lily23

Yep since early 2020! Took forever but better late than never...
Lyft is also available too =)

Finkface

We have had Uber in YVR for a year and a half.

Adam Smith

TL;DR: crappy experience with the take-home kit from YVR

I left the country for the first time since March 2020 a couple weeks ago. Came back through YVR last Sunday (SFO-YVR-YYC), and the whole thing was less than impressive.

For quite a while, there was only one officer manning the NEXUS line, and it took over 30 minutes to get through there, despite it not being a huge number of people. It would have been quicker to go through the regular line.

Dealing with the COVID testing was a mess. I had read a couple of negative experiences about the take-home kits on here, so had hoped to get the test done during my layover. The employee directing traffic was asking people whether they were (a) vaccinated and (b) already registered. Despite me telling him I was both, I got sent one direction where eventually a girl handed me one of the take-home kits.

I explained that I would prefer to get it done there. She said I would have to go register. When I told her I had pre-registered online, she said I would still have to go stand in the registration line. I had no idea how long that was going to take (I thought I had seen 15-20 people in that line), so at that point, I gave up and just took the take-home kit.

So, what's the point of pre-registering if you end up having to stand in the same line? Or did the girl who told me that not know the process? And why did the guy telling people where to go send me down the connections path without asking, or me saying anything, about connecting? Either it's a terrible setup or the people implementing it don't know how it's supposed to work.

All in all, it was about an hour from when my inbound arrived to getting through domestic security. NEXUS line was open at security, which probably saved at least 5 minutes.

Doing the kit itself was not bad. At 8:15AM, I was able to make an appointment for a 9AM observation of my test. It took maybe 20 minutes, although longer than necessary because of Teams problems which aren't LifeLabs' fault. FedEx picked up the package around 11AM

But despite them promising a turnaround in a "maximum" of 48-72 hours (from when FedEx picks it up), 93 hours later, I have no test results. When I phoned LifeLabs last night (about 80 hours after FedEx got it), it took ~30 minutes on hold to get through to someone and another 15 minutes to try to find out what was going on with my test. The woman I talked to asked a bunch of questions that they should have had the answers to (e.g. was my sample collection observed by one of their people, had FedEx picked up the package, etc - and these were not for identity verification), and ultimately the only information she could get was that my test results were still "pending".

She said she would instruct the lab to expedite them and I should get them within 24 hours, but that's a pretty crappy outcome from a public health perspective - while I'm being sensible about what I do, I've still been out and about, having lunches and meetings and so on, interacting with more and more people every day. Every day they delay is more people that I could have infected, thus rendering the whole process pretty pointless.

It also personally puts me in an awkward position as I had plans to go to YVR this weekend with my wife to visit some friends. I haven't made any non-refundable plans, on the off chance my test was positive and I had to quarantine, but what am I supposed to do, cancel my trip just in case I do end up positive? I sure don't want to get a positive result after I get to YVR and then either have to quarantine there or violate a quarantine order to come home. The 24-48 hour "maximum" turnaround should have given me plenty of time to get my result before needing to get on the plane to YVR this evening, but now I have no idea whether I'll get the result in time.

Yul_voyager

Yep, too much arrivals to manage properly the arrival test, this is why they are stopping doing it in two weeks...

lily23

I thought this was weird too. Even if you're pre-registered, you have to stand in line, then show the person your confirmation number, then they pull up your information, ask you to verify all the data is correct, then they print off the requisition form for your covid test, then you go to the covid test line. It does save a bit of time since I assume the non-registered line will take longer given people have to give all their data, but even with just a few people ahead of me in line, this part took ~15 minutes.

seawolf

Sorry if this has been covered already. But what's the downside of doing a take-home test

delayed

Interesting as I had a similar expderience. Arrived at YYZ from LHR on July 18th. I am fully faccinated but child is not, we completed our arrival COVID test and I asked multiple times for my childs Day 8 test and was told it isn't required. I have since received email's from Switch Health (the company in Ontario in charge of testing) telling me that my Day 8 test is coming up, I emailed them telling them what happened on arrival and they said "if you were told you don't need to do the test, disregard our emails as they are automatically generated.". Please post if you get clarification about your daughter's Day 8 test.

