Canadian citizen but always get secondary inspection at border

[LTALA]

Hello, I first entered Canada as a refugee 10 years ago. I am now a Canadian citizen and hold a Canadian passport but every time I travel I was told by a CBSA officer that when they scan my passport the system flags me and he says he is seeing this more often with people that entered Canada as a refugee and are now citizens.. he said he did not know who was that needed to be contacted in order to remove that from my passport if IRCC or passport Canada.. has this happened to anyone what can I do .. I don’t want to stop in secondary inspection every time I travel

 

[armoured]

Hello, I first entered Canada as a refugee 10 years ago. I am now a Canadian citizen and hold a Canadian passport but every time I travel I was told by a CBSA officer that when they scan my passport the system flags me and he says he is seeing this more often with people that entered Canada as a refugee and are now citizens.. he said he did not know who was that needed to be contacted in order to remove that from my passport if IRCC or passport Canada.. has this happened to anyone what can I do .. I don’t want to stop in secondary inspection every time I travel

A different situation, but my spouse (PR) was having this (for a different underlying reason, but similarly something 10 yrs + ago and no longer relevant). Officers also said there's a flag and there's nothing they could do).

We wrote to our MP and explained the situation, and also asked/made the point that this was a waste of resources, etc, as well as a serious burden on us when travelling, all that stuff.

We had to sign a release form and provide some small addl info. Several weeks later they got back and said they'd contacted CBSA (? I think) who gave a cryptic response saying they'd [removed the old flag]* but secondary inspection was always possible, no guarantees, etc. Spouse has not been sent to secondary since then, no issues at all, in several trips.

A few notes: they didn't outright say they'd 'removed the flag' but some convoluted language (don't remember exactly how it was phrased) that I interpret to mean exactly this; no-one ever reacted to my language or denied there are flags or anything like that, which implied to me that our understanding was exactly right. And, the 'no guarantees you could get secondary inspection at any time' is just standard bureaucratic language so of course means nothing.

Finally: my MP's office is pretty good in general and it's a serving senior Minister, I don't know that the inquiry from them had to go to CBSA or if that was where they thought they had more pull. In other words, I let them do their thing and it worked - but MP's offices and staff vary in quality and knowledge of how to work things and of course they act a bit quicker in response to Minister's requests. Good luck.

 

[LTALA]

A different situation, but my spouse (PR) was having this (for a different underlying reason, but similarly something 10 yrs + ago and no longer relevant). Officers also said there's a flag and there's nothing they could do).

We wrote to our MP and explained the situation, and also asked/made the point that this was a waste of resources, etc, as well as a serious burden on us when travelling, all that stuff.

We had to sign a release form and provide some small addl info. Several weeks later they got back and said they'd contacted CBSA (? I think) who gave a cryptic response saying they'd [removed the old flag]* but secondary inspection was always possible, no guarantees, etc. Spouse has not been sent to secondary since then, no issues at all, in several trips.

A few notes: they didn't outright say they'd 'removed the flag' but some convoluted language (don't remember exactly how it was phrased) that I interpret to mean exactly this; no-one ever reacted to my language or denied there are flags or anything like that, which implied to me that our understanding was exactly right. And, the 'no guarantees you could get secondary inspection at any time' is just standard bureaucratic language so of course means nothing.

Finally: my MP's office is pretty good in general and it's a serving senior Minister, I don't know that the inquiry from them had to go to CBSA or if that was where they thought they had more pull. In other words, I let them do their thing and it worked - but MP's offices and staff vary in quality and knowledge of how to work things and of course they act a bit quicker in response to Minister's requests. Good luck.

A different situation, but my spouse (PR) was having this (for a different underlying reason, but similarly something 10 yrs + ago and no longer relevant). Officers also said there's a flag and there's nothing they could do).

We wrote to our MP and explained the situation, and also asked/made the point that this was a waste of resources, etc, as well as a serious burden on us when travelling, all that stuff.

We had to sign a release form and provide some small addl info. Several weeks later they got back and said they'd contacted CBSA (? I think) who gave a cryptic response saying they'd [removed the old flag]* but secondary inspection was always possible, no guarantees, etc. Spouse has not been sent to secondary since then, no issues at all, in several trips.

A few notes: they didn't outright say they'd 'removed the flag' but some convoluted language (don't remember exactly how it was phrased) that I interpret to mean exactly this; no-one ever reacted to my language or denied there are flags or anything like that, which implied to me that our understanding was exactly right. And, the 'no guarantees you could get secondary inspection at any time' is just standard bureaucratic language so of course means nothing.

Finally: my MP's office is pretty good in general and it's a serving senior Minister, I don't know that the inquiry from them had to go to CBSA or if that was where they thought they had more pull. In other words, I let them do their thing and it worked - but MP's offices and staff vary in quality and knowledge of how to work things and of course they act a bit quicker in response to Minister's requests. Good luck.

Thank you so much for your response! This is very helpful as I was not sure who to contact but I will be contacting my MP they have also helped me in the past with other matters and they have been great .. thank you again for taking time to respond

 

[armoured]

Thank you so much for your response! This is very helpful as I was not sure who to contact but I will be contacting my MP they have also helped me in the past with other matters and they have been great .. thank you again for taking time to respond

Please let others know after of your results (if any). These types of questions come up and not many examples of what happens later.