Rude Canadian immigration
 

Just arrived in YYZ half an hour ago. I usually complain that immigration at Canadian airports is less pleasant than anywhere else; today, it was way beyond that, the official was plainly rude.

As a Canadian citizen, I find it very annoying that the border where I'm questioned the most is that of my own country. I'm not as versed a traveler as some people here, but still I have visited 40 different countries; and in none of them are immigration officials as unfriendly as in Canada.

Does anyone else have the same experience (or different, for that matter?)

On average I get asked more questions here than in other countries. I guess here they want to make sure I'm not trying to weasel my way in to collect welfare--or whatever it is they're so concerned about--even though I have a Canadian passport. They're not usually rude, though they're not usually friendly either.

Don't forget that they want to wring every last cent they can in taxes and duty out of you, too. Need to ask hard questions if they have any hope of finding that overage.

The best experience I had recently was in YVR, where I had my passport and customs form scanned at one of those automated kiosks. An agent at the head of the line looked at the documents for a couple of seconds, then waved me past the booths. No questions at all.

Since this is not AC-specific, I've asked a moderator to shift the thread over to the Canada forum. Good topic, just a better place for discussion of it. :)

Thanks, and sorry about that.

It's OK - very common to find threads in relevant-but-not-perfect spots! That's one of the things our moderators can help us with! :)

Went through YVR a few times, and the Canadian agents were polite and efficient.

As a U.S. citizen I hate to say it but my worst experiences were with the U.S. Customs agents at YVR - they were rude, mean, and power tripped. :mad:

So you are a long time FT'er with a new account :confused:?

Well, as a comment on that, US agents are #2 in my list :D

Yes - previous account had my last name in the username, so I've retired that one. :)

I was *shocked* recently when traveling to the US on business - I was not asked any questions by the US agent: literally, no questions at all. It was a bit weird. But a nice change.

You bet! That never every happened to me! It it the case in most countries, though.

One of my biggest surprises regarding immigration was in China, where the desk had a button that one could use to express where you were please with the agents behaviour.

Thank god for Nexus.

Coming home from visiting family in PSP the customs officer in YEG asks me "How did you meet your grandmother?" I wish I was kidding.

+1

NEXUS was very rude to me too! It kept on refusing to recognize my eye scan!

Just remember customs and immigration staff are law enforcement officials, their objective is to question and see whether you are hiding things/secrets you should not be allowed to bring into Canada (ie. food, duty free over the value, money, illegal immigration/fraud etc)

Whenever investigation takes place (be it an vehicular accident, police stop, employee misconduct, suspicious product return at a store or customs/immigrations) their objective is to question and find out the truth. Far too often being friendly makes it hard to achieve that goal, makes it easier for a suspect to lie their way through and find it hard to enforce the rules.

Like dealing with anyone, keep it short, succinct, honest and factual.

In asian countries you have two departments, immigration (that stamps your passport) and customs that randomly inspects bags. In those places (behind the scenes) they have sniffer dogs, staff trained to review suspicious behavior and a mandatory second re-Xray scan upon arrival. Once you are selected to see customs in those countries, the law enforcement attitude/presentation is similar.