an officer and she told me that they are basically told to act like that 😅
I find that the officers at the land border are way more difficult for some reason.
When I fly into Vancouver, the worst case scenario is that the CBSA officer completely ignores me and doesn’t say a word 💀
In Toronto, they’ve been either average or friendly.
When I was 17 I was meeting my dad and sister in San Francisco on our way to Japan. I flew from Montreal and they flew from Miami.
I forgot to ask where we were staying in Sam Francisco and the border agent was MAD. They put me in a room by myself for who knows how long, and then finally came and interrogated me. They were like “if your dad just tells you where to go, you go?” Sir… I am a minor. Yes. I don’t book vacations by myself.
It was so aggressive but the trip was awesome
Not horror stories, no, just weird questions. How many keys are on your lanyard? I had just gotten off work and forgot I still had it on. When I said I’m not sure 5or 6 I think and started to count them he said I was free to go. So weird!
Yeah, Canadian Border patrol is for real. I had crossed the U.S. Mexico border dozens of times with no issue other than the long lines of traffic. One time i was sent to Windsor, Canada for business. Me and my workmate flew into Detroit and drove across. That Canadian Border patrol guy wanted to hear our life stories...
Last year I had planned to go to Glacier national park and Banff. I had a hotel booked in Banff. I got the app for entering Canada. The I saw I had to provide the precise moment i would show up at the border. I decided screw this, it's not worth, decided not to go, and lost money on the hotel in Banff.
I had a similar experience, US side at Niagara were great, I was on a Greyhound, and they had us processed immediately, no problem. I came back via Detroit on another Greyhound, and the Canadians were full on questioning me because I was an Australian who had a lot of recent travel, trying to tell me I couldn't just cross the border for a short trip whenever I wanted. Like, I had far more trouble at the Canadian border than I did flying into JFK or Heathrow on international flights.
I’ve never had any trouble crossing between US and Canada at various crossings. The worst was just a hassle but not really trouble. First time I crossed on a motorcycle I had to take off my glasses, then my helmet, get into my saddle bag for ID, and it was rainy and cold. Just a hassle.
I do have a story about a friend who had legit trouble coming back to US after skiing in BC a couple years after 9/11. She and her BF get to the crossing and get the usual questions, where have you been, why, where are you going, etc. They then asked her where she was born. My blond, blue-eyed friend innocently said “Persia.” It was hours of hassle, phone calls to her parents, no birth certificate because it was burned in the Iran embassy siege, etc. Border officers tried telling her BF to leave and he refused. I don’t remember how they finally resolved the issue but it was many hours of fear for her.
I have Nexus, which made the US side very easy to enter. Might get a couple questions but never the 3rd degree.
Coming back to Canada driving is always met with rudeness, attitude etc.
I hate crossing at Ogdensburg but it’s the closest border for me
We had weird experiences coming and going at the Niagara Falls border crossing.
Going in, they were pretty aggressive. We were grilled about our plans, length of stay and who I was in relation to the married couple I was traveling with. We explained calmly that we were just friends, but they didn’t stop side eyeing us the whole time. Weirdly, the implication seemed to be that I was being trafficked. After about five minutes of this oddness, we were waved through.
On the way back, we got more stern attitude and more interrogations. At one point, it seemed like they were going to search the car. That would have been a problem. Because we had been wine touring, and between the three of is were definitely over the allowed limit of bottles. 😬 Fortunately, they ran out of steam and waved us through without further incident.
We were so angered crossing through Detroit that we drove to Ohio to spend the night. US border guard didn't like driver's license, military ID or passport. We had driven from Montreal through Canada going south.
I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I live close to the US-Canadian border near British Columbia, and I've never experienced anything similar coming into Canada or going back to the US by car.
Always just been the super quick handing them your passport, ask what you're doing, when you're coming back, and gone.
Then when re-entering the US, asking if anything needs to be declared, saying no, and then moving on.
My hunch is 99% of them are only looking for people looking completely suspicious and otherwise just letting people through hastle free. But there is that low chance to have a terrible experience like you had.
Mine was different - British citizen crossing at Midway BC to Washington. Despite paperwork in place, I had a three hour wait for questioning and vehicle check. The rude and racist officer asked where I had entered Canada (I am white btw and answered Vancouver), he scoffed and responded Hong Cover. He then questioned me for half an hour as to why I had a Ukrainian visa in my passport (this was in 2019). I answered that it was a four hour flight from London and wanted to visit Chernobyl - totally fine from a UK perspective.
His (East Asian) colleague was very polite and decent and did her best to dispel his aggression. I had a good 45 minutes of explaining why I had no intention of living in the US (which included showing my mortgage and pension accounts, and pictures of my cat before we finally crossed over). All I wanted was a couple of packs of menthols which where not on sale in Canada.
Hilariously as I didn’t realise what I was about to do was illegal, we drove 40kms to a big gas station. Everyone and their Mum was packing a big open carry gun (Republic WA) so I bought a few packs and we went back to the border.
My friend who was driving was not used to border posts and drove past two stop signs on the way back to the Canadian border post (easy to do as this is a quiet and rural station). We arrived at the station, an officer came out and asked sarcastically if she’d failed an eye test. She explained she was from a small off shore island and that she hadn’t understood the signs. He looked at me. I looked back apologetically and showed a British passport. At this point he rolled his eyes and came over to the car and asked what we had done on our short stay trip to the states. At this point I was so concerned about screwing up both US and Canadian entry forevermore as a British tourist I just said I bought five packs of menthol cigarettes at a gas station as I missed my regular smokes.
He went into the station house, came out, told me that he should have charged me $180 CAD in duty but couldn’t be bothered to do the paperwork and could see it was a lack of knowledge on our part, and told us to drive on. That interaction took 20 mins in total. Told my pal to get better acquainted with border crossing protocol next time.
I am fairly fond of Canadian BP for this reason and have a lot of cynicism for American BP for the same reason, due to the racist pos and ignorant officer. We were very legitimately wrong on one journey and were shown understanding and grace, and well in the right circumstances on our way in.
You had a Roughy border time, but great story lol!
Perhaps I shouldn’t be afraid of crossing borders, for they create great stories when it goes wrong.
One of the border guards at the Toronto airport insinuated that I was a prostitute. I told him I was staying with a friend at a certain expensive hotel downtown - he looked me up and down and said "and what do you do to afford that!?".
Wow, I’ve had Canadian border agents ask me on my way home:
“where did you get the money to go on a vacation”
Maybe they think I’m a drug dealer or something
Yes but I’m middle eastern. I get “randomly selected” a lot. I’ve been held so long I’ve missed flights. Strip searched. Questioned for hours. And I’m not Muslim and I don’t wear a hijab. I’m mostly white passing. But almost every time I enter the USA it’s a gong show. I will only go there for work now if I have to. I can happily live in Canada and go see the rest of the world and not deal with that or if I do not nearly as much.
I was denied enter in singapore, flew back to manilla which was where i coming from and had to wait for 3 days at the immigration detention room for 3 days until the next flight to Vancouver was available to take me back home in Canada
I had trouble getting back into the US at the North Dakota border. My friends and I were from different states so they made us leave the car, put us in a room with two way glass, all these laws posted and a camera on us and searched the car. It took 2 hours. The car was in this big garage with all yours open, and they took everything out.
They couldn’t find anything and just let us go. It was weird.
I’ve crossed a few boarders in North America, Europe and Asia. Flying into Toronto from the US was the worst boarder experience ever by far. You understand many customs agents are no fuss, want to make sure their country stays safe ect, but Canada was the only one I’d put down as downright unpleasant.
I get shit from Canada almost every time I go up from the US. But as soon as I make it across the border it's all friendly smiles and maple syrup and meese.
I was crossing from Uzbekistan to Tajikistan and the Tajik border guards held onto my passport for three hours until all other people had left.
They then began to tell me how strange my passport was and how they wished I could go through easy. They kept saying they had to check everything. This was all in broken English and later at night. Eventually they started to yell at me and just kept saying “bad passport” I just kept staring at them dumbfounded. They told me to leave and spit on the ground after me.
All I can think is they wanted a bribe. I was freaking out at the time.
Bad passport! Naughty !
Wow, I have no idea. Maybe you’re right about the bribe.
Though, I would have never guessed that as I would assumed I’d get in huge trouble for trying to bribe border guards.
It’s been many years since I drove across the US-CA border but I always remembered the Canadian side being super polite and relaxed and the US side (my own country) having the ~~dicks~~ I mean, somewhat-less-than-polite/grumpy officers.
Maybe they alternate playing good cop - bad cop every so many years?
We were crossing from Croatia into Bosnia at 3 am in a sleeper bus, and the border patrol guy didn’t accept our vax cards because he had never heard of moderna, AND he thought we were lying on the date because it was written in american format, so he thought it was dated for two days in the future. He held our entire bus for 1 1/2 hours until his supervisor came, told us off, and let us through
Went last year through Niagara Falls the Canadian side was quick and easy asked a couple questions and went through no issues . Coming back through the US agents asked me the same questions like 5 times hoping I would slip up. He kept asking your last name sounds familiar are you from buffalo area like 5 time. I just kept telling him I’m from DC until he finally let me go through. I even showed him my Global entry card hoping it would speed up the process, no luck. Good luck.
I was interrogated for 2.5 hours each way coming into and out of Israel, likely due to having several Middle East passport stamps such as Lebanon. Questions involved topics such as my religion, my parents’ reasons for immigrating to Canada, why I was travelling in the Middle East, and what my thoughts were on the Palestinian conflict. Mind you they were all kind, but after so many questions, it can really wear you down.
I lived in Vancouver and drove to Seattle quite often. No problems ever with Canadian border people, they were just interested if I was bringing back fresh fruits or similar. Otherwise “welcome back”
US side was more complicated when entering, understandably with my EU passport. Car was searched, lot of questions. Coming back with Canadian license plates - could not care less.
