breef

Canada has terribly strict immigration. They will routinely turn away people with any sort of record, whether the offense was recent or long from the past. DUI's are a very serious offense in their eyes and it brands any non-Canadian as an "Inadmissible Class."

I was sent to secondary in YVR. The person in front of me was Chinese, I overheard the conversation. They confiscated close to $9k, whatever else she had in her bag, and told her that she would be deported. It made me stand up pretty straight. Luckily for me, I don't have any record and the immigration official asked me one question and waved me through.

I understand that it's a privileged to be able to travel to foreign countries and that I am at the mercy of the immigration policies. That being said, I still don't appreciate the draconian stance Canada has taken and will vote with my wallet by vacationing elsewhere from now on.

callum9999

Canada is not unique in seeing DUI as a very serious offence. I always thought all countries saw it as a very serious crime. In which case, the US is the unique one for brushing it off. If you drove under the influence in countries like the UK, even your friends and family would look down on you because of it.

König

Yes, it is true. I drove up north quite a few times back when I had a GC, and my experience was pretty much 50/50 (good/bad). I thought it would be easier to travel there as a US citizen... When I started using my US passport, the immigration encounters changed from so-so to worse. I've never been sent to secondary, but they started to interrogate me longer at the primaries, and on several occasions they even demanded a hotel reservation confirmation. I still love Canada too much to simply refuse going there because of rude immigration officials, but now I make sure to carry all itineraries and other paperwork with me.

pinworm

I had a friend who was dating a chinese-canadian girl. They were going up to Toronto to meet her parents, and forwhatever reason he made the flight and she was delayed enroute to LAX so had to get the next one the following morning. No problem, or so it seemed.

They decided her parents would simply pick him up at YYZ and take him home. The problem? He didn't know exactly where they lived:not in Toronto proper, but in Markham and he had forgotten the name of the town. He also did not know their names. She only had ever called them "Mom and Dad". Their real names were Cantonese. Lastly, they could barely speak english.

So he got to the customs desk and could not answer where he was going, who was picking him up etc..and when he tried to call them on his cell, the conversation was utterly useless. He then tried calling the gf back in LA and she did not answer the phone.

He spent 45 minutes in secondary exam, and then 4 hours in an immigration holding room with hundreds of other upset folks before he managed to get a hold of the gf, who got ahold of the parents, who then claimed him from the "human pound" at terminal 3 via a cantonese speaking customs agent.

Nice way to meet the parents!! Even more uncomfortable was that he couldn't even talk about it with them or properly apologize for the next night and most of the next day until the gf arrived.

HawaiiO

Just noticed recently that US customs(the guys who take the customs form) has a list of names that they look out for.

They were cross checking the names with the list that they have.

Fortunately, mine wasnt on it!

König

Ha, when I was crossing into Russia from Ukraine by train, the Russian border guard had a very thick (10 cm at least) book with thousands of names. He quickly checked my surname against the list and stamped the passport. When I asked him what the book was, he just smiled and wished me a good trip.

Christopher

At one time British passport control officers had a big thick book full of names. This has long since gone — I presume that the same information (whatever it was) is now visible via the computer system (well, in theory, at least).

l etoile

A month or so ago when entering, the immigration officer had a list of names of every passenger on the flight. I watched him check mine off. I was through the same airport's point of entry this week and did not see that the agent who cleared me had such a list.

goldbar

I've always wondered when returning home to the US and they scan your passport how much information is available to the Customs Agent. Do they just know your most recent travel or can they view all the trips you have made outside the country?

jphripjah

Do a FOIA request and ask for your travel history.

https://help.cbp.gov/app/answers/det...d-states,-foia


They have a lot of info about all of your past travels and I suspect that it is available to the CBP dude holding your passport and staring at the screen.

goldbar

Thanks for the good info. Now I know

cordelli

See also this thread

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trave...passports.html

LTBoston

What I want to know is what in God's name they do with the millions upon millions of "entry cards" we're forced to fill out coming and gong from all these different countries.

SirJman

What about non-US citizens that travel to the US alot and have GE?

sbm12

The system knows all about you, too. But since you aren't interacting with an agent there obviously isn't someone looking over your history manually.