Horrible treatment by Canadian Customs/Immigration (CBSA) at YVR
Nov 14, 2012, 7:43 pm
#106
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I don't know what caused the Canucks to release the hounds on my Christmas Day flight into YVR. Could it be my one way ticket? Possibly - maybe the QX flights from SEA are crawling with drug mules. I was the first one off the plane, so no suspicious behavior there. I know, it was the photo I snapped of the majestic Q400 I took from the tarmac! I did get the same line of questioning from both the immigration officer and the customs agent, that nobody visits Vancouver for just two days. I told them both that I do it all the time, for hockey games, dim sum, and visiting friends. I don't know why the agents at YVR find that so odd.
Nov 15, 2012, 4:54 am
#107
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I don't know what caused the Canucks to release the hounds on my Christmas Day flight into YVR. Could it be my one way ticket? Possibly - maybe the QX flights from SEA are crawling with drug mules. I was the first one off the plane, so no suspicious behavior there. I know, it was the photo I snapped of the majestic Q400 I took from the tarmac! I did get the same line of questioning from both the immigration officer and the customs agent, that nobody visits Vancouver for just two days. I told them both that I do it all the time, for hockey games, dim sum, and visiting friends. I don't know why the agents at YVR find that so odd.
Dec 8, 2012, 5:57 pm
#108
Join Date: Oct 2011
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Wow, I am so surprised reading this about Canada. Never been to Canada, but I thought they would be "friendly"... particularly with Americans! (and the other way around). I wanted to drive with friends next year... will be it easier to enter (probably Ontario or Quebec) in a car?
You are right that for an European passport-holder, entering the Schengen Area (or any port in the EU since you have freedom of movement) is quite hassle-free. That's usually quite different in the US... I have entered sometimes the US with American passport holders, and I was quite surprised about the amount of questions and "profiling" that they made to them, even if they are entering their own country.
But many foreign tourists are repeatedly questioned/profiled/deported unreasonably in Europe too... just go through a passport control in Madrid or Lisbon with a Latin American passport or in CDG or Heathrow with an African passport, and you will see what I am talking about... and we don't see what is behind the scenes. I think the difference for Europeans, is that Americans (at least if they are Caucasian and are well-groomed) enter Europe with no question at all. I remember last year going to Frankfurt for a few hours (we had a long layover) with 5 or 6 Americans, and the passport control guy didn't bother the ask to any of them why they were leaving the airport for just a few hours... he just stamped their passports and voila... we are in Germany.
Being a foreign student in the US, I must be lucky (cross-fingers) but I have never been asked weird questions... sometimes (I wonder if it is because the Student Visa and I am helping the US economy with my tuition? :P) I haven't been asked/told absolutely anything other than "Have a good day". And often on the line I am "sure" that at some point I have to be questioned (I am 20-something, often travel alone intercontinental with just hand luggage, often in shorts and flip-flops - more comfy for a long flight -, if I am on holiday I usually don't shave, every time in the Middle East I could pretend being a local... and on top of that I have quite a few stamps for "suspicious" countries in the Middle East and Asia that are not a likely places to go for a student my age).
However, holding a so-called "PIGS" passport, I must look suspicious to some Northern Europeans. Two of my last times transiting through FRA I was questioned in customs quite extensively about where I was coming and going to (and once I was flying from the US to Europe... I wonder what I could smuggle from there). But MY worst time was this year flying from BRU to JFK on AA (on my student visa). The not-friendly (and she was perfectly local) woman at the check-in asked me so many questions... why I was flying from Brussels and not my home country, what I had been doing in Belgium and for how long I had been there (???, hello I have an European passport), what do I do for living (???, hello I am a student) and why my return flight was to a 3rd country in Europe other than mine or Belgium (well the truth is because getting a third flight in my open-jaw ticket made it $100 less expensive
)... wow... I was just blown away... certainly AA received a complaint from my side... yet they have left BRU so I don't know if that will be worth anything 
So you are right, probably European passport controls are "nicer" than American or Canadian. However, my feeling is that European passport controls can be quite tough if you don't have the right "passport" or the right "race"... probably in the US or Canada it is more democratic and it is tough for everyone, and you don't deserve an special treatment for having a Swiss passport or being blonde.
OP, I'm curious how long you waited before you even met with the first inspector. Recently, I queued at a major US port of entry airport at non-peak hours and the wait was more than 90 minutes. The entire experience was designed to intimidate, from the spooling video to the signage to the body language and verbal language of the staff.
Repeated threats of arrest, managers loudly talking with inspectors in front of passengers about the need for more live target practice with their guns, and other such language and intimidation is the norm on the non-citizen side of the inspection area.
I've travel all over the world on a regular basis, including places where be dragons, and I've never felt or experienced that level of intimidation as I do when entering the US. It frankly makes me very nervous, even though I have nothing to hide. Perhaps it is childhood memories of Marienborn crossing, but isn't it rather sad that travel to the US raises those emotions?
