My wife and I carry US passports whenever we travel abroad, and neither US nor Canadian officials stamped our passports into or out of Canada....even though hers is covered with visas from travel to/from India.

a case study from "The Airline Passenger's Guerilla Handbook", page287:

"Several years ago, before the free-trade agreement, Canada was suffering one of its periodic bouts of Anti-American xenophobia. Fearing that the US was taking over the economy.

A Wall Street banker flying into Canada to make a presentation to some potential clients, made the mistake of describing him as a "financier". He was immediately surrounded by several beefy immigration officers and taken into a side room. There, after some hostile questioning, he was forced to make his presentation to the assembled officers.

For over forty-five minutes he went on describing the intricate tax, accounting and mathematical aspects of a billion-dollar-cross-border financing of a power plant, to a group of guys who, altogehter, couldn't have had more than one forehead among them.

At the end of the presentation, one of the officers raised his hand and asked what was, in his protectionist's mind, the key question: "Why can't Canadians do this type of finance themselves?"

The banker couldn't think of an answer that wasn't impolite.

He packed up his briefcase and caught the next flight home.

The next week he reentered Canada giving "salesman" as his occupation. He got through without problems.

Apparently "salesman" was a job the Canadians recognized they clearly could not do themselves .....

Ferry

I'd love to go to Vancouver with AA, but they only allow AAdvantage members into their website. Since I have British Airways membership & they're both part of oneworld... I resent feeling forced to sign up for AA membership before I even get to see the fares.

I too, recently experienced the same thing in Toronto. I was sent over to immigration and held for about 45 minutes. I was asked how
much money I had and then had to show it to her (the agent.) Then she wanted to see my credit cards. At that point, I was so irrate, I litterally threw them at here.

Finally I was let go. Ironically, I heard on the news that in approximately the year 2012,
they may due away with the US-Canadian border
control completely! That's what Europe is moving toward already.

Neal

Tuesday sep-29-98: Vancouver Airport YVR (coming from Vancouver with AC): 30 seconds

Wednesday sep-30-98: Vancouver Airport YVR (going to SFO with AC): 5 seconds

Forgot this one...

This past summer while driving from Seattle to Alaska by way of British Columbia, we crossed into Alaska at Hyder. Hyder is in the extreme southern leg of Alaska and as far as I know, there is only one road in, and that is through British Columbia. When leaving Hyder in a car with Washington State plates, at the border we were stopped for questioning by the Canadian customs/immigration! ??? Perhaps being 100's of miles from anywhere makes the Canadian government suspect everyone is trying to sneak in at this border crossing.

Going to Toronto on 10-09 returning 10-12.
I will let you know what my experiences are
with immigration.

I'm taking my passport for i-d. I can't be
delayed... have a meeting that starts very
close to the arrival of my Air Canada jet
from EWR. CATMAN

Traveled via Air Canada to YYZ on 9/2 and it only took a minute to get through Canadian customs with my passport. The agent started to hand it back without stamping it, but I asked her to. She said it wasn't necessary, but she would. So apparently an entry stamp is not standard practice.

Returned via YYZ on 9/11 and US Customs preclearance there was also brief--surprising since I was in-transit from YHZ and the plane was late. The baggage did not arrive in time to claim & carry through customs. Air Canada told me to go ahead so as not to miss my onward connection. The agent did look at my passport, but didn't even ask about the lack of baggage from a 10 day trip. (The baggage didn't make my onward flight).

Regarding the correct forms of id, my reading of the immigration information provided with travel literature is "proof of citizenship". Birth certificate, passport or voter registration all satisfy that requirement. I'm sure the agents prefer passport because the other two have no photo and also no magnetic encoding, but they have to accept them. One time when I temporarily misplaced my current passport, I took an expired one on a Canadian trip. The US agent didn't like that either-he couldn't use it in his magnetic strip reader due to the cancellation punches. But it IS proof of citizenship, and since the rules for US citizens returning from Canada don't specify "a valid passport", an expired one also suffices.

Dealer, when departing Vancouver, I only had a driver's license(with picture) and a voter's registration card; the U.S. immigration/customs agent gave me a hard time. He stated that the voter registration was not proof of citizenship. Yes, I too thought that he should have accepted my voter's registration, but??? I guess he either didn't know the rules or just wanted to give me a hard time.

Aubie... I'm surprised they would not accept
a driver's license as valid I-D. It is government issued and one of a kind.

For some reason I NEVER got a voter's
registration card in NJ. Maybe they don't
issue them here.

I will ask for the stamp anyway... I'm slowly
building a passport of colorful stamps and
prints to remember how far I have been. And
I use my passport as I-D because it is a
common I-D (and that picture of me frightens
people into letting me through customs!)
CATMAN

Here's my customs experiences:

*Entering Canada... 7 secs, guy looks at
my frightening photo, asks why I'm there.
I tell him to see "The New Red Green Show"
He laughs, stamps and waves me through.

*Leaving Canada... about 30 secs... Mr.
SourPuss (is this a taboo word here?) growled
why I was in Canada... I startled babbling
(to see the CBC station, Les Miserables,
The New Red Green SHow.) He also asked me to
explain the two items I bought:

*A 1999 Red Green Show Calendar.
*A pair of Eddie Boxer Boxer Shorts (I ran out)

He kept looking at me and the passport photo (a very younger me) then let me through.

The YANK before me got into it with Mr.
Sourpuss because he didn't ahve a passport
and kept saying his driver's license should
have been enough I-D. The Customs agent said
"Next time I would suggest that you always
carry a Passport for I-D."

**A CATMAN PHILOSOPHY!!**

The lady who took the Customs card thought
it was funny that I was a fan of the Red Green Show. Two male customs agents did the
"secret" greeting of fans of the show with me. (I won't say it here...)

Also to answer BlondeBomber's concerns about
the airport workers strike... did not see any
unusual delays, although the bus that took
me to the airport parked far from the AC
gate I needed to be at. CATMAN