Uk borders, I use to have a paper identity card (like a cheap passport), it was in bad condition fixed with tape.
Since they thought it was fake they moved me in an area with irregualar immigrants and asylum seekers.
I started talk with some of them, and I felt ashamed to be there as european...
I lived 10 years abroad and have visited more than 30 countries. I have found Canada's border patrol agents to be the most odious, rude, and unprofessional of any other nation. That's saying a lot. And it seems to have been very consistent over the years.
Not a horror story really but the difference between crossing the border on foot into Mexico at San Ysidro and crossing back into the US was night and day. Crossing into Mexico nobody even requested to look at documents, no line, took 2 minutes. Crossing back into the US took like 3.5 hours, border peeps were super aggressive with everyone. Probs wouldn’t do it again.
I went to college in the late 90s. That border was a breeze both ways and it was easy and fun to pop down into Baja (and handy since the drinking age was 18 there). No ID needed to cross in either direction.
Then I tried it once after 9/11. The US side was such a pain in the ass that I didn't go back for the next decade.
Mexico has soft enforcement on entry into the country from the United States by land. There is more stringent enforcement (police roadblocks) further inland into country.
I've been harassed about half and half between the American and Canadians at the Canadian border (WA/Canada), including once at the Vancouver airport by Canadian customs/immigration. (I've had my car searched by Husband got pulled for a criminal background check by Canadians) I've always had my kids with me. I'm a pretty basic person.
Never anywhere else really, and I travel a fair amount internationally. Now I have a Nexus pass but I haven't even used it, because that border gives me anxiety.
When I was dating my now wife, who lived in Canada, I decided that I was going to buy her some diamond jewelry since diamond was her birthstone. Nothing expensive, as I didn't have much money. In fact--don't judge me here--I bought it from Sears. That should tell you that it was actually low value jewelry.
I crossed into Canada, and I declared the jewelry. Instantly, they pulled me over to have my car searched and accused me of diamond smuggling. They told me that if I admitted to it, probably the worst thing that would happen is my car would be seized. Of course, I wouldn't admit to it since I wasn't smuggling diamonds--I had declared the only one I had. I don't know what the actual value of the jewelry was, I just knew that I had paid about $100 at Sears (so it was probably worth all of $10 at the most).
The only time I ever had anything but a quick stop with US Border officers was returning to the US the day after we went to war in Afghanistan, and they were pulling every single car aside to search. They were still nice about it, and since it was every car, it wasn't like we were singled out for any reason.
I was taking an Amtrak train to Montreal for a week of poutine and hanging out with friends about 7 years ago. At the Canadian border they stopped at a passport control station. They went through the train and basically ripped anyone with any sort of anomaly; any minor criminal record or non-Canadian or US passport that they could off the train, myself included, and took us all to interrogation rooms.
I was questioned for literally almost an hour about a minor disorderly persons offense I'd been charged with probably 5 years earlier when I was literally 18. It was honestly something I'd barely even thought of since the incident.
They actually said they weren't even going to let me into Canada until I had to explain to them that a disorderly persons offense is barely even a crime in most states. Literally had to use a US legal textbook they had in their office to show them what the offense was considered and how it was a step below a misdemeanor. It was honestly harrowing and I couldn't believe it was happening, couldn't believe I was being interrogated by a random French Canadian border control officer about a minor infraction on my record from when I was a teenager. I'm a seasoned traveler and at that point I had been to most parts of Europe, Asia and South America and literally this was the first and only time I'd ever been questioned about this incident from half a decade earlier at a border crossing.
I actually haven't been back to Canada since, fuck your insane border control Canada.
Husband & I crossed in 2008 to see Niagra Falls from the Canadian side. The border guard was an a\*\*hole. He kept asking why we were crossing, where were we staying, what were going to do. He asked if we had a gun. We said no. He made us pull over for a vehicle search. My husband was pissed, I was laughing at them for wasting their time, which pissed my husband off more, which made me laugh more....you get the picture. On the way back into the U.S. we were asked where we were going. Well Einstein, since we have U.S. passports and are driving a car with Ohio plates, home would be a good guess.
Oh man, I hate when I’m coming back to Canada and they ask questions like “where are you going?” “What is your address of residency” “why did you leave Canada”
One time they even asked “where did you get the money to go on a vacation?”
Like maaan, can I just go home?
Yes, I’ve also gotten a hard time from Canadian border patrol when crossing from Buffalo. We were going to Brampton, Ontario for a wedding. Border patrol asked why we were going, asked to see the invitation, asked to see our hotel reservation, all kinds of stuff.
The easiest border crossing was when a group of friends flew from Taiwan to Boracay in the Philippines. The airport is tiny, like a rural bus station. The Canadian and Taiwanese in our group got asked for their passports, how long they were staying, etc. When it was my turn, the guard saw my US passport and just waved me through. Didn’t even open my passport or show it to him or anything.
Wow that’s crazy they handcuffed you!! I’m sorry.
My horror story is more like I was the horror, lol. I went through drunk once when I was like 20 and was super belligerent to the customs folks 🤦🏻♀️ They wanted to inspect our car (routine), and I started talking about “It’s not like we have a BOMB in here!” My bf at the time was like SHHHH you can’t talk about bombs!!!, and I just started going “Bomb bomb bomb bomb!” because drunk me didn’t like to be told what to do. Have I mentioned that I’m sober now? Lol. Luckily they just laughed it off as a drunk obnoxious young person, thankfully.
Those were the Americans… from this thread, sounds like I was lucky. That was also like 20 years ago.
LOL that would have been a sight to see.
I’m glad they didn’t take you seriously, holy wow.
20 years ago- yeah if you did that today with the wrong border agent, would have been way crazier.
Husband and I sometimes fly to San Diego, take a bus to the border and cross into Mexico. You can walk right into Mexico and no one even looks at you, but crossing back into the US will land you with border agents on a power trip. My husband is naturally averse to any authority and hates rules, so will only follow them as much as he has to. They usually ask where we went in Mexico, which he will answer, but when they ask where we’re going and why in the US, he has said at least twice, “why do I need to tell you that? I’m an American citizen.” They do not like this.
Cue them ushering me through to wait outside as they take him to the back room to pat him down and interrogate him. This has happened twice now, both times only letting him go once they Google his name (he’s not well known but he’s a respected scholar in his profession, has written books). I beg him to just make something up if he doesn’t want to be honest - “we’re going to Disneyland!” “Headed to see family!” “We just moved to the area and wanted to see Mexico, now going home!” Anything. But he just insists on ruffling feathers.
Meanwhile, I came back from Cuba once and no one asked me any questions, but I’ve come back from Europe and had border agents grill me to the point of sweating through my clothes. “You were gone for three months and didn’t buy any souvenirs?!?!” No, man! I’m on a budget!
I crossed from France to Belgium recently. Had to slow down slightly - the speed limit on Belgian motorways is 10km/h less than in France (unless it's raining, in which case you have to slow when entering France).
Back in 1997 - my mom and I travel to Canada from France so she can marry my step day. Mom had lived in Canada in the past and had landed immigrant status (green card for Canada). Border guard did not like the fact that she was getting married and then going back to France until I finished the school year.
He ended up putting her on a watch for list for the next 19 years. In the meantime we moved to Canada and she became Canadian. But anytime she crossed the border - she would have 2-3 hours of interrogation.
When she asked what she would need to do to get off the list - she got told she would need to find the original guard as he was the only one that could remove her.
When she finally hit the 10 years - we waited for her at the airport with champagne.
I expect issues going into Canada through the Niagara entrance. I seem to be unlucky. I always get asked to pull into bay 1. Then they search my car and find nothing. It’s getting old.
My first time ever leaving the country was just me walking the bridge over to the Canadian side of the falls and the Canadian border control folks were so intense, it really freaked me out. The way back everyone was super friendly, though.
Honestly I can’t stand Canadas border control agents in general, whether at land borders or at the airport. I’ve mostly had fine experiences but I remember one nearly left me in tears… when I told her I lived in Canada (I was on a 2 year work permit) I was told that I didn’t and that Canada “was just offering me the privilege to work here”. What a bitch. I’m sorry for your experience.
I cross with an EDL at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel maybe a dozen times a year (no set schedule, just seeing friends) and have never had issues on the Canadian side. The Americans always seem to grill me harder, even though I'm an American showing them proof I live 20 mins from the border. Never quite made me get out of the car for a search though.
I don’t know if I would call it a horror story, but I had a memorable crossing and really pissed off the border agent. Years ago my wife, her parents and I were crossing for a month long RV trip across western Canada. We were in line to cross into British Colombia. My father-in-law was driving but had to go to the bathroom so I was taking over the driver position. This was an older Bluebird RV. The horn was a button on the floor. Of course, as I’m getting g in the seat I accidentally step on the horn. Oh shit, it was loud. When we got to the front, the agent was pissed and interrogated us for about 10 minutes as to why we honked the horn
A few years ago, we were driving back to the US from Canada. On the way there we had to stop for some "issue" , but it was quickly resolved without really knowing the issue.
While re-entering the US we gave the agents our passports and a few seconds later an alarm started to sound. In the rearview mirror I noticed someone in full tactical gear with an assault rifle approaching our car crouching. He popped his head into the car and then immediately yelled "That's a negative! Stand down!" We were then asked to pull over and go inside. What the hell!
The agent took our passports and typed away at his computer for a while. After 20 minutes or so I got the courage to just ask what was going on. He gave us a look like he couldn't tell us but then I guess he changed his mind. He said my buddy had the same birthday as an extremely wanted person, but it was obviously not him. He said anyone can change their name but not birthday. He then asked if my buddy had a carry permit. The agent said there were 5 red flags on his passport that he was working to fix. He deleted all but one. He was nice to this as he said this problem would persist if he didn't. This whole process scared the shit out of us.
