flamboyant 1

Long story (apologies)...but be alerted when travelling with a work permit on BA to Canada.


While returning from Europe to teach in Toronto I was denied to proceed at Flight Connections and as such denied boarding (BA 99) despite having valid travel documents to enter Canada with a valid work permit, valid (German) passport, and automatically issued ETA which one gets with the work permit.

These were the same documents I had used 3 times before flying on British Airways to Canada in the past 12 months and that I had used on about 20 other occasions with other airlines, always without any hassle or questions at immigration.

At Flight Connections BA insisted I needed an ETA number or permanent resident number (to put into their system). With a work permit you don't get an ETA number, it is attached to your passport. Moreover, I was still in permanent residence proceedings. BA called a Canadian immigration expert (out of my sight) and not sure what was asked, but I got the response I cannot travel with with the work permit. That conclusion is obviously wrong as the Canadian immigration website clearly shows and as I showed to BA.

I was sent to Boston that evening and endured a major inconvenience (unnecessary stress and expenses as I had to buy a oneway BOS YYZ). Overall, I was delayed about 14 hours.

I flew Air Canada from Boston to Toronto the next morning (in domestic coach after a 5 hour night, not Club World), checked in with an AC agent, had my documents checked and they were indeed (as they always had been) fine. The immigration officer at YYZ airport also confirmed that I should not have been denied flying on BA 99 the previous day due to my valid work permit and passport. As a German citizen no additional visa is needed.
I used the same documents again to enter Canada later that week, again on Air Canada though. No problems.

Hence, apparently, only for BA the documents were not sufficient and the questions asked by a flight connections manager led to a negative response.

BA issues:

First, interestingly, at my point of origin my travel documents other than my passport were not checked at all (even though it said so on my boarding pass). If I am about to be denied to travel to my final destination, I should have been checked and denied travelling with BA at the point of origin (and not a LHR Flight Connections). From there I could have easily gone to my other home to solve any documentation problem, if necessary.

Second, at LHR Flight Connections I was repeatedly asked for my eTA, even encouraged to sign up online – but with a work permit and also when applying for permanent resident status, as a German citizen, I cannot separately apply for an eTA, it is included in the work permit. I explained this and referred to the Canadian Immigration website that confirms this (showing the website).

The major problem seemed to be that the BA computer system requires either the eTA number or the permanent resident card number – but does not have a field for or accept the work permit number.

Immigrants to Canada who are in the process of getting their permanent resident status are allowed to travel based on other valid documents including the work permit.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/work/extend-stay.asp#worker_travel

Third, there was a lack of common sense among BA staff. When a passenger appears with several documents providing evidence for eligibility for entry into Canada, for very recent past entries, and for having a home there, including a work permit for another year, approximately 20 entries into Canada (based on passport stamps) in the past few months, several trips based on these documents even with British Airways, but also with Lufthansa and Air Canada and American Airlines, a work contract, or a tax statement, then it is likely that this passenger will be allowed to re-enter Canada.


So in the end I had to bear the cost and delay of my involuntary diversion.

My complaint to BA was answered as such:

This is obviously wrong. I had my passport obviously (that was checked on boarding of the first leg).
Second, obviously, with that work permit I was allowed to travel and enter Canada, as I did the very next morning.

Needless to say, I got nothing.

While BA saved some $600 (which I wanted to be reimbursed for), I am not going to book any flights on BA anymore and will encourage my colleagues and students to not do so either.

That's a good way of losing a Gold member.
I hope this does not happen too often.