When I flew into YYZ, and on a late night flight routing through DFW (international sector flew in via the US), the Customs agent asked me what I had, and I said I was just transiting back to the US, as I got a good deal on a biz fare to YYZ.
He asked me how much I paid, and then said fine...I was free to proceed.
I gather that anything could happen if I fly it again - one never knows!
For YYZ, the "transit", "ticket was cheaper/easier/possible/better routed through Canada" or "going to Buffalo/Niagra Falls (this way was cheaper/easier/possible/better view)" seems to usually do the trick.
A few weeks back I was asked why I flew from the US to Canada to Europe instead of directly from the US to Europe. I said: "Have you tried redeeming frequent flyer miles for a ticket as of late? This semi-crazy itinerary is the result."
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This game is not as much fun as it used to be: 2008/2009 Frequent Flyer Program Fleecing Award goes to Delta Airlines
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Two points:
1) That treatment is not reserved for foreigners visiting Canada. I'd say at least 15-20% of my returns to Canada are treated the same way. It seems that customs agents in Canada are trained to believe that everyone is lying to them. Sigh.
2) To those refusing to come back to Canada because of the customs agents, PLEASE write to CBSA (Canadian Border Services Agency) to let them know why. Maybe it will help the rest of us!
Sad to say that Canada is out of my travel plans due to the airport arrivals immigration hassle at Yvr. "Why are you here? Why are you staying just one night? Who do you know? Why are you really here?" After about an hour of this and a thorough search in secondary they would let me proceed.
I guess they are working to get rid of their "nice" reputation. They want to be sophisticated.
For same day international transit at YVR (i.e. arriving from USA and transiting to a flight to Asia) is it necessary to clear Canadian immigration and customs?
Never had a problem with Canadian customs... well, arriving by air.
Just flew to IAH via YZZ (Don't know the code exactly, but it was Calgary) because my direct award flight to IAH got cancelled. They didn't ask me any questions and just stamped my passport.
When I visited relatives in Toronto 6 years ago they were pretty nice to us too, but that was pre 9/11.
Driving through Canada from Detroit was bad, the Customs official was an ....
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Due to circumstances beyond my control (my "friend" bailed on a weekend in YUL, canceled the hotel, and failed to inform of the situation until the day before my flight) immigration was concened with my lack of knowlege about where I was staying in YUL when I showed up. (I had infact booked a room that morning but lost the piece of paper)
After a 20min grilling about my desire to return to the US.
"No, I am not claiming political asylum from the US"
"No, I am not a disallusioned politcal activist with a death warrant issued by the Dept of Homeland security"
"No, I don't like little boys"
"Yes, I hate snow"
"No, I do not speak that much french"
"No, I am not working for Michael Moore"
ect ect ect
I had a smoother time getting in and out of Russia.
I was all set to have all my stuff torn through by customs, but after seeing my attitude, he took a pass. I just handed him my bags and told him to put everything back when he was done.
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Last year, I came into YOW on the last CRJ and got grilled at three stations. By the time I took the bus into the city, showered, propped my feet up, turned on the TV, I had to head back to the airport. Of course it was the same flight crew from the night before.
I read here in the MR forum it's always best to tell the truth, so I did - I got a great fare. I need the miles for elite status. Blah, blah, blah.
I know that the border between the US and Canada has tightened considerably since 9/11. From personal experience, I can assure you that Canadian customs and immigration folks are not kind and friendly towards mileage runners.
I never make pure MRs... it is always a place that I would generally never get to otherwise, and I usually spend at least one night. Well, last week, I showed up at an Alberta airport... told the first agent I was just there as a tourist, one night... sent for secondary inspection where I was interrogated and searched for nearly two hours... laptop searched for child pornography etc. Finding none, the agent asked: "Do you have any pornography on here at all? I find it difficult to believe that you have nothing."
Essentially, they could not fathom why someone who said they did not know anyone, was not meeeting anyone etc. would come for just one night. I told them over and over that indeed that was the case... here is my return res #, car rental confirm, hotel confirm... a wallet full of platinum cradit cards etc.
Anyone else have any "fun" Canadian customs stories to tell?