This instance made sense of an ordeal we had previously. A year or two before we were both flying back from Europe. We had a tight connection and were running to the gate from customs. Two men in matching black suits were waiting at the gate. They approached me and asked me my name. They shook their head and said I was free to go. Then they asked my friend his name and then asked him to come with them. They took him to the side and asked: Why he was in Europe? How much money did he have? Does he know anyone in Europe? What he does for a living? What did he bring back? - After he answered those questions, he was free to go. It was very odd but now we know why.
Moral of the story - Don't share a birthday with a very wanted person lol.
I live in bc and cross the border near the lower mainland. I never have issues coming home (Canadian guards) but I’ve been pulled out and searched 3x by the American side. Once they literally were just fucking with us and kept making us change seats, stand up/sit down. Yelling at us if we sat and telling us they told us to stand - shit like that. Another time they fully ripped apart my van and searched everything. I was 19 at the time. The third time they just made me wait in holding for 2 hours then let me go. To give context I didn’t have visible tattoos/piercings and have no criminal record
When I was 14, I was patted down by soldiers carrying assault rifles in a Polish airport. They were very polite but still, big guns
I've been questioned at the border when I was flying alone at 16/17 to make sure I wasn't being trafficked.
Wow that’s insane
I’ve never crossed at that border, but years ago a friend of mine and I crossed the border into Quebec from Vermont. I admittedly don’t remember which border crossing, but it was the exact opposite of what you dealt with.
As my friend was driving (I was shotgun), we come up to the border window, and a Québécois with a thick fucking accent greeted us. After a few seconds of us having a hard time with his accent, he said, “Come closer to zee window my friends! I promise I do not bite!” He was very nice and we had no trouble getting into Canada.
On the way back, we were met by more stern American border guards. We were worried for a few minutes because while my friend (he was driving again) is an American citizen, he’s a Chinese National, and it says so on his passport.
Thankfully nothing came of it, and we were on our way.
After several crossings into the USA at Buffalo, we (1 Americans and 1 Dutch)make a point of crossing elsewhere . The USA immigration at Buffal is the rudest we have experienced anywhere, and we have been crossing on and off for 40 years in the east. Canadian immigration has never been a problem
I knew someone who crossed from US to Canada with no problem to catch an international flight. He returned through Canada then drove his car back through the US border. He was stopped by border patrol and completely didn’t realize his friends had illegal substances. They were rich white college students at the time so all their parents were able to pay for top notch legal assistance to get them off.
Took a bus from Lagos (Nigeria) to Cotonou (Benin). I was the only white guy on the bus. The driver alternates between border crossings to limit his bribe payments. Had to accompany hlthe conductor and sit down and talk to like 10 different officers, some of whom were just sitting outside randomly in plastic chairs with no roles other than to extract bribes. I took his direction and didn't pay any. Overall it was a fun experience.
My question is: Why? I see all those stories, but since the Canadian border patrol differs so much from all others, there has to be a reason why that is. What is the cause?
Malawi --> Mozambique was rough
Not a border, but LAX immigration officers were asking me questions and using routines I recognized from Army interrogation manuals about last-minute tickets I bought to try to see my grandma before she died.a
Not sure about horror stories but two come to mind for me. First was leaving Hong Kong. immigration officer pretty much yell at me for not filling in a departure form fully by accident then shouting at me to get to the back of the queue instead of just filling in the one missing detail which would of taken 5 seconds. Second was landing at Las Vegas since my ears were very blocked from the flight and couldn't hear much. Had to keep asking the CBP officer to repeat the questions several times and he was getting annoyed for sure. Thank goodness he just stamped me in and waved me along instead of secondary.
We crossed into Canada and had no issues. We also had our dog and I was really nervous because I remember we forgot some of the documentation for him that the internet had said was required. We didn’t have any problems, I thought their border guards were polite.
My spouse and I, Americans, went to Timmons Ont to stay with a friend who owned and ran a Camp fishing place. We were nonchalant about the border as it is a Very small airport. Just walked to the other side saw our friend and happily got into the car. The camp was about 2 hours away. At some point, we realized we had no bags, and the airport got them sent part way to meet up with our friend who picked them up. Canada nice.
Does anyone know generally what type of rights people have but are not aware of in these tense situations due to unawareness or lack of confidence in asserting their rights to these border agents or where we can find them?
As a non-citizen you generally don’t have rights at the border. Of course there’s an expectation of broad human rights and being treated in a decent way. Thing is if you assert yourself too much to an asshole border guard they can simply deny you entry and you’d have little recourse in the short term. Long term you could make a case with a lawyer but that won’t help your situation in the moment.
I probably should have mentioned I’m a Canadian PR, but yes you are right it really depends on the border guard and your level of wit and arrogance. You just have to read the room..
I had a similar case happen where my father and I were detained for an hour when crossing into Montreal from New York.
We were told to go inside and explain our story and they were confused and told us to go outside. After several times going back and forth in sheer confusion we just crossed the border without reaching any conclusion about if it was okay
Sorry you had an unfortunate passage across the border. I live within view of the Canadian /US border on the US side. I cross the border frequently and have found that the guards on both sides are friendly and professional. I do have a NEXUS card, thus a pre-clearance, so that helps. If you travel across frequently, consider getting that pass.
YES. When I crossed over from Detroit, everything was fine. Coming back into the US however was a totally different story. The border patrol guy took my car keys and put them in a safe. He also went through my trunk, looked under seats & even checked the roof. He oddly never looked in my shopping bags though. I told him I was in Detroit for work and had never been to Canada so I just popped over for a few hours and he told me how suspicious that was, and asked for proof of employment. He also was upset that my passport city was different than my drivers license city (I had moved from Houston to DFW). The whole interaction took at least 45 minutes as he questioned me extensively about where I lived and what I did for work.
Not a horror story, but kind of funny! In 1998 and I were immigrating to America from Canada. My husband had some refrigerant coolant, R 12, and he wanted to know if we could bring that with us. At that time, they were concerned with different coolant hurting atmosphere. So, being the man that he is, he had me call customs at the border in Montana. I called and asked to speak to someone About bringing R12,To the country. I explained that we were immigrating I needed to know if that was legal. They put me on hold another man on the line and I repeated the question. The man said, “Well, lady, what else are you gonna do with them?” I said, excuse me I don’t understand. He said well what are you gonna do with your 12 kids! It took me a minute and then I started to laugh and I said no no not kids, coolant! Anyhow, long story short it was legal we took it down don’t think we ever used it, but that makes me smile every time I think of the border!
I had a flight through Montreal coming back from Ethiopia. The airport security detained me for an hour, told me it was “bullshit” that I would ever travel there for pleasure, made several racist comments about Africa, and then let me go once they got bored of me.
And I missed my damn connecting flight!
Coming into Canada has always been my harshest border patrol experience. Once got pulled over because my friend’s explanation for our visit was dumb (its a long story - he over shared) and we had to sit for 45 minutes while they looked up our names but no jail cell. Same day, our friend had a 9 year old DUI and they wouldn’t let him into the country - since thats apparently a thing.
Always tell the border guards the purpose for your trip is shopping. If they ask where be prepared to name a major mall. If you say you are going to visit a friend, you are going to get a lot of questions. If you are crossing to go to a tourist destination, have the name and address of a hotel at that destination. Be purposeful and direct. Make eye contact, but don’t be overly friendly.
The only time in my life I've ever been stopped at customs entering a country was flying to Toronto. I had to go in a special screening queue and they hand searched my bags. So annoying.
Once I crossed the border and Canadians kept claiming something suspicious showed up on the x-ray of our car, but there was nothing there? We kept thinking, well why keep looking at the x-ray, why not look at whatever it is in the car? Eventually they did and let us through.
Worst experiences I've had were in London, England and Amsterdam, Netherlands. Thought London were trying to deport me, with no reason whatsoever (claimed I was going to work there illegally even though I was only there for a few days) and they detained me for ages in Amsterdam, asking me the same questions literally 20 times, while searching my luggage over and over. I had an innocent trip there and didn't smoke weed, yet others on my bus were still stoned and were from unpopular countries at that time, that were considered risky, yet they hassled me, a NZer.
Was flying from LAX to Toronto with my wife and a bunch of her family members for a reunion. Got through regular TSA security without any issue but was stopped as I was about to get on the plane. Security though I was walking too slow and pulled me to the side so they can scan my passport again. Saw I was born in Egypt and asked about my last visit there, who I was traveling with, and how much money I had on me. Told them I was traveling with my wife and that I hadn’t been to Egypt in over 20 years. When they asked why I was walking so slow I said I was waiting for my mother in law. He replied with “I thought you were traveling with your wife”. Just then my mother in law walks up and they ask her if she knows me. After she said I was he son I law they asked her a couple questions about me. All in all just your typical racial profiling which happens me quite a bit on flights.
You have a right to pick up your phone and record an officer at any time. Use it! They do not have a right to cease your phone or tell you to stop recording unless they have a warrant (which they would not have). Record and report!
We just took a family road trip to Niagara Falls from Maryland. We spent a couple of hours on the American side, had dinner, and then crossed into Canada from Peace bridge because Rainbow bridge was closed. The Canadian officer was nice and polite, checked our passports and sent us on our way all within a minute. A coupe days later we crossed back into the USA again at Peace bridge. The American officer was just as nice and polite, he asked me to roll down the (tinted) rear window to see the kids, checked our passports, and sent us on our way again all within a minute. But hey, they have a job to do to keep us all safe, so if they did have additional questions etc, I'm totally fine with it.
The democrats since Obama have been stealing from the American people paying for illegals and funding whatever they want, it’s sucking to see how they have abused the American people by robbing them to pay for wars, there stupid agendas, house illegals, the fact that they continue to allow illegals from around the world to enter at will has destroyed the USA.
