Crossing border for day trip
 

Hey all,
I'll be in Detroit for work next month, and I have some friends/colleagues in Windsor that I want to meet for dinner. Has the border loosened up enough to allow trips of a few hours into Canada, or is it still a bit of a headache?

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I think it’s now virtually the same as 2019.

Yep, we went to Windsor a couple weekends ago just for dinner. Easiest border crossing into Canada I’ve ever experienced (with NEXUS, no questions asked at all), no problems coming back though we got randomly selected for the drive-through X-ray (NEXUS lane was closed).

Yeah, as others have said, it’s back to the way it was prior to COVID. Family members of mine have crossed a bunch lately and all have said it’s been easier than ever.

Does one need a passport or will a passport card suffice for entering/returning?

Land crossings are exactly what the passport card is for. A passport is needed for air travel.

In fact, as someone pointed out in another thread, a passport card can be even more useful as it will work in Ready Lanes.

I tried to cross into BC and they acted bizarrely, asking me a bunch of inappropriate and bizarre personal questions. I told them I just wanted to go back to the US and they kept me there asking nonsensical questions for about an hour. I definitely won't be back there.

I took the Transit Windsor "Tunnel Bus" from Detroit to Windsor four weeks ago. It worked very well. That bus leaves from the Windsor International Transit Centre at 300 W. Chatham Street, goes thrugh the tunnel into Detroit, does a loop around downtown Detroit and finally passes by the Mariner's Church, a prominent landmark at the corner of Jefferson Avenue and Randolph Street, which is where one would pass to enter the tunnel headed for Canada. The bus runs once per hour on weekdays with reduced service on Saturdays and Sundays. The fare was $7.50, payable in either Canada or US funds. Once on the Windsor side of the river, the bus stops at the CBSA office at the port of entry, and it was maybe five steps into the building where one meets the immigration officer. Took me about one minute.

I did not go back to Detroit, but rather worked my way over to Toronto and Niagara Falls, where I walked across the Rainbow Bridge and entered the US at Niagara Falls, NY. Maybe took me 2 minutes at the CBP checkpoint there.