correction...it was immigration officials and not customs.

Geez.. all those complaints about Canada Customs.

How about this one?!

US Immigration officer takes all my documentation for the trip to Chicago last thursday. Stamps my passport and gives me back all my papers except...
















HE FORGOT TO TAKE MY BLUE DECLARATION FORM FROM ME!!!

Sanosuke!

And then she slapped you in front of the CBP officer.

"So I gather you two are divorced now?"

"NO!!! We are still married!"

"I saw her slap you in the face!"

"NO!!!"

"We'll see what secondary has to say." *stamp* "Welcome home."

Sanosuke!

Actually, no.

She needed to get the point real quick, and she did.

But then, the circumstances were rather stressful. J-1, J-2 visas, two kids and two cats, plus a U-Haul trailer full of junk. It sounded like the immigration person at Blaine had never seen J-1/2 visas in her life...

Hi everybody! As a new member here, I must say that almost all posts here are thorough and informative.

Got a question for ricktoronto. If I understood you correctly, you got the interpretations of the rules from your MP who in turn got they from Stockwell Day. But did you see any change in any way the way they were questioning outbound pax after that?

This is an interesting thread...

But interestingly I've had zero problems with the CBSA. I have much more of a problem with the US agents. I've been flagged for secondary once, and hassled over my purpose for traveling to the U.S. Last time, I didn't have a business card on me (switched positions recently) and the agent gave me a long lecture that "the burden of proof is on me to enter the United States and if he is not convinced of my story he can refuse entry." Not sure if he was new or someone pissed in his Cheerios that morning or what, but he told me next time I had to bring a business card and that he was noting it on my file for the next time.

I'm back in the U.S. on Sunday so we'll see how that goes. I'll bring an old business card and I got an employment letter from work to explain all of the important questions.

Also, I notice sometimes US border agents stamp my passport with a B-1 Visa, and sometimes they just stamp my boarding pass with no visa (I'm a Canadian citizen).

It seems to me the US border agents are either one way or another - either I get waved through with barely a question (sometimes no questions(!)) or I'm interrogated. I'd much prefer this:

Agent: Where are you going?
Me: Indianapolis.

Agent: Why are you going to Indianapolis?
Me: Meetings at head office.

Agent: Who do you work for?
Me: A Canadian company.

Agent: Enjoy your trip.

What happens at a NEXUS interview?

Yeah. A business card (easily ordered off the internet) is *great* security dude. If you have one, you must be legit, welcome to the US of A.

Sheez...

..It's a good starting place - Immigration agents like paper(work). The more you can answer "yes sir, I have that document right here" the better...and a biz card is the first thing they ask for usually.

Well, I had my first bad experience with a CBSA agent today on our way back from the US. The woman (battle axe seems more appropriate given her attitude) asked us where we came from and so on. Then she said I need to be able to see everyone please move the stroller in front of the desk (that's right, my two year old is trying to illegally enter the country). We complied, then she asked my wife not to stand behind the stroller so she could see her, then asked her to move again to my left as she couldn't see her completely, halfway between asking me about what we were declaring. Rude too.

Asked the usual questions; what did you buy, any alcohol and tobacco, which I answered, and she asked again a few minutes later (yes, I know why this happens). Also asked if we had any food, to which I replied none, and then she asked again nothing for the baby, to which I replied no, we threw it out on the plane (we do this now all the time since some CBSA folks get excited about anything, regardless of the fact that we primarily enter from the US). The food thing is getting to be like Australia.

We'll be avoiding that agent next time if I see her. It ranked up there with some of the morons I've gotten at the US Border from time to time.

It's too bad you really can't comment on these folks behaviour. I'm much to paranoid and generally averse to latex to launch any sort of formal complaint.

in the beijing airport you can rate the customs officers with buttons. good, bad , ugly, etc.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28290099@N03/2639094418/

Yes, I saw that in an earlier thread. But as CBSAguy pointed out, that won't happen here, we have unions. Frankly I'd like to rate everyone I ever run into in a public facing role (or customer service role) out of 10 and have it reflected in their pay (with statistically signifcant algorithms applied to get rid of the idiots who rate everyone badly for no reason at all, and those who rate everyone 10 for no reason at all). But that won't happen either. I have a lot of things I'd like that won't happen . . .

Well this is sort of a funny story from my trip back from Las Vegas on the Red Eye flight on AC. So I didn't do too good and sort of only lost $250usd. But cause of that I couldn't buy myself much other than a FBI t-shirt and a hat (FBI --> Female Body Inspector). So when I checking out of my hotel I had nothing to wear except for my newly bought t-shirt and hat. So I put them on and checked in and so forth. When I got to YYZ the lady at the front of who directs you into lines for which agent you should goto sends me to the diplomats for customs. When the lady looks at me she's like you in the FBI? my response "NO its just a hat and a t-shirt that crearly states in small print "Female Body Inspector" she got a good laugh out of it and let me through without any problems.... I had a good chuckle out it.

Passports have photographs for a reason. People have been known to smuggle children into Canada on fraudulent documents. Whether she had a nasty attitude or not, I'm glad to hear she was looking out for your child.

The photo in my son's passport is from when he was six months old, and he's two now. His eye colour isn't even the same (they were blue until he was about 10 months old and they're green now). No questions there.

I have no problem with her asking to see everyone; that's very reasonable. She could see everyone fine by moving her neck around about 30 degrees. I know this because my wife could see her directly. And it's NO excuse to be rude.