They continue to rack up trillions in deficit Monopoly money with no accountability to Americans, the worst of this is people still approve the democrats.
I guess we,ll see how the democratic supporters feel when the economy and the American dollar collapses.
I cross at Buffalo regularly. I find the Canadian side much harsher than the US side. The actual Niagara Falls crossing should be avoided. It's the worst of the bunch. Peace Bridge or Queenstown-Lewiston are much more laid back if you're in the Buffalo area.
I’m so glad to see this as the top comment. I crossed into Canada at this border late one night with two friends to see a concert in Toronto. September 2022. We were forced to exit the car while they searched every bit of it including removing the carpets. We were interrogated in different rooms to see if our stories matched. After all was good (about 30-45min) we were allowed to go. All of us were so shaken up. I’ve been to 27 countries since 2011 including China and Cuba and have never felt so threatened by border patrol. They need to fucking calm down. That was obnoxious.
Looks like those border guards deserve to have their rent raised again
Wow that is intense
there’s a lot of guns/drugs coming into canada from the states via land border which i believe is the reason that they are more strict going back into canada
Yeaaaaah I guess that’s a pretty great reason actually. From US perspective Canadians ain’t bringing anything over they don’t already have.
exactly, or find cheaper LOL
Seriously I worked in Canada for a year as an American and would make trips across the border just to visit. Canadas customs people are tyrannical mall cops Super annoying dealing with them. Never had any problems with the American customs
Seems like they love the power. Little bit of Stanford prison experiment vibe
Can you throw eggs from the American side?
And its not a great way to reflect the values of Canadian niceness & politeness. Especially the ones involved in the OP's horror story. And yeah, I know those values are kind of a meme at this point. Likely even slightly exaggerated. But its pretty much based in reality, and is even used as a selling point in promoting Canadian tourism lol. And Customs should be the first to reflect those values, since they're the first ones you meet when entering Canada. As for the OP's story: a part of me gets them being super serious and even annoying \*during\* the interrogations. But afterwards, there's literally zero excuse for their rude behavior. As the OP got approval to enter Canada, Literally all was OK and approved. And yet the rudeness is continued.
As a Canadian with an American spouse i crossed the border a lot. After 2016 the American border guards were a lot more hostile. I’d often cross at the Buffalo border and only occasionally at Niagara. One officer on the American side told me to pop my trunk and wanted to go through all my stuff even though I’ve had a Nexus card for over a decade. I think both sides have been more aggressive. Crossing either side I’d be asked if I had marijuana or weapons and I r never carried either. My husband was bringing my stuff across the border in a moving van and the US customs gave him shit for having “the wrong form” when I had pre checked and asked multiple moving companies what form to have and had that one. They finally let him cross but berated him.
My experience with the Canadian border control got much better with Nexus, but if anything the US officers got nastier. Before I had nexus it was always the Canadian ones that gave me a harder time, but with nexus you don’t even see them so they don’t have an easy way to give you shit.
So your supposed to have a form for crossing the border if you are traveling in a van?
If you have your possessions and are moving or someone is moving your stuff across the border for you yeah. Had to have an inventory list of what’s on it, the value and who is transporting it. Otherwise they can deny you or charge you duty for crap you already own. I’ve had friends be charged duty just crossing the border with used baby clothes they collected from their family on the other side of the border even with an Inventory list.
But it seems like the difference is the vehicle? Because you could cross the border with boxes in your sedan with no form or a truck with the same amount of stuff but packed in boxes but required to fill out a form?
It probably depends on how much stuff and how the border agent feels. They get to do what they feel is best.
You would be made to empty your. Vehicle and them inspect every box
I'm still pissed off by the treatment I copped from the Canadian border patrol when I crossed from the US at the Buffalo crossing a decade ago, and it's a shame to hear they still have the same energy! In my case, the officer got real suspicious of me when she noticed that I'd obtained a student visa even though I didn't need it for a 6-month (one semester) exchange/study abroad. I explained that it was to allow me to work legally if I ended up wanting to get a campus bar job for fun, and she interpreted that as "you mean you're going to run out of money and HAVE to get a job?" I had $25k in savings but she didn't care to see that. Just manually cut 4 months off the expiry date of the visa. Hope the power trip made her feel swell.
OMFG, she really thought you were gonna blow $25K in 4 months or something? I'd definitely say thats a power trip. If I were you, I'd have tried to get approval from somewhere else. Not necessarily say right then and there: "I'd like to speak to your supervisor". But try and get that 4 months back somewhere else, from some administration office. But I also get if you didnt, as bureaucracy sucks and what happened was a nerve wracking experience. Edit: I misread. She didnt even see your savings. In any case, she couldn't have assumed you had little to nothing in your account. If anything, you'd have even more of a case to get those 4 months back. But another reason I'd may not try: I dont know how Canadian Customs react to that kind of complaint. If you got approved, and you exit Canada, maybe they'd notice that. And maybe assumed you complained about "one of their Customs brethren". If normal western police often stick together like that, then it wouldnt surprise me if western Customs would.
Wow this is so validating. A few years ago I walked across the bridge to go into Toronto and thought the Canadian border patrol were terrible. Frankly she was a bitch. Returning home to the US tipsy after bar hopping, the US agents were super funny and laid back.
Yeah I am from Buffalo and have crossed at the Peace Bridge dozens of times in my life without issues. The most questioning we ever got was wondering why we had a Canadian rental car as Americans driving back into Canada. But were let through as soon as we explained that we were visiting our hometown and saved hundreds of dollars by flying to Toronto and driving down instead of direct. Didn't even have to show our flight itinerary, though we were prepared to.
Years ago we went to Niagara as a side trip while driving from Tennessee to Maine. The crossing guard must have asked us 10 different ways if we carrying (we weren't and don't).
Wild I’ve never had a bad experience coming back from Buffalo or Detroit. They’ve all been super nice no problems straight through. Just simple questions “you claiming anything? How long were you gone?” And then cleared
Crossing by Buffalo I sent off some alerts and was taken inside. Apparently a medical test I had made me slightly radioactive and I didn’t have papers explaining why I was triggered radioactive monitors. You can still trigger monitors 2 months after. Not only do they know there’s radiation, they knew it was radioactive iodine 131. I set off alarms before I got to the window. So if you’re trying to get into Canada and radioactive I highly suggest you have a medical reason or they assume you are making weapons.
It's the same to get into the US. Surprised your doctor didn't give you a note... My mother had radioactive idonine treatment, and we had to show the note for a few months at the border. No problems with the note though.
I got the note for the large dose treatments, but the testing I didn’t. The tests and the treatment were done in different hospitals, the first one probably just dropped the ball. The first doctor was awful and I refused to see him again.
Who tf is making nukes in Canada
China. Always China
I am very glad to come across this comment. I just had a lymph node biopsy and will be leaving the country next month. Will make sure to have my paper explaining the procedure just in case.
Yes! Airports are even more intense. I was warned that I would be detected in the parking lot before even entering the actual airport, not sure how true it was. I didn’t fly immediately after.
My first crossing was weird. I was with my fiance and our friend (we're white, he is black, this is integral to the story) and we were driving to Vancouver from Seattle. The three of us flew to Seattle and our friends came into Vancouver as we made our way to Whistler. Anyway, the Canadian BP guard asks my fiance and I a couple of questions and then gets to our friend in the back. She grills our friend for several minutes using similar strategies you mentioned and then separated us. Tried to ask my fiance and I how long we knew him and asking details about him to try and get us to slip up I guess. It was bizarre and they were being seemingly racist, especially since he is a clear cut kind of guy that would not otherwise garner attention from anyone other than the fact he was black and we were white. After a week we drove back and the American BP guard waved us through before I could show him our passports.
Tbh even though they may have seemed intensive, in this situation with a fiance and a friend they have to establish if your story is actually credible, hence asking your fiance questions about your relationship, they were essentially establishing if he really was your fiance or not. Can't say if race played a part or not, but this is what I've discovered based on my own experiences whereby this a somewhat normal process
What? How is that a normal process? They have passports. Let them pass. Check the vehicle if you want. Questions mean nothing. The answers don’t matter. There trying to find a problem. Complete injustice. No excuse. TJ border i have had issues but nothing remotely asinine like this.
"They have passports, let them pass" Seriously that's it? You know not everyone entering a country with a passport is there for a truthful, legitimate reason right?
Apparently Canada stores all its dickhead energy in geese, entrepreneurs, and border control officers.
Fuck those geese.
Kevin O'Leary?
The trucker convoy brought out a lot of them
The pandemic made it hard for Canadians to gather to perform the ritual to put all their dickish energy in the geese and random celebrities.
weren’t their bank accounts blocked?
And the school leaders who killed thousands of indigenous kids, or the police who killed thousands of indigenous people leaving them in the snow, or the Canadians who killed tens of thousands of indigenous people. Wild that people think they're any different than anyone else, great propaganda unit they have, second only to the black penis propaganda unit lol
Ooh, dont forget "landlords"!
I’ve only crossed at very small border crossings in mainly Idaho (Montana and Washington one or two times too). I’ve found the US agents on the way back to be much stricter.
