I think we need a thread for pleasant border encounters

[angelbrat]

Very, very first time I came to Canada, I flew in from Heathrow, UK to Vancouver. I was staying with a friend, totally unprepared for any immigration questions ( only ever traveled in the EU to that date).

Customs officer...."where are you staying and with whom?"......me...."errrrrr my friend XXXXXX and I have forgotten the address because they are picking me up from the airport".....customs officer...." please proceed to the secondary inspection area"......me....."huh?"

So, I was escorted to secondary, my luggage was placed on a table....a huge female border guard was standing to one side....snapping on latex gloves. At this point I got worried. As the male guard started to go through my luggage, my nerves took hold. When he asked me again, why I was in Canada, I replied....to meet a friend, hopefully for sex. No idea why I said this....just a reaction to everything going around me. As he proceeded to search my luggage, he came across a personal item (my vibrator), holding it high....he shouted loud "what is this?". Totally humiliated at this point, I replied " I told you I was coming to Canada for sex".

He laughed, placed everything back and waved me off. Then slipped me a piece of paper with his phone number on!!!!

Never had another problem entering Canada again.....go figure.

 

[Patricksgirls]

Very, very first time I came to Canada, I flew in from Heathrow, UK to Vancouver. I was staying with a friend, totally unprepared for any immigration questions ( only ever traveled in the EU to that date).

Customs officer...."where are you staying and with whom?"......me...."errrrrr my friend XXXXXX and I have forgotten the address because they are picking me up from the airport".....customs officer...." please proceed to the secondary inspection area"......me....."huh?"

So, I was escorted to secondary, my luggage was placed on a table....a huge female border guard was standing to one side....snapping on latex gloves. At this point I got worried. As the male guard started to go through my luggage, my nerves took hold. When he asked me again, why I was in Canada, I replied....to meet a friend, hopefully for sex. No idea why I said this....just a reaction to everything going around me. As he proceeded to search my luggage, he came across a personal item (my vibrator), holding it high....he shouted loud "what is this?". Totally humiliated at this point, I replied " I told you I was coming to Canada for sex".

He laughed, placed everything back and waved me off. Then slipped me a piece of paper with his phone number on!!!!

Never had another problem entering Canada again.....go figure.






I have to laugh at that thanks Angelbrat. When I was going through the Emerson border by Winnipeg I had the IO questioning me to my nature of the visit. After much prompting I finally blurted out To get Laid!

 

[Baloo]

I see the tone of this thread is travelling in the normal direction ;D

 

[j2m]

Very, very first time I came to Canada, I flew in from Heathrow, UK to Vancouver. I was staying with a friend, totally unprepared for any immigration questions ( only ever traveled in the EU to that date).

Customs officer...."where are you staying and with whom?"......me...."errrrrr my friend XXXXXX and I have forgotten the address because they are picking me up from the airport".....customs officer...." please proceed to the secondary inspection area"......me....."huh?"

So, I was escorted to secondary, my luggage was placed on a table....a huge female border guard was standing to one side....snapping on latex gloves. At this point I got worried. As the male guard started to go through my luggage, my nerves took hold. When he asked me again, why I was in Canada, I replied....to meet a friend, hopefully for sex. No idea why I said this....just a reaction to everything going around me. As he proceeded to search my luggage, he came across a personal item (my vibrator), holding it high....he shouted loud "what is this?". Totally humiliated at this point, I replied " I told you I was coming to Canada for sex".

He laughed, placed everything back and waved me off. Then slipped me a piece of paper with his phone number on!!!!

Never had another problem entering Canada again.....go figure.

I have to laugh at that thanks Angelbrat. When I was going through the Emerson border by Winnipeg I had the IO questioning me to my nature of the visit. After much prompting I finally blurted out To get Laid!

That is Awesome! Sounds like something I would say!

 

[Patricksgirls]

I am going to attempt to cross soon again. I just hope the IO's see that I have complied with each previous visit. One would think being from a non visa country would make it easier but alas it is not that way for me...
Patrick however crossed twice in the last week in his semi and twice had to jump through border waiver hoops on the US side. Seems they are not sure what they are doing at each crossing lol

 

[BeShoo]

Two particularly pleasant recent experiences stand out in my mind. The first was when I dropped off my partner in Plattsburgh, NY, (south of Montreal) for his flight back to Florida. Wanting to avoid the Montreal traffic on my trip back to the Ottawa area, I decided to cross at Cornwall, ON.

I drove west through New York for what seemed like a long time. I thought I must be getting close, when I spotted a sign saying "Canada 1 [mile]". I wasn't sure, but I pulled off and headed north towards the border. I figured I could turn around if it wasn't the right place, but before I knew it I was across the border in a very rural area that had one officer in a booth. As soon as the guy asked where I lived, he knew I'd taken the wrong turn-off. He told me that if I continued there I'd have to follow the St. Lawrence toward the north-east and cross the river by going through Montreal. Didn't I really want to go to Cornwall? He said that "Canada" sign trips up a lot of people. He opened the gate so I could make a U-turn and reminded me to report to U.S. Customs on the way back.