For others comparing arrival experiences, it was extremly quick for us, no line ups, was out in 30 mins or less after the plane arrived at the gate. No nexus or other special passes. This was T3 about 8pm on a Sunday, the person who took our COVID test did say it wasn't usually this quiet and we got lucky.

EmailKid

Maybe it was time of day, but since I had five hours before my connecting flight would leave YVR, I asked for on site testing instead of the kit they handed me having read upthread all the problems associated with home testing.

IIRC I was the only one in the testing area with several testers obviously not doing any testing since, well, as I just wrote, I was the only one there.

Noonish test (much more invasive than my test in US two days prior); Canadian test result arrived via email shortly after midnight.

Adam Smith

Update to my previous post: apparently my sample "could not be tested and will need to be repeated". So they'll FedEx me a new kit today or tomorrow. That will arrive... tomorrow? Sunday? Monday? So my day 1 test will be a day 6-8 test and results... 7-11 days?

Yeah, seems like a poor setup. I would think there should be a separate line for pre-registered people and it should only take a couple of minutes to go through it. If pre-registering meant you got through in 15 minutes instead of 18, there's not much incentive to do it.

That was my plan, but I wasn't sure whether I had the time. I started with 1:35 from scheduled arrival time to departure of my second flight. Inbound was 10 minutes early. But after the lengthy CBSA process, I was under T-60 to the second flight, and not knowing whether NEXUS was open at domestic security, didn't think it was worth chancing it.

lcohen999

I was coming to post something similar

Land at YVR, grab a box, fly to YYZ. Test done at 9pm. Picked up the next day. So it is now Friday. I assume they have it and will test it at one point. It seems silly.

I could have gone to a local hospital or Shoppers and gotten a PCR test and be done with it.

I know that while in PDX, I did the Rapid PCR test which took 30 minutes to get results (they were not busy). So there are faster ways to do things now.

I agree with Adam. If you can pre-register so you walk off your flight, go right for a covid test and be on your way, it seems MUCH faster than the take home test..

Yul_voyager

If they were smart the federal government would just send people to the provincial testing systems, which are underused now, and send some money to the provinces to cover the costs... But well, looks like we have (as taxpayers) to support private laboratory businesses...

canadiancow

I entered through YVR last night.

First off the plane, and there were only about 10 people waiting to clear primary when I arrived. I used NEXUS, and was past primary very quickly. I even had CBSA confirm that both my tests were acceptable (one was done with an expensive at-home rapid kit, but is waaaaay easier than going anywhere).

Being pre-registered for a test didn't help, as there was no on in line at test registration (though there was someone at every station, so I still had to wait a minute). I had to update my address, because I guess the address I gave them was my "best" Canadian address (parents in YYZ), but they wanted my hotel address in YVR. That was, by far, the longest part of this process. So make sure you use the address you're actually staying at.

Then I went through the doors, and was immediately tested and sent on my way.

It was 20 minutes (based on messages I sent to my ride) from stepping off the plane (at the very far end of the terminal) to getting outside.

And in a few more weeks, this will get even faster.

sydneyracquelle

I suspect this will all get easier and back to 2019 once August and September hit with foreigners except (i) the ArriveCan app and (ii) 72-hour covid tests might be here long-term. They have switched the focus from live inspection at arrival in real-time to advance review pre-arrival with the agent now just reviewing docs upon arrival.

vincewy

There should be a wiki as the border is opening up on Canadian side.

I'm just wondering what types of test will be accepted, for example, at Walgreens

1. Rapid Diagnostic Test (ID Now)
2. Diagnostic Lab Test (PCR)
3. Rapid Antigen Test (BinaxNow)

I know 2 is definitely accepted, not sure about 1 (use for Hawaii).

escape4

I thought Canada required PCR and that rapid antigen did not qualify?