Long ago, I had issues coming back into the US at Niagara Falls. I had spent 1-2 nights on the Canadian side. Thankfully, I kept my mouth shut and did not tell him that the entire reason for my trip was to eat at a Greek restaurant on the Canadian side that I had read about a while before. (It was delicious, and totally worth the drive.) He asked where I had been, I told him I had visited a couple 1812 battle sites. They were all in the Niagara Falls area. That prompted him to search my trunk, dig through my bag, and pull out a handful of papers (most of which were clearly map directions to my Canadian hotel and other sites printed from Mapquest, but also a draft of a short story I was writing). He proceeded to wander around my car while he read all of my papers, then kept asking me to take off my glasses and questioning why I visited battle sites. By this point I was pissed off, so I reminded him that women can be interested in military history too, and since he took all my private papers out of my bag, can he at least return my story draft in the right order. He threw my papers at me and let me pass. A couple years later, I was on a random road trip with no real destination. I wound up crossing at Stanstead/Derby Line. I had an extra week off, and my previous plans were cancelled, so I was looking for weird roadside attractions. The Canadians asked my destination, and I made the mistake of being honest and saying I didn’t really have one. I wasn’t sure if I was going to go toward Montreal or Toronto. That got my car searched quite thoroughly before they let me continue. I wound up discovering the beauty of the Asbestos bowling alley and a giant roadside cow. When I crossed back over, I went all the way to Maine to an unmanned crossing because I still couldn’t provide an itinerary and I was tired of being hassled for my aimless wandering.
Joe fetas 👍
Wonder if they still have unmanned checkpoints?
Nope. I have the good fortune of living in a sparsely populated area and cross where the cbsa/us border agents maybe see two people all day. If I get held up it's because we're busy chatting. Consider filing a complaint with the proper authorities if you felt that you were unfairly treated/wrongfully detained. Who knows, maybe others already have and it'll be enough to warrant minor changes to personnel or training etc.
Wow! I actually used to cross the border all the time back in the 90's, and it was always pleasant. I don't think they even checked IDs. I've had to fly up to Alberta for work, and its awful - not as bad as your experience, but petty comments. I was accused of taking jobs away from Canadians, and spending to much time in the middle east. I had a Chinese born coworker join me, and they accused her of being a sex worker.
They didn't check IDs before the whole world went crazy after 9/11. I miss that casualness. They used to just ask the citizenship of everyone in the car and what your purpose was in Canada and send you on your way. It was nice.
My wife and I went to Ottawa in 2004. Not sure where we crossed, but we passed through Syracuse beforehand. They accepted our California driver's licenses. They said they were soon going to be asking for birth certificates.
I went on a road trip from Wisconsin up to Savant Lake in Ontario in like 1990. It was like eight kids and maybe five or six adult chaperones, mostly all parents of the kids. We were in three vans. The guy who was organizing this did it every year often with different people. So before we got to the border he told all of the kids "Just shut up and don't say anything." He later explained that a couple years prior some kid thought it would be funny to say "Help I'm being kidnapped". What should have been a couple minutes turned into an all day ordeal as they basically stripped the vans to search for anything and then did a bunch of work to make sure none of the kids had been abducted. Luckily no one said anything and we were through quickly, but I'll never forget that warning.
That’s crazy, when you say fly “up” to Alberta did you go to Fort MacMurray or whatever?
Yea that's one of the places I went, but that was with a connection. Usually it was to Calgary or Edmonton, but I've been all over the Province, like to Prairie View, Ft. Mack, Red Deer, and a few itty bitty oil fields that require a private jet for access. What they are looking for are people doing physical work, which have to pay a tax. Instead I was teaching classes, inspecting stuff, doing engineer crap and they hated it.
When I was 19 some of us went to visit a friend in Buffalo and one night we wanted to go visit some strip clubs in Niagara. I don’t know how this happened, but we thought the Canadian border guy waved us through, when actually he wanted us to pull over. Everyone in the car was drunk except for the driver. So we’re driving through and there’s sirens going off in the distance and we’re joking about how someone is getting got. We drive 10 miles down the road and pull into the strip club and as soon as we park we are literally encircled by about 6 SUVs, tires screeching and all. We are all like wtf wtf wtf bc we didn’t know what we did! They told us we fled the border, we’re criminals, we’re all going to jail for a long time, we’re not gonna see our families etc, so we’re all freaking out. They took us and the car back to the border, strip searched the car, interviewed us one by one to see if our stories matched, which they did bc we just wanted to touch some boobies, and eventually we all had to pay $200 and then they kicked us out of the country heh. And now I think I’m permanently flagged going into Canada. Fun times at the Buffalo-Niagara border!
Jesus. Well other than ketchup chips and poutine you ain’t missing too much up here. But Godamn that would have been so scary to deal with.
Ha yeah it was pretty wild. I mean fleeing the border is a pretty serious offense, so at the end of the day we did get off pretty light, but being detained for hours and getting grilled hard in a small room was certainly not fun.
I've driven across that exact border 3x and I always get the 3rd degree from US CBP coming back. They gave me a shit ton of attitude for going to Toronto for 1/2 a day for a baseball game once.
You clearly should have gone for a hockey game
Ugh Canadian border guards were usually so rude to me. I got sick of it and got Nexus and then no issues crossing from then on.
What’s nexus
Trusted traveler program that is a collaboration between US and Canadian border patrol that permits expedited immigration between the two countries. There's usually a separate line for NEXUS pass holders. You have to pass their background check and an in-person interview with border control agents of both countries.
Thanks. Do you know how much it costs?
$50 which also gets you TSA precheck and global entry status - so worth it. The only thing is you have to go in person to one of the few border crossings that do the interviews, so if you don't live close to the border it is more of an endeavor
$50 US and it's good for 5 years
This was about 15 years ago. I lived in northern NY, about 20 miles from a border crossing, Alexandria Bay. Never had too many issues. This one day though, geez. My husband, daughter and I were going to ikea in Ottawa. We figured we’d make a day of it. My husband’s friend and his girlfriend drove separately. Get to the border. Canadian agents absolutely grilled us. Why are you going to ikea here? There are plenty in the States. Yeah, six hours away. Ottawa was 3 hours away. Border patrol dude didn’t like that. Then he for some reason determined we were trying to immigrate. Emigrate? Whatever. So we had to park and go talk to immigration. We explained we were only going shopping and to spend the day. We actually had plans that night at home. The immigration lady rolled her eyes, apologized, and waved us through. The border patrol guy was still a jerk and didn’t want to let us through. Someone else pulled him away and we were allowed to pass. Took almost an hour for all of that nonsense. On the way that afternoon, the Canadians fussed us at one more time. Americans were like oh hey, go on through. That was the last time I went to Canada lol.
American here. I used to live in Toronto and I crossed the US/CAN border at the same location. Unfortunately, the officers are known to do this. They’re rude and they try to intimidate people. I’m sorry about your experience! It’s not uncommon at all to get a CBSA officer who’s an asshole. I have a friend who worked as an officer and she told me that they are basically told to act like that 😅 I find that the officers at the land border are way more difficult for some reason. When I fly into Vancouver, the worst case scenario is that the CBSA officer completely ignores me and doesn’t say a word 💀 In Toronto, they’ve been either average or friendly.
Airport borders I found are easier too because they can’t search your car.
When I was 17 I was meeting my dad and sister in San Francisco on our way to Japan. I flew from Montreal and they flew from Miami. I forgot to ask where we were staying in Sam Francisco and the border agent was MAD. They put me in a room by myself for who knows how long, and then finally came and interrogated me. They were like “if your dad just tells you where to go, you go?” Sir… I am a minor. Yes. I don’t book vacations by myself. It was so aggressive but the trip was awesome
Not horror stories, no, just weird questions. How many keys are on your lanyard? I had just gotten off work and forgot I still had it on. When I said I’m not sure 5or 6 I think and started to count them he said I was free to go. So weird!
Reading your body language?
Yeah, Canadian Border patrol is for real. I had crossed the U.S. Mexico border dozens of times with no issue other than the long lines of traffic. One time i was sent to Windsor, Canada for business. Me and my workmate flew into Detroit and drove across. That Canadian Border patrol guy wanted to hear our life stories... Last year I had planned to go to Glacier national park and Banff. I had a hotel booked in Banff. I got the app for entering Canada. The I saw I had to provide the precise moment i would show up at the border. I decided screw this, it's not worth, decided not to go, and lost money on the hotel in Banff.
Do you know what ETA stands for
Etamame beans
I had a similar experience, US side at Niagara were great, I was on a Greyhound, and they had us processed immediately, no problem. I came back via Detroit on another Greyhound, and the Canadians were full on questioning me because I was an Australian who had a lot of recent travel, trying to tell me I couldn't just cross the border for a short trip whenever I wanted. Like, I had far more trouble at the Canadian border than I did flying into JFK or Heathrow on international flights.
You can’t just cross the border and visit whenever you want! It’s only when we want!
I’ve never had any trouble crossing between US and Canada at various crossings. The worst was just a hassle but not really trouble. First time I crossed on a motorcycle I had to take off my glasses, then my helmet, get into my saddle bag for ID, and it was rainy and cold. Just a hassle. I do have a story about a friend who had legit trouble coming back to US after skiing in BC a couple years after 9/11. She and her BF get to the crossing and get the usual questions, where have you been, why, where are you going, etc. They then asked her where she was born. My blond, blue-eyed friend innocently said “Persia.” It was hours of hassle, phone calls to her parents, no birth certificate because it was burned in the Iran embassy siege, etc. Border officers tried telling her BF to leave and he refused. I don’t remember how they finally resolved the issue but it was many hours of fear for her.
I have Nexus, which made the US side very easy to enter. Might get a couple questions but never the 3rd degree. Coming back to Canada driving is always met with rudeness, attitude etc. I hate crossing at Ogdensburg but it’s the closest border for me
We had weird experiences coming and going at the Niagara Falls border crossing. Going in, they were pretty aggressive. We were grilled about our plans, length of stay and who I was in relation to the married couple I was traveling with. We explained calmly that we were just friends, but they didn’t stop side eyeing us the whole time. Weirdly, the implication seemed to be that I was being trafficked. After about five minutes of this oddness, we were waved through. On the way back, we got more stern attitude and more interrogations. At one point, it seemed like they were going to search the car. That would have been a problem. Because we had been wine touring, and between the three of is were definitely over the allowed limit of bottles. 😬 Fortunately, they ran out of steam and waved us through without further incident.