As others have said, you most likely fit a certain profile. Don't take it personally. I recently had an encounter with drugs police in South America who were apparently looking for a French woman; they were extremely upset and terminated the search when they saw my passport and disappointedly asked 'You're NOT French?!' I had checked in at the tail end of a group of French tourists, and my first name is definitely French and my last name could be French. I'm not angry that they chose me; apparently they were looking for someone and I matched that particular profile.
For those of you who are US citizens, please understand that what you experience entering your country is not what the rest of us experience, and that for many of us, entering the US is pretty much one of the worst experiences we have during travel.
Repeated threats of arrest, managers loudly talking with inspectors in front of passengers about the need for more live target practice with their guns, and other such language and intimidation is the norm on the non-citizen side of the inspection area.
I've travel all over the world on a regular basis, including places where be dragons, and I've never felt or experienced that level of intimidation as I do when entering the US. It frankly makes me very nervous, even though I have nothing to hide. Perhaps it is childhood memories of Marienborn crossing, but isn't it rather sad that travel to the US raises those emotions?
As others have said, you most likely fit a certain profile. Don't take it personally. I recently had an encounter with drugs police in South America who were apparently looking for a French woman; they were extremely upset and terminated the search when they saw my passport and disappointedly asked 'You're NOT French?!' I had checked in at the tail end of a group of French tourists, and my first name is definitely French and my last name could be French. I'm not angry that they chose me; apparently they were looking for someone and I matched that particular profile.
For those of you who are US citizens, please understand that what you experience entering your country is not what the rest of us experience, and that for many of us, entering the US is pretty much one of the worst experiences we have during travel.
But many foreign tourists are repeatedly questioned/profiled/deported unreasonably in Europe too... just go through a passport control in Madrid or Lisbon with a Latin American passport or in CDG or Heathrow with an African passport, and you will see what I am talking about... and we don't see what is behind the scenes. I think the difference for Europeans, is that Americans (at least if they are Caucasian and are well-groomed) enter Europe with no question at all. I remember last year going to Frankfurt for a few hours (we had a long layover) with 5 or 6 Americans, and the passport control guy didn't bother the ask to any of them why they were leaving the airport for just a few hours... he just stamped their passports and voila... we are in Germany.
Being a foreign student in the US, I must be lucky (cross-fingers) but I have never been asked weird questions... sometimes (I wonder if it is because the Student Visa and I am helping the US economy with my tuition? :P) I haven't been asked/told absolutely anything other than "Have a good day". And often on the line I am "sure" that at some point I have to be questioned (I am 20-something, often travel alone intercontinental with just hand luggage, often in shorts and flip-flops - more comfy for a long flight -, if I am on holiday I usually don't shave, every time in the Middle East I could pretend being a local... and on top of that I have quite a few stamps for "suspicious" countries in the Middle East and Asia that are not a likely places to go for a student my age).
However, holding a so-called "PIGS" passport, I must look suspicious to some Northern Europeans. Two of my last times transiting through FRA I was questioned in customs quite extensively about where I was coming and going to (and once I was flying from the US to Europe... I wonder what I could smuggle from there). But MY worst time was this year flying from BRU to JFK on AA (on my student visa). The not-friendly (and she was perfectly local) woman at the check-in asked me so many questions... why I was flying from Brussels and not my home country, what I had been doing in Belgium and for how long I had been there (???, hello I have an European passport), what do I do for living (???, hello I am a student) and why my return flight was to a 3rd country in Europe other than mine or Belgium (well the truth is because getting a third flight in my open-jaw ticket made it $100 less expensive
)... wow... I was just blown away... certainly AA received a complaint from my side... yet they have left BRU so I don't know if that will be worth anything So you are right, probably European passport controls are "nicer" than American or Canadian. However, my feeling is that European passport controls can be quite tough if you don't have the right "passport" or the right "race"... probably in the US or Canada it is more democratic and it is tough for everyone, and you don't deserve an special treatment for having a Swiss passport or being blonde.
Last edited by eurekaprice; Dec 8, 2012 at 6:07 pm
Dec 9, 2012, 12:31 pm
#109
Join Date: Nov 2010
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Posts: 215
I've found Canadian Customs to grill me the absolute most (having been born here and lived here all of my life) out of any country that I've been to. I rarely have to talk to them with NEXUS these days at least, but I'm okay with having tough CBSA agents.
Dec 19, 2012, 11:24 am
#110
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Immigration Canada - now CBSA - are among the worst experiences for many travelers. Even some Canadians. And YVR is definitely the worst of their fiefdoms. I've spent zero-fun time in their secondary-inspection-detention-zone at midnight.
More hassle from them than anyone on my RGN visit.
More hassle from them than anyone on my RGN visit.
Dec 19, 2012, 4:58 pm
#111
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OP - I completely sympathize with you. I've been to 30+ countries but treatment at YVR on arrival from SFO stands out as the worst ever POE treatment. I've been 3 times to Calgary before that trip and never had any issues in Calgary.
