So heres the back story- I attended Emily Carr Art Institute in Vancouver for college, and now I live back home in Dallas Texas working as a tattoo artist. I visit Vancouver any time that I can, and this last time I decided to do a Guest Spot at a local shop in Vancouver so I could have an extended vacation. Back in this last July(2011) I stayed for a month, didn't have a problem getting past the border at all, and brought all of my equipment with me. It never occurred to me that getting past the border with all of my equipment would ever be a problem, and thus I didn't have an issue.
The studio i worked for, asked me to become a permanent artist, and offered to sponsor me for a visa. I went back home to Dallas to tie up loose ends before returning back to Vancouver in September. The plan was to get back to Vancouver asap(since I had met someone up there, and was eager to return) and apply for a Visa properly so I could stay as long as I wanted.
Well, I made several mistakes- the first obviously being that I didn't apply for a visa before my return; second that I traveled right after Sept 11th(the 13th) and the third, that I didn't ship my equipment to the shop, instead I brought it with.
Suffice to say, that I was pulled aside. I've been pulled aside before(traveling back and forth from college so much) and I've never seen the line as long as it was that day. I waited for an hour to be seen, and managed to get the only rude and mean officer i've ever come across in my extensive travels back and forth. Long story short, they seized my phone, my laptop, went through my history and found a blog I had written while I was on my working vacation previously and now had proof that I was working illegally. I was released for the night to see my boyfriend, and had to return to the airport the next morning to be sent back home, with a 1 year exclusion order.
Now! with all of that out of the way, I was told this by one of the officers(a very nice lady, I must say, every other officer i dealt with in this situation was very, very sweet!) that if I wanted to, I could go through all the proper legal steps, and apply for a visa to get back into the country the right way.
I was told, my studio in Vancouver would have to apply for a Labor Market Opinion to be done, to see if bringing in an american artist is necessary. Once that came back positive(or if) then I could apply for a work visa, with the company sponsoring me, and an ARC(Authorization to Return to Canada) would be applied for at the same time.
I've heard an ARC can be hard to get, especially if you've been turned away in the past; though the Border Officer didn't make it seem like it was an unlikely thing.
Does anyone have any advice on this situation?? I know that I was in the wrong in this situation, and I should have just done everything properly in the first place, but now I'm determined to get back up there, and want to know if anyone has any similar stories or anything to help me out.
sorry about the long post, any opinions/advice anything is greatly appreciated!!
Stephanie
The studio i worked for, asked me to become a permanent artist, and offered to sponsor me for a visa. I went back home to Dallas to tie up loose ends before returning back to Vancouver in September. The plan was to get back to Vancouver asap(since I had met someone up there, and was eager to return) and apply for a Visa properly so I could stay as long as I wanted.
Well, I made several mistakes- the first obviously being that I didn't apply for a visa before my return; second that I traveled right after Sept 11th(the 13th) and the third, that I didn't ship my equipment to the shop, instead I brought it with.
Suffice to say, that I was pulled aside. I've been pulled aside before(traveling back and forth from college so much) and I've never seen the line as long as it was that day. I waited for an hour to be seen, and managed to get the only rude and mean officer i've ever come across in my extensive travels back and forth. Long story short, they seized my phone, my laptop, went through my history and found a blog I had written while I was on my working vacation previously and now had proof that I was working illegally. I was released for the night to see my boyfriend, and had to return to the airport the next morning to be sent back home, with a 1 year exclusion order.
Now! with all of that out of the way, I was told this by one of the officers(a very nice lady, I must say, every other officer i dealt with in this situation was very, very sweet!) that if I wanted to, I could go through all the proper legal steps, and apply for a visa to get back into the country the right way.
I was told, my studio in Vancouver would have to apply for a Labor Market Opinion to be done, to see if bringing in an american artist is necessary. Once that came back positive(or if) then I could apply for a work visa, with the company sponsoring me, and an ARC(Authorization to Return to Canada) would be applied for at the same time.
I've heard an ARC can be hard to get, especially if you've been turned away in the past; though the Border Officer didn't make it seem like it was an unlikely thing.
Does anyone have any advice on this situation?? I know that I was in the wrong in this situation, and I should have just done everything properly in the first place, but now I'm determined to get back up there, and want to know if anyone has any similar stories or anything to help me out.
sorry about the long post, any opinions/advice anything is greatly appreciated!!
Stephanie