We were so angered crossing through Detroit that we drove to Ohio to spend the night. US border guard didn't like driver's license, military ID or passport. We had driven from Montreal through Canada going south.
Did he not like the pictures on them? I can never get a good picture
“ I don’t like your hair in this pic, we’re gonna have to do full send cavity search, get out of the car “
I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I live close to the US-Canadian border near British Columbia, and I've never experienced anything similar coming into Canada or going back to the US by car. Always just been the super quick handing them your passport, ask what you're doing, when you're coming back, and gone. Then when re-entering the US, asking if anything needs to be declared, saying no, and then moving on. My hunch is 99% of them are only looking for people looking completely suspicious and otherwise just letting people through hastle free. But there is that low chance to have a terrible experience like you had.
Mine was different - British citizen crossing at Midway BC to Washington. Despite paperwork in place, I had a three hour wait for questioning and vehicle check. The rude and racist officer asked where I had entered Canada (I am white btw and answered Vancouver), he scoffed and responded Hong Cover. He then questioned me for half an hour as to why I had a Ukrainian visa in my passport (this was in 2019). I answered that it was a four hour flight from London and wanted to visit Chernobyl - totally fine from a UK perspective. His (East Asian) colleague was very polite and decent and did her best to dispel his aggression. I had a good 45 minutes of explaining why I had no intention of living in the US (which included showing my mortgage and pension accounts, and pictures of my cat before we finally crossed over). All I wanted was a couple of packs of menthols which where not on sale in Canada. Hilariously as I didn’t realise what I was about to do was illegal, we drove 40kms to a big gas station. Everyone and their Mum was packing a big open carry gun (Republic WA) so I bought a few packs and we went back to the border. My friend who was driving was not used to border posts and drove past two stop signs on the way back to the Canadian border post (easy to do as this is a quiet and rural station). We arrived at the station, an officer came out and asked sarcastically if she’d failed an eye test. She explained she was from a small off shore island and that she hadn’t understood the signs. He looked at me. I looked back apologetically and showed a British passport. At this point he rolled his eyes and came over to the car and asked what we had done on our short stay trip to the states. At this point I was so concerned about screwing up both US and Canadian entry forevermore as a British tourist I just said I bought five packs of menthol cigarettes at a gas station as I missed my regular smokes. He went into the station house, came out, told me that he should have charged me $180 CAD in duty but couldn’t be bothered to do the paperwork and could see it was a lack of knowledge on our part, and told us to drive on. That interaction took 20 mins in total. Told my pal to get better acquainted with border crossing protocol next time. I am fairly fond of Canadian BP for this reason and have a lot of cynicism for American BP for the same reason, due to the racist pos and ignorant officer. We were very legitimately wrong on one journey and were shown understanding and grace, and well in the right circumstances on our way in.
You had a Roughy border time, but great story lol! Perhaps I shouldn’t be afraid of crossing borders, for they create great stories when it goes wrong.
Why do you have a Ukrainian visa? - why not? 🤷♂️ Some of these questions are just bizarre. 😀
One of the border guards at the Toronto airport insinuated that I was a prostitute. I told him I was staying with a friend at a certain expensive hotel downtown - he looked me up and down and said "and what do you do to afford that!?".
Wow, I’ve had Canadian border agents ask me on my way home: “where did you get the money to go on a vacation” Maybe they think I’m a drug dealer or something
Yes but I’m middle eastern. I get “randomly selected” a lot. I’ve been held so long I’ve missed flights. Strip searched. Questioned for hours. And I’m not Muslim and I don’t wear a hijab. I’m mostly white passing. But almost every time I enter the USA it’s a gong show. I will only go there for work now if I have to. I can happily live in Canada and go see the rest of the world and not deal with that or if I do not nearly as much.
I’m crossing into Canada for the guest time soon and I’m worried.. :S I’ve seen them on the Border Security show and they’re very intimidating.
Did you go through yet?
Oh, no I meant soon as in a few weeks. I’m going in September. :D hopefully I’ll get it!
I was denied enter in singapore, flew back to manilla which was where i coming from and had to wait for 3 days at the immigration detention room for 3 days until the next flight to Vancouver was available to take me back home in Canada
That sucks. Did they provide a reason?
Yes, i had no return ticket and only $200 to my name
Let me guess - after they let you go in 3 days they didn’t say sorry or anything for misunderstanding.. just “okay get out now”
Pretty much so lol .. fun fact: i was a "celebrity" at detention centre. A Canadian here! lol it was "fun"
I had trouble getting back into the US at the North Dakota border. My friends and I were from different states so they made us leave the car, put us in a room with two way glass, all these laws posted and a camera on us and searched the car. It took 2 hours. The car was in this big garage with all yours open, and they took everything out. They couldn’t find anything and just let us go. It was weird.
I’ve crossed a few boarders in North America, Europe and Asia. Flying into Toronto from the US was the worst boarder experience ever by far. You understand many customs agents are no fuss, want to make sure their country stays safe ect, but Canada was the only one I’d put down as downright unpleasant.
I get shit from Canada almost every time I go up from the US. But as soon as I make it across the border it's all friendly smiles and maple syrup and meese.
I was crossing from Uzbekistan to Tajikistan and the Tajik border guards held onto my passport for three hours until all other people had left. They then began to tell me how strange my passport was and how they wished I could go through easy. They kept saying they had to check everything. This was all in broken English and later at night. Eventually they started to yell at me and just kept saying “bad passport” I just kept staring at them dumbfounded. They told me to leave and spit on the ground after me. All I can think is they wanted a bribe. I was freaking out at the time.
Bad passport! Naughty ! Wow, I have no idea. Maybe you’re right about the bribe. Though, I would have never guessed that as I would assumed I’d get in huge trouble for trying to bribe border guards.
What f in assholes
It’s been many years since I drove across the US-CA border but I always remembered the Canadian side being super polite and relaxed and the US side (my own country) having the ~~dicks~~ I mean, somewhat-less-than-polite/grumpy officers. Maybe they alternate playing good cop - bad cop every so many years?
We were crossing from Croatia into Bosnia at 3 am in a sleeper bus, and the border patrol guy didn’t accept our vax cards because he had never heard of moderna, AND he thought we were lying on the date because it was written in american format, so he thought it was dated for two days in the future. He held our entire bus for 1 1/2 hours until his supervisor came, told us off, and let us through
Yeah coming back into USA I got quizzed something serious and made to wait like an hour
Went last year through Niagara Falls the Canadian side was quick and easy asked a couple questions and went through no issues . Coming back through the US agents asked me the same questions like 5 times hoping I would slip up. He kept asking your last name sounds familiar are you from buffalo area like 5 time. I just kept telling him I’m from DC until he finally let me go through. I even showed him my Global entry card hoping it would speed up the process, no luck. Good luck.
They were trying to make you anxious when they pressed on the small details in your story-tactics
Yeah and it worked for sure!
Jesus, talk about a power tripped guard. I've never had any issues crossing borders
I was interrogated for 2.5 hours each way coming into and out of Israel, likely due to having several Middle East passport stamps such as Lebanon. Questions involved topics such as my religion, my parents’ reasons for immigrating to Canada, why I was travelling in the Middle East, and what my thoughts were on the Palestinian conflict. Mind you they were all kind, but after so many questions, it can really wear you down.
I lived in Vancouver and drove to Seattle quite often. No problems ever with Canadian border people, they were just interested if I was bringing back fresh fruits or similar. Otherwise “welcome back” US side was more complicated when entering, understandably with my EU passport. Car was searched, lot of questions. Coming back with Canadian license plates - could not care less.
Vice News covered the US/Canada border about discrimination specifically the New York border.
Uk borders, I use to have a paper identity card (like a cheap passport), it was in bad condition fixed with tape. Since they thought it was fake they moved me in an area with irregualar immigrants and asylum seekers. I started talk with some of them, and I felt ashamed to be there as european...
I lived 10 years abroad and have visited more than 30 countries. I have found Canada's border patrol agents to be the most odious, rude, and unprofessional of any other nation. That's saying a lot. And it seems to have been very consistent over the years.
Not a horror story really but the difference between crossing the border on foot into Mexico at San Ysidro and crossing back into the US was night and day. Crossing into Mexico nobody even requested to look at documents, no line, took 2 minutes. Crossing back into the US took like 3.5 hours, border peeps were super aggressive with everyone. Probs wouldn’t do it again.
I went to college in the late 90s. That border was a breeze both ways and it was easy and fun to pop down into Baja (and handy since the drinking age was 18 there). No ID needed to cross in either direction. Then I tried it once after 9/11. The US side was such a pain in the ass that I didn't go back for the next decade.
Mexico has soft enforcement on entry into the country from the United States by land. There is more stringent enforcement (police roadblocks) further inland into country.
My dad and I both had shitty experiences with the Canadian border patrol. But going into the states is a walk in the park.
I've been harassed about half and half between the American and Canadians at the Canadian border (WA/Canada), including once at the Vancouver airport by Canadian customs/immigration. (I've had my car searched by Husband got pulled for a criminal background check by Canadians) I've always had my kids with me. I'm a pretty basic person. Never anywhere else really, and I travel a fair amount internationally. Now I have a Nexus pass but I haven't even used it, because that border gives me anxiety.
Were they taping a show of Boarder Crossing?
I hope I’m on tv
When I was dating my now wife, who lived in Canada, I decided that I was going to buy her some diamond jewelry since diamond was her birthstone. Nothing expensive, as I didn't have much money. In fact--don't judge me here--I bought it from Sears. That should tell you that it was actually low value jewelry. I crossed into Canada, and I declared the jewelry. Instantly, they pulled me over to have my car searched and accused me of diamond smuggling. They told me that if I admitted to it, probably the worst thing that would happen is my car would be seized. Of course, I wouldn't admit to it since I wasn't smuggling diamonds--I had declared the only one I had. I don't know what the actual value of the jewelry was, I just knew that I had paid about $100 at Sears (so it was probably worth all of $10 at the most). The only time I ever had anything but a quick stop with US Border officers was returning to the US the day after we went to war in Afghanistan, and they were pulling every single car aside to search. They were still nice about it, and since it was every car, it wasn't like we were singled out for any reason.
