Canada Customs - YVR & YYC comparison
 

I'm in Canada on a study permit. My study permit is valid (extended) but I didn't have my visa renewed because CIC's (Citizenship and Immigration Canada) rule on it is we don't have to get a new visa if we are only travelling to the US as long as we have a valid study permit.

I had a US-Canada trip in October and on my flight back to Vancouver, the first Customs agent I encountered looked for my visa AFTER looking at my study permit. I said I don't have a valid visa because blah blah blah. I handed him my expired visa and a printout of the re-entry guidelines printed off CIC's webpage. The agent read the printout word for word then marked my Customs declaration card "no visa." So, I then had to go to a second room where I saw passengers with their baggages being unpacked and examined. That alarmed me slightly as I was not looking forward to my carefully packed baggage being ransacked. To preempt ransacking, the moment the second Customs agent came up to me I told her the reason I was sent there was because I don't have a valid visa and the reason I don't have a valid visa was blah blah blah. I also handed her the CIC webpage printout and told her that that I confirmed the guideline by calling CIC. This second agent asked when I called CIC then read the printout word for word, went to another room with all my docs, then came back after several minutes. I thought, "Is this customs agents still needing to verify that such a rule exists?" After some more questions of "Do I have another citizenship/passport, Have I been to other countries aside from the US, blah blah blah," I was finally let go.

Fast forward to December and me coming back to Canada through Calgary. I had the same printout with me and was ready to hand it to the Customs agent after saying that I have no valid visa because I'm on a study permit and I only went to the US. The agent said, "No, I don't have to see that." Wow, I was amazed that this agent, unlike the two YVR agents, seemed to know CIC's rules. My Calgary Customs experience was more pleasant (quicker too) than my Vancouver Customs experience.

In my Vancouver experience, I first thought that newer agents must be assigned at the front line. Maybe the new agent didn't remember his lessons or maybe he didn't read up on it. Maybe that's why he didn't seem to be aware of the CIC guideline. But since the second agent also didn't seem to be aware of the CIC guideline, I can only conclude that YVR agents are, in general, not educated well on CIC guidelines. That is a puzzle to me. Why wouldn't they be? They're the first Canadian goverment employees who will deal with immigrants/visitors to Canada and they don't even know immigration guidelines? Or perhaps YVR customs agents are trained well only on CIC's immigrant visa rules but not on rules for non-immigrant visas.

I wouldn't worry about it. It sounds like it was just an excuse to take a further look at you, similar to a police officer's subjectivity to seeing you making a questionable lane change. They didn't find anything, and they didn't deem you to be anything other than what you said and the case you presented.

I would imagine if you transited other Canadian airports, you would get the same experience you had in Vancouver and at other airports, the same experience you got in Calgary.


I've crossed the border dozens of times, probably over a hundred times. I've had the inconsistent thing happen going into Canada many times.

Again, I wouldn't worry about it.

This surprises you? Have you looked at the ages of most of those agents? In the summertime you are more than likely to get a college kid who is there for a summer job. On your next arrival into YVR, look around. You will find college age kids at the desks and an older officer standing back overseeing everything.

As a non-immigrant visa holder myself I know more about the ins and outs of the system than they ever would. This came to a head last summer when due to a clerical error of their own making I was told I didn't qualify for renewal of my visa and that my previous two visas had been issued in error! :D
Knowing that they were wrong I stood my ground, my entry was adjourned and they admitted their mistake a few days later and issued the visa.

The grunting and grumbling officers of the CBSA make the US CBP look like consummate professionals.

Vancouver is a notorious drug entry (and exit) point; I don't think Calgary is anywhere near as bad. YVR gets a lot of international passengers, YYC not so many.

Does this excuse agents (seemingly) not knowing the rules ? No, but remember they do have a great deal of discretion on how (if?) they interpret and apply them.

But yeah, YVR is probably the worst Canadian airport for this kind of thing. :(

...and as long as you are returning to Canada by the end of the period initially authorized for your stay or any extension to it.

That was the case when the Canadian guy at the I87/A15 crossing asked me if the RoK was North or South Korea. The older guy standing over his shoulder must have been very amused.

+1
This is the catch that people sometimes forget. You can re-enter Canada after visiting ONLY the US (actually St-Pierre/Miquelon as well) up to the date on the stamp in your passport from the last valid entry. But if you have been to any other country. You are need a valid visa.

The same basically applies to the US for people with an expired US Visa but have a valid I94 and have visited only Canada / Mexico and some of the Caribbean Islands (some exceptions).

To the OP: Apply for a new Multiple TRV. Problem solved. Well worth the 150 CAD.

This past summer I had a young woman in uniform ask me "what a customs tariff was"....

Makes you wonder if they have had any training at all.

Are you sure about that? I don't know about Canada, but in the USA, all Customs (CBP) officers are full-fledged Law Enforcement Officers who carry weapons and have full arrest powers. I highly doubt that they would let a college kid do this job. In fact, there are probably rules preventing it, if nothing else from the labor union representing the professional officers.

Don't get me started on those jerkoffs,

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-col...derguards.html
http://www.cbc.ca/bc/news/071001-borderguards.pdf

Contrary to popular American opinion, the US's way of doing things is not always universally accepted and implemented. CBSA does have a student Border Services Officer program that they run in the summer and which can lead to full time employment starting in the fall if the student BSOs do well. The student BSOs are required to pass the CBSA's standard BSO test and go through training prior to employment. Canada's age of majority is 18 and all participants are required to be 18+ years old... the same age you need to be to apply to become an RCMP officer or a police officer in many provinces.

YVR is where they tase visitors to death.

I'm a Canadian citizen and a couple years ago presented my proof of Canadian citizenship at YVR (was there to attend a conference), and the official asked me where I was staying and whether I'd be presenting at the conference. I thought about reminding him that as a citizen I was free to stay where I wanted and to ask him if thought I needed a work visa, but then I remembered the taser.

Never have gotten that treatment in YYC.

Outbound, the US border control officials in YVR are nut jobs too.

A year or so ago we had a consultant come from the US to work on a project with us. She lives in the US, but is a Canadian citizen. CBSA at YYT were insistent that she had no right to enter and work in Canada without a visa, and only relented when she lost patience with them.

A student BSO, no doubt. I have no faith in that programme.

Yeah, I can see where you would be tased over a work visa issue. :rolleyes: