Landing:
We did the landing in Windsor's Blue Water bridge.
We decided to cross to the USA as we did not want to have any entry refusal in our travel history. The problem is... we almost got rejected thanks to an American officer with a slightly lower-than-average IQ.
We drove for more than 3 hours, left Toronto at 10 PM, got there late and tired, since we wanted to land this weekend ASAP after all these almost 18 months of wait, and basically 5 years of hard work.
At the border, it was just us, and one officer asked what we wanted to do in US. The answer was that we needed to land in Canada, drove for 3 and a half hours, so we needed to sleep, do some shopping on the next day, and then come back to Canada. He wanted to refuse our entry saying that, if we could not land for any reason, we would then become a US problem. We replied saying that is impossible because we had permits and the COPR, which is a PR, and asked if he wanted to see those documents. He thought for a few seconds. He told me to seat because it would take a while.
It would not, the reason was because he did not know what to do. I just hope he was on training or just starting in that function.
Then I could hear the low IQ guy asking others what to do. Because of how silent it was in there, I could hear the conversation. He was told to let us in.
He came back and asked me where I was from. As I had answered the country I was born in once, next time he asked the same thing I thought he wanted to know the city and prefecture/state, so I answered city. He rolled his eyes as if I were dumb. Well, he was looking at it in the system, and it was written in the passports, and he was answered once.
I know they have to repeat questions to catch liars, but, usually, the questions are more elaborated or complex, such as "what do you do there? And is the topic of your research" and not 1-word answers. They checked to see if we had more baggage than someone who is staying for a day, but... who in the world would want to immigrate illegally to US if he just got a PR to Canada? Not that the USA is not great, but, why trade what is right for what is wrong?
So because there were no grounds for refusal, they let us in, tired, 30-45 minutes later, after completely unnecessary and slow process, since it was just us there. I was so tired of driving.
Next day, our shopping time didn't quite work as planned because the prices were no so attractive, and I was quite disappointed with the way we entered US, not as welcomed tourist, but as someone who they legally could not refuse entry, that they hope would not become their problem. So we decided to drive back sooner.
Coming back into Canada, what a difference!
They guy in the booth was nice, and the Canadians inside the office were nice too! The way we were treated in Canada was strongly contrasting to USA, and we felt so at home!
The lady who interviewed us was polite all the time, and at the end, when she saw our incontinent happiness, that made her smile, and we were all almost laughing, but holding it for the sake of professionalism, which made the situation even funnier.
We cannot ever say we are not welcome in this land, which is my home now.
Good luck to all of you still in this journey.
May we all work hard and show how much we deserved this opportunity. And may Canadians look up to us with respect and admiration for our courage and determination to leave our homeland to work hard, sometimes, way harder.
May our accents be a sign of strength, determination and honesty to make all proud of being part of this group, or of having as neighbors. Now off to citizenship, better English and better jobs! God bless you all.
To-Mi (Tommy)