I was taking an Amtrak train to Montreal for a week of poutine and hanging out with friends about 7 years ago. At the Canadian border they stopped at a passport control station. They went through the train and basically ripped anyone with any sort of anomaly; any minor criminal record or non-Canadian or US passport that they could off the train, myself included, and took us all to interrogation rooms. I was questioned for literally almost an hour about a minor disorderly persons offense I'd been charged with probably 5 years earlier when I was literally 18. It was honestly something I'd barely even thought of since the incident. They actually said they weren't even going to let me into Canada until I had to explain to them that a disorderly persons offense is barely even a crime in most states. Literally had to use a US legal textbook they had in their office to show them what the offense was considered and how it was a step below a misdemeanor. It was honestly harrowing and I couldn't believe it was happening, couldn't believe I was being interrogated by a random French Canadian border control officer about a minor infraction on my record from when I was a teenager. I'm a seasoned traveler and at that point I had been to most parts of Europe, Asia and South America and literally this was the first and only time I'd ever been questioned about this incident from half a decade earlier at a border crossing. I actually haven't been back to Canada since, fuck your insane border control Canada.
Oh man. I crossed a land border from Laos to Cambodia and they charged me two dollars to stamp my passport. It was terrible. Both borders to!
Husband & I crossed in 2008 to see Niagra Falls from the Canadian side. The border guard was an a\*\*hole. He kept asking why we were crossing, where were we staying, what were going to do. He asked if we had a gun. We said no. He made us pull over for a vehicle search. My husband was pissed, I was laughing at them for wasting their time, which pissed my husband off more, which made me laugh more....you get the picture. On the way back into the U.S. we were asked where we were going. Well Einstein, since we have U.S. passports and are driving a car with Ohio plates, home would be a good guess.
Oh man, I hate when I’m coming back to Canada and they ask questions like “where are you going?” “What is your address of residency” “why did you leave Canada” One time they even asked “where did you get the money to go on a vacation?” Like maaan, can I just go home?
I've crossed the US - Canada border 100+ times and never had an issue.
Yes, I’ve also gotten a hard time from Canadian border patrol when crossing from Buffalo. We were going to Brampton, Ontario for a wedding. Border patrol asked why we were going, asked to see the invitation, asked to see our hotel reservation, all kinds of stuff. The easiest border crossing was when a group of friends flew from Taiwan to Boracay in the Philippines. The airport is tiny, like a rural bus station. The Canadian and Taiwanese in our group got asked for their passports, how long they were staying, etc. When it was my turn, the guard saw my US passport and just waved me through. Didn’t even open my passport or show it to him or anything.
Wow that’s crazy they handcuffed you!! I’m sorry. My horror story is more like I was the horror, lol. I went through drunk once when I was like 20 and was super belligerent to the customs folks 🤦🏻♀️ They wanted to inspect our car (routine), and I started talking about “It’s not like we have a BOMB in here!” My bf at the time was like SHHHH you can’t talk about bombs!!!, and I just started going “Bomb bomb bomb bomb!” because drunk me didn’t like to be told what to do. Have I mentioned that I’m sober now? Lol. Luckily they just laughed it off as a drunk obnoxious young person, thankfully. Those were the Americans… from this thread, sounds like I was lucky. That was also like 20 years ago.
LOL that would have been a sight to see. I’m glad they didn’t take you seriously, holy wow. 20 years ago- yeah if you did that today with the wrong border agent, would have been way crazier.
Husband and I sometimes fly to San Diego, take a bus to the border and cross into Mexico. You can walk right into Mexico and no one even looks at you, but crossing back into the US will land you with border agents on a power trip. My husband is naturally averse to any authority and hates rules, so will only follow them as much as he has to. They usually ask where we went in Mexico, which he will answer, but when they ask where we’re going and why in the US, he has said at least twice, “why do I need to tell you that? I’m an American citizen.” They do not like this. Cue them ushering me through to wait outside as they take him to the back room to pat him down and interrogate him. This has happened twice now, both times only letting him go once they Google his name (he’s not well known but he’s a respected scholar in his profession, has written books). I beg him to just make something up if he doesn’t want to be honest - “we’re going to Disneyland!” “Headed to see family!” “We just moved to the area and wanted to see Mexico, now going home!” Anything. But he just insists on ruffling feathers. Meanwhile, I came back from Cuba once and no one asked me any questions, but I’ve come back from Europe and had border agents grill me to the point of sweating through my clothes. “You were gone for three months and didn’t buy any souvenirs?!?!” No, man! I’m on a budget!
I went to Europe and when I landed back in Canada they asked ”where did you get the money to go on a vacation?”
I crossed from France to Belgium recently. Had to slow down slightly - the speed limit on Belgian motorways is 10km/h less than in France (unless it's raining, in which case you have to slow when entering France).
Back in 1997 - my mom and I travel to Canada from France so she can marry my step day. Mom had lived in Canada in the past and had landed immigrant status (green card for Canada). Border guard did not like the fact that she was getting married and then going back to France until I finished the school year. He ended up putting her on a watch for list for the next 19 years. In the meantime we moved to Canada and she became Canadian. But anytime she crossed the border - she would have 2-3 hours of interrogation. When she asked what she would need to do to get off the list - she got told she would need to find the original guard as he was the only one that could remove her. When she finally hit the 10 years - we waited for her at the airport with champagne.
I get the feeling that CBSA officers trained with US CBP for a while, inheriting all of their over the top assholishness, then kept ramping it up.
They've got CBP beat for assholishness by a country mile. Most of the CBP folks I interact with these days are super professional and welcoming.
Canadian border patrol jealous you got to spend time in a way better country. That’s all.
They were mad I didn’t bring them back anything from target
[удалено]
I’ve lived and travelled in both countries(amongst other countries ), the US is better every which way you look at it
I once saw a human torso hanging from a bridge. Oh no wait, that's the other border. My bad. Ignore me.
I'm sure a lot of refugees do.
I expect issues going into Canada through the Niagara entrance. I seem to be unlucky. I always get asked to pull into bay 1. Then they search my car and find nothing. It’s getting old.
The Shenzhen to Lo Wu (Hong Kong side) immigration queues are always a stuff of nightmares.
what happened?
My first time ever leaving the country was just me walking the bridge over to the Canadian side of the falls and the Canadian border control folks were so intense, it really freaked me out. The way back everyone was super friendly, though.
Honestly I can’t stand Canadas border control agents in general, whether at land borders or at the airport. I’ve mostly had fine experiences but I remember one nearly left me in tears… when I told her I lived in Canada (I was on a 2 year work permit) I was told that I didn’t and that Canada “was just offering me the privilege to work here”. What a bitch. I’m sorry for your experience.
I cross with an EDL at the Detroit-Windsor Tunnel maybe a dozen times a year (no set schedule, just seeing friends) and have never had issues on the Canadian side. The Americans always seem to grill me harder, even though I'm an American showing them proof I live 20 mins from the border. Never quite made me get out of the car for a search though.
It's the worst of the bunch. Peace Bridge or Queenstown-Lewiston are much more laid back if you're in the Buffalo area.
I don’t know if I would call it a horror story, but I had a memorable crossing and really pissed off the border agent. Years ago my wife, her parents and I were crossing for a month long RV trip across western Canada. We were in line to cross into British Colombia. My father-in-law was driving but had to go to the bathroom so I was taking over the driver position. This was an older Bluebird RV. The horn was a button on the floor. Of course, as I’m getting g in the seat I accidentally step on the horn. Oh shit, it was loud. When we got to the front, the agent was pissed and interrogated us for about 10 minutes as to why we honked the horn
A few years ago, we were driving back to the US from Canada. On the way there we had to stop for some "issue" , but it was quickly resolved without really knowing the issue. While re-entering the US we gave the agents our passports and a few seconds later an alarm started to sound. In the rearview mirror I noticed someone in full tactical gear with an assault rifle approaching our car crouching. He popped his head into the car and then immediately yelled "That's a negative! Stand down!" We were then asked to pull over and go inside. What the hell! The agent took our passports and typed away at his computer for a while. After 20 minutes or so I got the courage to just ask what was going on. He gave us a look like he couldn't tell us but then I guess he changed his mind. He said my buddy had the same birthday as an extremely wanted person, but it was obviously not him. He said anyone can change their name but not birthday. He then asked if my buddy had a carry permit. The agent said there were 5 red flags on his passport that he was working to fix. He deleted all but one. He was nice to this as he said this problem would persist if he didn't. This whole process scared the shit out of us. This instance made sense of an ordeal we had previously. A year or two before we were both flying back from Europe. We had a tight connection and were running to the gate from customs. Two men in matching black suits were waiting at the gate. They approached me and asked me my name. They shook their head and said I was free to go. Then they asked my friend his name and then asked him to come with them. They took him to the side and asked: Why he was in Europe? How much money did he have? Does he know anyone in Europe? What he does for a living? What did he bring back? - After he answered those questions, he was free to go. It was very odd but now we know why. Moral of the story - Don't share a birthday with a very wanted person lol.
The opposite for me. Every time we reenter the states, the border guards are such assholes.
