Had an interesting visit at the border crossing the other night. Daughter's boyfriend was coming up from Washington for a week to visit and help her out at a basketball camp at the school she graduated from. They play university basketball at the same school. He gets questioned where he's headed and what he's going to be doing and they find out about the camp. After asking him whether he'll get paid he said probably as they give them an honorarium for a couple hundred bucks or so. Well that ended that, he was taking a job away from a Canadian and he was banned from coming into Canada for a week. I get the phone call from my daughter who is at work obviously upset as we had a great weekend and week plannned so I told her I was headed to the border, happened not to be the one closest to me but 3 hours away. I phoned him and told him when I would be there and he was able to come there at that time. I couldn't believe that they could be on that much of a power trip. I had lots of time to think what I was going to say but I kept thinking what if they won't even listen to me because this decision has been made and it's written in stone. Anyhow to shorten this story met with a young officer who was very polite, got me to bring our friend in and in about 15 minutes everything was sorted out and I was on my way back and at home by 2 am and had one of the happiest daughters in the world. All worth it but was it necessary?
years and years ago my uncle was going over to Buffalo with the family for thanksgiving weekend at his brother in laws place-they planned to redo the bathroom, U.S. border guard-where are you going ? how long ? whats the purpose of the trip ? answers brother in laws, four days, thanksgiving weekend dinner give him a hand with the install of the new bathroom. Border guard-we have enough unemployed Plumbers and turned the whole family around ! try to explain that to the brother in law that was expecting your help-I believe there was tension for many years. He tried to crossing at another bridge but they already had the plate number
I heard about a bunch of women heading down to La. last year to help Katrina victims. As soon as they said the purpose of their trip to U.S Customs, they said "Oh.. I wish you hadn't said that" and what followed was 4 hours of questioning and order to go back to Canada. One even said "Don't you have hurricanes in your country to clean up after?"......
A few years before we were married my wife was on a work permit here in Canada (her home is Slovakia) Her work permit was good until October and renewable with her employer, she went home to visit for two weeks in the summer, returning to Canada she got on an airplane in Austria taking a connecting flight in Paris-well customs officials seen the permit good until October but studied and seen it had a stipulation of one entry (already used when she first came ) guess what she was stuck at the Paris airport with her employer expecting her on the job in two days-she had to fly back to Austria-take a bus home await new forms, bring them to Austria for approval at the Canadian embassy then back home to purchase a flight then back to Austria and to Canada, funny thing is it was a three year visa she had visted home every summer and even went to the states twice and once to mexico nobody ever caught it on the way back in.
The law is the Law-doesn't matter who we are, what we look like, or what our purpose is, these are international matters-we in Canada take them lightly because of our longest unguarded border in the world and our frequencey crossing
A few years before we were married my wife was on a work permit here in Canada (her home is Slovakia) Her work permit was good until October and renewable with her employer, she went home to visit for two weeks in the summer, returning to Canada she got on an airplane in Austria taking a connecting flight in Paris-well customs officials seen the permit good until October but studied and seen it had a stipulation of one entry (already used when she first came ) guess what she was stuck at the Paris airport with her employer expecting her on the job in two days-she had to fly back to Austria-take a bus home await new forms, bring them to Austria for approval at the Canadian embassy then back home to purchase a flight then back to Austria and to Canada, funny thing is it was a three year visa she had visted home every summer and even went to the states twice and once to mexico nobody ever caught it on the way back in.
The law is the Law-doesn't matter who we are, what we look like, or what our purpose is, these are international matters-we in Canada take them lightly because of our longest unguarded border in the world and our frequencey crossing
Hey where is she from? My dad was born in Zvolan, I had family in Bratislava, and Banska Bistitsa.
A small village named Kammena Puruba, 30kms from the city of Zilina in the east, she also has family in Bratislava and I've stayed there in the downtown core-its a beautiful country with incredible scenery-I've taken a boat up the Danube from Budapest, Hungary to Wein (Vienna), Austria passing through Bratislava ( the locks are in Bratislava or just before it). Last year I took the kids to a zoo in the Czech republic that was a great trip, a few years back we went in the ice caves at low Tatras near the Polish border.
Where is Banska Bistitsa ? I swear I seen tht sign !-would that be south east ? I'll check the map
Years ago, I had a buddy who had a police officer cousin who was killed in the line of duty in Washington DC. He asked me to drive him to the airport in Detroit to go to the funeral. We got stopped at the border because my buddy had gotten into some trouble as a teenager knocking over mailboxes (dumb restless, country teenage stuff). He was never charged, but the border somehow got wind of this and flagged his profile.
The border officer agreed to let us make a phone call to the Washington police dept and we actually got the Chief of Police for the Washington DC force on the phone with the border officer and we still couldn't get over the border.
