civilengr said:
What was your last experience?
Was somewhere early October. I was in Canada on a visitor visa. My IEC/Working Holiday Visa I was on before was valid till August 23. Applied and got visitor extension before that since I was waiting for an LMIA from my employer. After the LMIA arrived I drove to the border to get my WP (visa exempt country, so can apply for that at a POE. I stopped working since my WHP expired, so wanted to get back to work asap. Applying online for WP was gonna take several more weeks).
The moment I mentioned that I wanted to apply for a WP by the window, a big sigh and roll-eyes.
Got inside, lined up the necessary papers on the counter. He saw my WHV was expired, so started yelling at me that I overstayed and he should arrest me. I showed him the visitor permit (even when I don't really need it to be in Canada as visitor), and still went on that I should have left the country. I told him I know my rights and was allowed to be in Canada, just not allowed to work after August 23.
Another big sigh, guy grabbed a notebook, started noting down some stuff while rephrasing/summarizing some stuff. "So you've been in Canada since Aug 23, 2013, correct?", "You were on a WHV and worked at this place right?", "And you said the last day you worked was August 25 right?". Went on like that, asked me several times about the last day I worked, but always mentioned a different date later than August 23, hoping to catch me by surprise so I would say yes, so he could accuse me of working illegally. Every time I corrected him and said Aug 23.
After a while he suddenly stopped taking notes, threw all my papers together, gave them to me and told this is not his job, immigration/WP application should be done online. I showed him a print from the CIC website with the hours and services offered at that border crossing (hell yea, I came prepared for everything
), told him I was well within the operating hours and that this stuff actually is indeed his job, so handed him the papers again and asked him to continue or I would request to speak to a superior of him.
Then he told me I need an LMO, while I had an LMIA (this was shortly after LMO's got changed to LMIA's). He ended up calling somewhere to verify what an LMIA is :-X
Sent me to a waiting room, asked my mobile phone and went trough my stuff on it. Came back minutes later accusing me of illegal work. He showed me a text from a friend asking if I was down helping him move with my truck. Told him that it's not work nor did I get paid for it, and that he was more than welcome to call that friend to check on that.
Called me over to the counter again about half an hour later, told me to pay the processing fee and shoved my WP to me. On my way out, I was greeted with a "Don't ever come back here".
Heard several other people with similar experiences at Carway.
To be fair, it's a small station, although I was the only person in there apparently it can be very busy during peak seasons, there's only 2-3 officers in there having to deal with all sorts of different stuff (immigration, transport, traffic, etc...). Don't know why CIC doesn't just lift immigration as a service offered there, or upgrade the station with a staff member just for immigration since it's closest to Calgary and Edmonton, where probably the biggest groups come from.
Coutts was lovely, way more officers, separate counters for all services offered. Friendly and helpful service and was out in 10 minutes.