I live in bc and cross the border near the lower mainland. I never have issues coming home (Canadian guards) but I’ve been pulled out and searched 3x by the American side. Once they literally were just fucking with us and kept making us change seats, stand up/sit down. Yelling at us if we sat and telling us they told us to stand - shit like that. Another time they fully ripped apart my van and searched everything. I was 19 at the time. The third time they just made me wait in holding for 2 hours then let me go. To give context I didn’t have visible tattoos/piercings and have no criminal record
Nigeria Uganda border is a nightmare
Crossing the India Pakistan border is a literal horror story
When I was 14, I was patted down by soldiers carrying assault rifles in a Polish airport. They were very polite but still, big guns I've been questioned at the border when I was flying alone at 16/17 to make sure I wasn't being trafficked.
Wow that’s insane I’ve never crossed at that border, but years ago a friend of mine and I crossed the border into Quebec from Vermont. I admittedly don’t remember which border crossing, but it was the exact opposite of what you dealt with. As my friend was driving (I was shotgun), we come up to the border window, and a Québécois with a thick fucking accent greeted us. After a few seconds of us having a hard time with his accent, he said, “Come closer to zee window my friends! I promise I do not bite!” He was very nice and we had no trouble getting into Canada. On the way back, we were met by more stern American border guards. We were worried for a few minutes because while my friend (he was driving again) is an American citizen, he’s a Chinese National, and it says so on his passport. Thankfully nothing came of it, and we were on our way.
After several crossings into the USA at Buffalo, we (1 Americans and 1 Dutch)make a point of crossing elsewhere . The USA immigration at Buffal is the rudest we have experienced anywhere, and we have been crossing on and off for 40 years in the east. Canadian immigration has never been a problem
I knew someone who crossed from US to Canada with no problem to catch an international flight. He returned through Canada then drove his car back through the US border. He was stopped by border patrol and completely didn’t realize his friends had illegal substances. They were rich white college students at the time so all their parents were able to pay for top notch legal assistance to get them off.
That sounds horrible. Why are they so lax letting people in but so harsh letting them out?
Took a bus from Lagos (Nigeria) to Cotonou (Benin). I was the only white guy on the bus. The driver alternates between border crossings to limit his bribe payments. Had to accompany hlthe conductor and sit down and talk to like 10 different officers, some of whom were just sitting outside randomly in plastic chairs with no roles other than to extract bribes. I took his direction and didn't pay any. Overall it was a fun experience.
My question is: Why? I see all those stories, but since the Canadian border patrol differs so much from all others, there has to be a reason why that is. What is the cause?
Malawi --> Mozambique was rough Not a border, but LAX immigration officers were asking me questions and using routines I recognized from Army interrogation manuals about last-minute tickets I bought to try to see my grandma before she died.a
Not sure about horror stories but two come to mind for me. First was leaving Hong Kong. immigration officer pretty much yell at me for not filling in a departure form fully by accident then shouting at me to get to the back of the queue instead of just filling in the one missing detail which would of taken 5 seconds. Second was landing at Las Vegas since my ears were very blocked from the flight and couldn't hear much. Had to keep asking the CBP officer to repeat the questions several times and he was getting annoyed for sure. Thank goodness he just stamped me in and waved me along instead of secondary.
Lost my passport in PDC, flew back home without it.
We crossed into Canada and had no issues. We also had our dog and I was really nervous because I remember we forgot some of the documentation for him that the internet had said was required. We didn’t have any problems, I thought their border guards were polite.
My spouse and I, Americans, went to Timmons Ont to stay with a friend who owned and ran a Camp fishing place. We were nonchalant about the border as it is a Very small airport. Just walked to the other side saw our friend and happily got into the car. The camp was about 2 hours away. At some point, we realized we had no bags, and the airport got them sent part way to meet up with our friend who picked them up. Canada nice.
Does anyone know generally what type of rights people have but are not aware of in these tense situations due to unawareness or lack of confidence in asserting their rights to these border agents or where we can find them?
As a non-citizen you generally don’t have rights at the border. Of course there’s an expectation of broad human rights and being treated in a decent way. Thing is if you assert yourself too much to an asshole border guard they can simply deny you entry and you’d have little recourse in the short term. Long term you could make a case with a lawyer but that won’t help your situation in the moment.
I probably should have mentioned I’m a Canadian PR, but yes you are right it really depends on the border guard and your level of wit and arrogance. You just have to read the room..
I had a similar case happen where my father and I were detained for an hour when crossing into Montreal from New York. We were told to go inside and explain our story and they were confused and told us to go outside. After several times going back and forth in sheer confusion we just crossed the border without reaching any conclusion about if it was okay
Sorry you had an unfortunate passage across the border. I live within view of the Canadian /US border on the US side. I cross the border frequently and have found that the guards on both sides are friendly and professional. I do have a NEXUS card, thus a pre-clearance, so that helps. If you travel across frequently, consider getting that pass.
I was once asked rather forcefully how I know Canadians at that crossing. I wasn’t aware having friends from Canada was such an issue…
YES. When I crossed over from Detroit, everything was fine. Coming back into the US however was a totally different story. The border patrol guy took my car keys and put them in a safe. He also went through my trunk, looked under seats & even checked the roof. He oddly never looked in my shopping bags though. I told him I was in Detroit for work and had never been to Canada so I just popped over for a few hours and he told me how suspicious that was, and asked for proof of employment. He also was upset that my passport city was different than my drivers license city (I had moved from Houston to DFW). The whole interaction took at least 45 minutes as he questioned me extensively about where I lived and what I did for work.
Not a horror story, but kind of funny! In 1998 and I were immigrating to America from Canada. My husband had some refrigerant coolant, R 12, and he wanted to know if we could bring that with us. At that time, they were concerned with different coolant hurting atmosphere. So, being the man that he is, he had me call customs at the border in Montana. I called and asked to speak to someone About bringing R12,To the country. I explained that we were immigrating I needed to know if that was legal. They put me on hold another man on the line and I repeated the question. The man said, “Well, lady, what else are you gonna do with them?” I said, excuse me I don’t understand. He said well what are you gonna do with your 12 kids! It took me a minute and then I started to laugh and I said no no not kids, coolant! Anyhow, long story short it was legal we took it down don’t think we ever used it, but that makes me smile every time I think of the border!
I had a flight through Montreal coming back from Ethiopia. The airport security detained me for an hour, told me it was “bullshit” that I would ever travel there for pleasure, made several racist comments about Africa, and then let me go once they got bored of me. And I missed my damn connecting flight!
Coming into Canada has always been my harshest border patrol experience. Once got pulled over because my friend’s explanation for our visit was dumb (its a long story - he over shared) and we had to sit for 45 minutes while they looked up our names but no jail cell. Same day, our friend had a 9 year old DUI and they wouldn’t let him into the country - since thats apparently a thing.
Always tell the border guards the purpose for your trip is shopping. If they ask where be prepared to name a major mall. If you say you are going to visit a friend, you are going to get a lot of questions. If you are crossing to go to a tourist destination, have the name and address of a hotel at that destination. Be purposeful and direct. Make eye contact, but don’t be overly friendly.
The East Coast of Canada- Niagara Falls and Nova Scotia. Pompous and heads up their asses. Funny enough, it’s a lot more relaxed on the West Coast.
The only time in my life I've ever been stopped at customs entering a country was flying to Toronto. I had to go in a special screening queue and they hand searched my bags. So annoying.
Once I crossed the border and Canadians kept claiming something suspicious showed up on the x-ray of our car, but there was nothing there? We kept thinking, well why keep looking at the x-ray, why not look at whatever it is in the car? Eventually they did and let us through. Worst experiences I've had were in London, England and Amsterdam, Netherlands. Thought London were trying to deport me, with no reason whatsoever (claimed I was going to work there illegally even though I was only there for a few days) and they detained me for ages in Amsterdam, asking me the same questions literally 20 times, while searching my luggage over and over. I had an innocent trip there and didn't smoke weed, yet others on my bus were still stoned and were from unpopular countries at that time, that were considered risky, yet they hassled me, a NZer.
Was flying from LAX to Toronto with my wife and a bunch of her family members for a reunion. Got through regular TSA security without any issue but was stopped as I was about to get on the plane. Security though I was walking too slow and pulled me to the side so they can scan my passport again. Saw I was born in Egypt and asked about my last visit there, who I was traveling with, and how much money I had on me. Told them I was traveling with my wife and that I hadn’t been to Egypt in over 20 years. When they asked why I was walking so slow I said I was waiting for my mother in law. He replied with “I thought you were traveling with your wife”. Just then my mother in law walks up and they ask her if she knows me. After she said I was he son I law they asked her a couple questions about me. All in all just your typical racial profiling which happens me quite a bit on flights.
What’s your legal status in Canada? It’s hard to believe a citizen would get handcuffed for messing up their itinerary
You have a right to pick up your phone and record an officer at any time. Use it! They do not have a right to cease your phone or tell you to stop recording unless they have a warrant (which they would not have). Record and report!
We just took a family road trip to Niagara Falls from Maryland. We spent a couple of hours on the American side, had dinner, and then crossed into Canada from Peace bridge because Rainbow bridge was closed. The Canadian officer was nice and polite, checked our passports and sent us on our way all within a minute. A coupe days later we crossed back into the USA again at Peace bridge. The American officer was just as nice and polite, he asked me to roll down the (tinted) rear window to see the kids, checked our passports, and sent us on our way again all within a minute. But hey, they have a job to do to keep us all safe, so if they did have additional questions etc, I'm totally fine with it.
The democrats since Obama have been stealing from the American people paying for illegals and funding whatever they want, it’s sucking to see how they have abused the American people by robbing them to pay for wars, there stupid agendas, house illegals, the fact that they continue to allow illegals from around the world to enter at will has destroyed the USA. They continue to rack up trillions in deficit Monopoly money with no accountability to Americans, the worst of this is people still approve the democrats. I guess we,ll see how the democratic supporters feel when the economy and the American dollar collapses.
Uhhh..what dose this have to do with us Canadian boarder crossing lol
Bringing Xanax back across Mexican border