Problems with Nexus Pass- opinions please!
 

Anyone have a similar experience to this? I went in for a Nexus interview this morning and was treated extremely unprofessionally by the agent. I do not travel to Canada to transact business but to visit my parent company's headquarters. I am a US Reinsurance Broker based out of New York that pursues clients only within the US but have had to visit Canada quite often when I first took this job for training. Now that I have gotten up to speed I expect to visit maybe once a month or less going forward. So I explained my situation and the CBP agent told me I gave her conflicting stories and basically called me a liar. She advised that for me to get a Nexus pass I would need a work permit from Canadian Immigration. I again advised that I court clients only in the US and only visit Canada to visit my company’s headquarters for meetings, training and really as a social visit to the head executives. She then said she had been doing this "a long time" and "she's heard it all". After that, nothing I said made any difference to her. She'd closed her ears and did not act in a rational or professional manner. She appeared to be maybe late 20's, shorter light brown hair, slightly overweight, relatively short. This took place at the Toronto Pearson airport in the Nexus Office at Terminal 1. I left without getting a Nexus pass after purposly flying up from NY for the interview and think that going through the Nexus application process is probably not worth my time or efforts. If you only fly into Canada once a month or less, maybe applying for a Nexus pass is a waste of time and energy. You may be better off waiting in immigration lines than being subject to the unprofessional behavior I experienced. Maybe I just caught this particular person on a really bad morning, maybe not. I'm sure many of you can relate to dealing with unprofessional and seemingly uneducated "officials" that feel the need for a power trip. Chime in if you've had good or bad experiences with the Nexus application recently! Also - any thoughts on what could be done at this point to get my Nexus pass? (not that I really need it) Getting a Canadian work visa seems completely unnecessary for what I come up to Canada for. If you go through the interview process I hope you have a better experience and nicer CBP agent than I did.

If you visit your corporate head office as part of your employment, then you need a work permit. Making regular social calls to head office would seem suspicious - if you receive pay you need a work permit. NEXUS doesn't issue work permits and the officer has to certify that all is in order. The US has the same rules for residents of Canada. I assume that if you get a work permit, then you can get a NEXUS card.

Sounds like working to me, so I'm not surprised you were refused.

I guess I am surprised I would need a work visa for visits to the home office though. Maybe you guys are right. My parent company is a Canadian Company. My company is a child company based in the US where I work as a broker and am paid out of a US corporate bank account. I guess maybe I need to understand what the CBP definition of "working" is. Is training considered working? As a broker my "work" is to meet with clients and prospects. I don't do any of that in Canada because my clients are in the US. I just dont consider my visit to the home office in Canada working really. Frankly, I just don't see the necessity to go through the trouble of applying for a work visa if I am just coming up to Canada once a month or even less. Thanks for your input.

You are trying to define "work" rather than "business". It would seem that getting a work permit for what you are doing would involve very little effort. Then the NEXUS people would have no concern. NEXUS cannot give a card for a purpose that is not covered by primary documentation. For example, if you need a passport, then the card is given if you have a valid passport, not instead of one. While the need for a work permit can be a matter of a judgement call by a border officer, NEXUS operates under strict rules - if you may need a work permit, then they have to see it.

By that vague description, it sounds to me that you would be considered a "business visitor" under Canada's immigration legislation and, thus, be exempt from needing a work permit. My suggestion is the next time you come to Canada, ask the officer you see in Primary to refer you to the Immigration office and ask them whether or not you need a work permit.