I recently crossed the Rainbow Bridge on foot. Here are some notes:
- There is a ~1 hour rapid test available right at the BUF airport that is accepted by the CBSA. Convenient, but it's $225 USD which to me is crazy. Instead, I decided to get an Abbott ID NOW rapid test from Walgreens which as others have mentioned here, is also accepted by the CBSA. On the PDF I got it said it's a NAAT test, which the Government of Canada site explicitly says is accepted. It's also completely free.
- Only certain Walgreens have this machine - you can check on their site which ones do. I went to the Walgreens at 4815 BROADWAY Depew, NY 14043, which is a ~10 minute drive from the airport. They claim that results are available within 24 hours, but I got mine in about 15 minutes - it was emailed as a PDF which I then printed. Note that you MUST make an appointment online in advance in order to have the results emailed to you. I am NOT a US resident - all I had was my Ontario driver's license, which they were happy with. The test is drive-thru only, so the lady let me just walk up to the drive-thru window, but you may want to consider taking your Uber through the drive thru (or your own car) - the whole process only takes 2 minutes. I figured if the results did not arrive within an hour or two, I would just go back to BUF airport and get the rapid-PCR test for $225.
- There were about 15 of us pedestrians waiting in line to cross to talk to a CBSA agent. The people in front of me really seemed to be getting interrogated - about 15 minutes per person. Right before it was my turn the agents switched, and mine let me through after barely 5 minutes. Standard questions - do you have a place to quarantine, etc. He was extremely friendly.
- After that I was sent to the Switch Health tent (you should create an account in advance to speed up the process), where I took the test. Then I was free to go. They don't watch you after this point. I had someone picking me up in a nearby parking lot, but I could have easily wandered into the city and taken public transit home or whatever I wanted.