This is not only restricted to a Canadian practice. Have you ever been to Australia or New Zealand? Because in those two countries, the moment you are known as someone who is traveling alone, only spending a night or two there, not knowing or meeting anyone, etc (i.e. mileage runners), you'd 90% of the time be sent for a secondary interrogation. No kidding, these two nations are even more anal when compared to their Commonwealth Canadian cousins.
All I can say is that I dread every trip I make to Canada and for ONLY one reason. Immigration. I go there 3-4x per year for business and I’m very very honest about why I’m there and over the past 3 years I’ve only once not had to go through secondary inspection. In fact on my second visit I was told that next if I didn’t have all my completed documentation I would be sent home immediately. What was I missing? The original consulting contract that dated back 10 years, in fact I don’t think my corporate office had it still either. Frankly I’ve found the customs agents to be downright rude. But that being said, going through YVR or YYC and doing my US return border there is just as nerve-racking. Mind you, all I do is accounting consulting. I don’t bring anything but my clothes and a computer, and it’s like getting the third degree every time.
Would it be terribly OT for me to bring up issues with US Customs when returning home from Mexico recently, though I suppose it could have happened coming back from Canada or elsewhere? If it is, then a mod can move it to anywhere that seems suitable.
Last month, in the eternal quest for EQM and status, and egged on by a UA
"triple miles in July" promo (probably the last I'll ever see of those babies), I made 3 trips to Mexico in a relatively short space of time. (Was set to make a 4th, but too weary to flog myself to get up at 4AM and take a transcon red-eye a couple of days later, I bailed at the last minute.) On the second of those, an ICE agent and I locked horns and kept going around and around.
The first trip was a 10-day MR cum vacation with the missus along and there were no hassles. On the second, however, I was grilled persistently, and quite stupidly, by the first ICE person encountered. He rather somberly asked me the routine opener about the purpose of my trip ("vacation," later off-handed mention of "MR" that he paid no attention to), and then over and over demanded to know whether I didn't think it unusual for a "young man" such as myself (flattering to think I look younger than my years, but I am in my 7th decade of life and the passport attested to that) like myself to do so much traveling. I told him no, it didn't strike me as unusual, that I was retired, etc. But with a long line waiting behind me and me in no great hurry, since my connecting flight wasn't for another 5 hours, we did this idiotic dance, which progressed nowhere, for what seemed a remarkably long time. I did say once or twice that I was an American citizen returning home, to which he replied more than once that he too was an American citizen. Perhaps it was because rather than say I had spent my time on the beach I said I hadn't done much other than read while I was away, which was true, and I was rather non-chalant rather than quaking in the face of his authority, he was giving me the third degree. (I was not impolite, and certainly not rude, though it did start getting testy between us, and finally I asked if he had a supervisor, who as it happened was walking by at that moment, and we were then done.) No surprise, I was sent for secondary screening, but I had little with me and that was no big deal. (I was afraid it was the digital rectal exam for me.)
I was concerned that somehow I would be flagged for special scrutiny in the future, and then I started wondering if it could land on the no-fly list. My next return through there 8 days later was unremarkable, though.
So, this was not me seeking entry to a country not my own, this was me returning to the US after a short trip to Mexico with no obvious reason(s) to single me out for special attention other than perhaps the brevity of the trip (did his computer tell him that I had come in from Mexico only a week before?) and that I was traveling by myself. (My wife things I might be mistaken for a native of one of those places hostile to the US.) They can't deny me, someone born in the States and traveling with a valid passport, re-entry, nor do much of anything to me without articulable reasons, right? (I don't doubt that I am subject to search pretty much at their whim, so long as they have no clearly improper motive, but how long can they interrogate me with no grounds for suspicion?)
Have others had similar experiences returning to the US? (Mine was no great horror story, but it was like nothing I had experienced before in the course of 40 years of traveling abroad and returning home.)
For same day international transit at YVR (i.e. arriving from USA and transiting to a flight to Asia) is it necessary to clear Canadian immigration and customs?
Yes, I believe so. I just did SFO-YVR-PEK and PEK-YVR-SFO and had to clear Canadian customs both outbound and inbound. My SFO-YVR flight arrived early in the morning, so it was pretty quick getting through customs.