The U.S. officer asked me all the usual questions about whether I was bringing anything into the U.S., how long was I visiting, etc. He asked me if I cross frequently. I said, "Yes, about 8 times this year." Apparently, that's not frequent. At this crossing, a lot of people cross every day for work. He was going to advise me to get a Nexus card. Anyway, I got to my proper crossing a few miles farther west and that was fast and easy. I had my passport in my hand but he never even asked to see it.

The other especially nice experience was a few weeks after my partner got a 6-month extension to his Visitor Record. Several people on this forum told us that it was highly risky for him to visit the U.S. but he hadn't brought summer clothes on the initial trip and he wanted to attend a family reunion back home. We ended up staying one extra day past what we had planned but I wasn't worried because I didn't have to work that day. We were lying in bed that last night when I suddenly remembered that he had booked me a birthday surprise the next day in Kingston, Ontario and we had a long drive to get back to Canada.

I was half expecting a half-hour secondary inspection like on most of the recent crossings but we didn't have time for that, so I was hoping we wouldn't get much trouble. He officer treated us like any two Canadians who had been away on a routine weekend trip, the only extra question being when my partner was going back to the U.S. He told him the date when the V.R. expired and we were on our way. We got to the Kingston dock about 15 minutes before the dinner cruise sailed and we had a very pleasant experience cruising through the Thousand Islands. If the border crossing hadn't been quite so smooth, it would have been an entirely different story. We really did cut it close.

 

[Kaycee1]

A couple of strange crossings I've had was one year that we took our motorhome to California. They went through the WHOLE thing, all the drawers and everything looking for cherries!!!! I think we could have had 3 lbs of cocaine in there and they wouldn't have cared as long as we didn't have cherries!!

And another time I was driving with 2 ferrets in a dog carrier in the back seat. The border guard coming into Canada proceeded to ask me all about them, what the regulations were about taking them into the US, and then he asked me to take them out so he could pet them!!! He told me they were so cute loll. My whole interrogation centered around the ferrets, nothing else!!

 

[Patricksgirls]

Cherry and ferrets lol!

 

[sithvixen]

I don't think I've ever had a problem crossing into Canada. The US, yes. I'm a dual citizen and they are still dicks to me (Calgary). They just seem to have attitude problems more than anything. But the Canadians have always been nice. Even when my husband came to visit for 6 months, they just asked him why he was visiting and who he was visiting and waved him on through. Not even a stamp or scan of the passport. This ultimately caused us problems when we went to extend his visit; they denied the extension because he didn't have a stamp and we'd lost the plane ticket receipt. Dumb. I just hope they don't give him grief next time he comes through.

 

[californiajeninca]

In defense of the US Border Service I will say not ALL of them have given a hard time. Just like anything else Some bad ones could spoil the bunch. My husband and I walk over from the peace bridge on occasion and the guys at night in the office are really nice. I think a lot of them just have the stick of superiority shoved so far up...they can't help their bad 'tude. However, if they peeve me again their gonna have h3ck to pay.

 

[sithvixen]

In defense of the US Border Service I will say not ALL of them have given a hard time. Just like anything else Some bad ones could spoil the bunch. My husband and I walk over from the peace bridge on occasion and the guys at night in the office are really nice. I think a lot of them just have the stick of superiority shoved so far up...they can't help their bad 'tude. However, if they peeve me again their gonna have h3ck to pay.

Yeah you are right. I've met a few that haven't been too bad. It especially improved once I got my dual citizenship (Canada/US). But certainly the superiority stick still comes into play. One guy IMO got really out of line with his questioning. : He already seemed to have an attitude problem and didn't seem like he was being friendly or looking for casual conversation. In his line of questioning, he asked where I was born. I told him I was born in Canada. He then asked how I got my citizenship; I said I married an American. He then started questioning me about my marriage and if I was still married. I answered him calmly and honestly but I took great offense to it. Um WTF dude, what does any of your questioning on this issue matter? I already went through green card and citizenship process YEARS ago and I really thought that his line of questioning was NOT his job or his business at this point. Someone already did that for you buddy and they already approved me. Even if he got an answer he didn't like, there was NOTHING he could do about any of it anyway. You can't take citizenship away from someone once they have it. Or maybe he wanted to ask me out on a date? LOL :-*

 

[Love_Young]

I don't have anything to post in here right now I just wanted to say I felt the purpose of the thread was going off topic.
It is supposed to discuss pleasant crossings. Yes people should know both experiences but I feel the purpose of this thread was to shed a different light to the problems we can occur at the border. This is the time to list the ones that went good.

Sorry if I am stepping out of line just wanted to keep others in check.

 

[sithvixen]

My bad! Back on track. I haven't had a bad experience with the Canadians yet. 8)

 

[Love_Young]

My bad! Back on track. I haven't had a bad experience with the Canadians yet. 8)

Don't worry about it sithvixen. We all go off topic here quite a bit sometimes.
Glad to hear though you haven't had any trouble with the Canadian border yet.

 

[Patricksgirls]

It is nice to see some people having a better time. I am hoping for that the next time I cross. The first time was a breeze then I got that visitor waiver so who knows. I will just have to take it slowly with them lol.