It took my buddy alot of time and money for a lawyer to get this issue cleared at the order. What a nightmare.
I've been through the border countless times and aside from lineups and being picked twice over the years for their occasional spot checks, never had a problem.. I have a clean record, am always extra polite, have sunglasses off and all documents in hand ready to pass them whatever they ask for.. I've heard that while you're waiting at the line for the car ahead to clear, they're listening to the talking going on in your car...anyone know?. If true or not, I always keep this in mind when at the line and choose then to tell my kids or whoever's in the car w/ me that the guards are normal people just doing their jobs to catch the bad people etc.. Funny thing is the last two times (Jan & March 09) coming back into Canada they didn't even want to see my documents and just waved me on through...easy going Stateside too but they did look at my docs then wished me a good day..
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I've been through the border countless times and aside from lineups and being picked twice over the years for their occasional spot checks, never had a problem.. I have a clean record, am always extra polite, have sunglasses off and all documents in hand ready to pass them whatever they ask for.. I've heard that while you're waiting at the line for the car ahead to clear, they're listening to the talking going on in your car...anyone know?. If true or not, I always keep this in mind when at the line and choose then to tell my kids or whoever's in the car w/ me that the guards are normal people just doing their jobs to catch the bad people etc.. Funny thing is the last two times (Jan & March 09) coming back into Canada they didn't even want to see my documents and just waved me on through...easy going Stateside too but they did look at my docs then wished me a good day..
I have had the same experiences! I brought 3 vehicles over at Port Huron ..As you said, sunglasses off, look them directly in eye, and tell them as much of the truth, as you can remember
I've been through the border countless times and aside from lineups and being picked twice over the years for their occasional spot checks, never had a problem.. I have a clean record, am always extra polite, have sunglasses off and all documents in hand ready to pass them whatever they ask for.. I've heard that while you're waiting at the line for the car ahead to clear, they're listening to the talking going on in your car...anyone know?. If true or not, I always keep this in mind when at the line and choose then to tell my kids or whoever's in the car w/ me that the guards are normal people just doing their jobs to catch the bad people etc.. Funny thing is the last two times (Jan & March 09) coming back into Canada they didn't even want to see my documents and just waved me on through...easy going Stateside too but they did look at my docs then wished me a good day..
I have had the same experiences! I brought 3 vehicles over at Port Huron ..As you said, sunglasses off, look them directly in eye, and tell them as much of the truth, as you can remember
yeah, the truth worked great for me!!! when i was a dumb young bugger 20 years ago, i was charged with shoplifting twice. now inbetween then and now, i have been across to the us numerous times (25 plus) with no issue.
all of a sudden, i'm held at the border for over 3 hours, 7 dept of homeland security file folders were created with all of my information, including fingerprints, mugshots, tattoo notations, you name it in each folder!!!
oh by the way, if you have 2 or more of ANY KIND OF CHARGE you are not allowed into the usa. unless that is you fill out a book of forms, submit it with $545.00 us to the nearest us border crossing you might get a waiver that is good for 5 years, at which time you have to do it all again.
baahhh!! the truth got me nowhere, except probably respect from those officers on duty, because they had it all on their little screen already, and i was honest about it.
funny thing happened while in there though. i'm in this little room, for quite awhile with a tiny little asian lady taking all of my information, prints and mugs. i noticed that she was armed at this time. then when we were almost done she said i could get up and go wait over yonder. as i got up, she finally realized the size of me (rather large and scary looking standing up) i could see it in her eyes. she goes into another room, when she comes out, hmmm suddenly no more gun, lmao. all of a sudden, she's worried that i could overtake her and get her gun if i wanted to. this after a couple hours of being polite and courteous with her, understanding fully why i wasn't allowed in, and cooperating in any way they wanted. dang funny.
and then 2 more hours at the canadian side trying to explain to our dumb protectors why i wasn't allowed into the usa. dumb as a sack of rocks they are.
im from sarnia so ive been over countless times and then one day my buddy and I (we were 22 i think at the time) caught wind of concert tickets going on sale at a record store in port huron. So, at the time we were in my 79 trans am, tops off, nice sunny day, and we head over and grab the tickets. On the way back my hair was down because my elastic broke (I have long hair) so as we come up to the canada customs, they ask all the regular stuff and tell us to pull over. We show them the tickets and the receipts and then they start going over the car..... two guys, long hair, trans am, only over for 30 mins.?? They bring the dogs out and nothing, then two guys with toolboxes come out and start tearing the car apart!!! Hood scoop off, fender spoilers and rear spoiler off, back seat out, middle console out, and went and took the tops out of the bag and put them on the cement glass side down!! I was sooo pissed and they say found nothing, have a nice day!!! They leave me there with the car torn apart and say on your way!! Try expaining that to your mom who uses the car for work!!!
