I went to YEG this weekend. CO was offering double miles and I needed my 5 minutes in the snow for this winter. So I went Friday night, came back Sunday.

Upon arrival in YEG I was sent to Immigration for secondary. I was questioned for 20 minutes. I tried to explain my reasons for a short trip, but she wasn't accepting it. She questioned me about my job, my salary, asked if I was a college graduate (no, I'm not degreed), looked at every stamp in my passport - which had a Canadian stamp on every page - and asked "have you ever been to Canada?"

After all of that, she stapled a conditional entry statement into my passport:
1. I may not accept any employment.
2. I may not enroll in any educational courses.
3. I must leave the country by 1/31/10 (date of my return flight).

I've not experienced this before. Has it happened to others? Was the trigger that I was going to be in YEG 1 day only? I was extremely miffed at this and am trying to understand it.

Suggestions? WOuld you write to Canadian authorities?

They do this to Canadian citizens and residents too so don't worry about it.

Maybe they though, with the 1 day return, that you'd ditch the return.

Thanks. We always play 20 questions when I go to Canada, but not anything this thorough before so I was a little concerned.

I somehow think the agent couldn't fathom why anyone would want to go to visit Edmonton for the weekend especially if it wasn't for VFR (visiting friends & relatives) purposes. If you decided to fly to Vancouver or even Toronto, Montreal or Ottawa for the weekend, it'd raise less suspicion than Edmonton as there's really very little of interest to tourists there.

I'm not familiar with the term "conditional entry."

But every visitor is subject to the above 1, 2 and 3 (at some point you must leave).

Are you saying that the above was written in by hand or something on your passport? Also did you enter Canada with a US passport or another country.

It's a Visitor Record, a standard way to document an authorisation of less than six months for a visitor.

Is that placed in the passport like an I-94 for the US? Or just a record kept by CBSA?

It's a document, usually computer printed, and usually stapled in the passport.

I have had that same document stapled in my passport before at T3 YYZ after being detained in secondary over 2 hours and being accused more than once by the immigration officer and a supervisior if I was in Canada and I quote, "to have sex with a man or a woman" And when I left Canada I had to turn the document into the immigration office and an immigration officer was present to make sure I bordered my flight back to the USA.

What an nonsensical statement to make.

We, at least, don't have to manufacture and truck in snow for a 'Winter Olympics.'

when I cleared US on the way back, the USCBP removed it from my passport "so Canada will know you left the country"...

I usually get secondary when I go to Canada, bags searched on the way in, etc., but this was a first for me.

How can they subject Canadian citizens to the same conditions? Secondary screening I can understand but no work, no school/education, and must leave country by X date.

Maybe not immigration but certainly customs. That's why a lot of us got Nexus to avoid the little Napeoleons.

West Edmonton Mall is the #1 tourist attraction in Alberta.