I was so upset with treatment in YVR that on return to US I wrote a polite email to Vancouver tourism department and Vancouver Airport authorities. My question to them was "you advertise so heavily in California for tourism in Vancouver and is this how you treat visitors?". I received prompt apology and was told they have forwarded my comment to appropriate authorities.
Not sure if that did anything but when I visited couple of years later there was no secondary and I was waved through. I suggest you email Canada / Vancouver tourism folks (even if you have no plans to visit YVR again) so that they are at least aware of this issue.
I was so upset with treatment in YVR that on return to US I wrote a polite email to Vancouver tourism department and Vancouver Airport authorities. My question to them was "you advertise so heavily in California for tourism in Vancouver and is this how you treat visitors?". I received prompt apology and was told they have forwarded my comment to appropriate authorities.
Not sure if that did anything but when I visited couple of years later there was no secondary and I was waved through. I suggest you email Canada / Vancouver tourism folks (even if you have no plans to visit YVR again) so that they are at least aware of this issue.
Just like the constant garbage ads they put on TV...
Dec 24, 2012, 10:42 am
#112
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 6,967
But MY worst time was this year flying from BRU to JFK on AA (on my student visa). The not-friendly (and she was perfectly local) woman at the check-in asked me so many questions... why I was flying from Brussels and not my home country, what I had been doing in Belgium and for how long I had been there (???, hello I have an European passport), what do I do for living (???, hello I am a student) and why my return flight was to a 3rd country in Europe other than mine or Belgium (well the truth is because getting a third flight in my open-jaw ticket made it $100 less expensive )... wow... I was just blown away... certainly AA received a complaint from my side... yet they have left BRU so I don't know if that will be worth anything
)... wow... I was just blown away... certainly AA received a complaint from my side... yet they have left BRU so I don't know if that will be worth anything 
which the US government has put in place in foreign airports, to 'protect' their citizens. Many FTers (mostly Americans) complain bitterly about furrin' security without realising that it is their very own government which has put those silly procedures in place. Complaining to AA will do nothing at all; choosing a non-US carrier (or not flying directly to the US, or avoiding the US entirely) may have a slight impact.I flew from CDG last week and watched the process for travellers flying to the US on AA, vs the rest of us flying to rest of world. I had my usual pleasant, polite, friendly, no queue French airport experience which I have on a regular basis. Those flying to the US obviously had a different experience, as a result of the US government and their policies.
Dec 24, 2012, 7:47 pm
#113
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Be fair here; there are plenty of us in the US who are not ignorant, and additionally hate those policies too.
Dec 25, 2012, 12:10 pm
#114
Join Date: Jan 2011
Posts: 235
Everything required to get a nexus card was way less intrusive than the treatment by CBSA imo.
They do it for a reason and catch plenty of contraband of all sorts, but it sucks when they do it to you. I didnt like being treated like a criminal by individual agents at their discretion so I proved to the agency that I wasnt. It is really worth it.
Dec 25, 2012, 12:36 pm
#115
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I don't know what caused the Canucks to release the hounds on my Christmas Day flight into YVR. Could it be my one way ticket? Possibly - maybe the QX flights from SEA are crawling with drug mules. I was the first one off the plane, so no suspicious behavior there. I know, it was the photo I snapped of the majestic Q400 I took from the tarmac! I did get the same line of questioning from both the immigration officer and the customs agent, that nobody visits Vancouver for just two days. I told them both that I do it all the time, for hockey games, dim sum, and visiting friends. I don't know why the agents at YVR find that so odd.
Dec 25, 2012, 1:51 pm
#116
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My non-US relatives do it regularly, and most often they have no problems with DHS/CBP over doing so. The Canadian passport control characters seem to have tried to outdo the ridiculous things that US DHS/CBP do to visitors, residents and citizens; and the Canadian passport control characters have actually managed to do just that. Not a good thing, and not something that encourages making Canada a meeting destination more than usual. It's too bad that it has come to this, as there are indeed a lot of decent people who work in these functions in Canada and the US.
Dec 25, 2012, 5:19 pm
#117
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Dec 26, 2012, 8:07 am
#118
Join Date: Jul 2011
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Got absolutely grilled upon arrival into YVR a few weeks back - I spent at least a good 10 minutes at passport control being questioned about pretty much everything regarding my stay in Canada - fair enough; officers in Australia do the same thing!
On my outbound flight to NRT - custom officers on the airbridge looked through every page of my passport asking me why I've been to 'x', 'y' and 'z', who funded my trips, what I do etc - that one has never happened to me before.
On my outbound flight to NRT - custom officers on the airbridge looked through every page of my passport asking me why I've been to 'x', 'y' and 'z', who funded my trips, what I do etc - that one has never happened to me before.
Dec 26, 2012, 12:21 pm
#119
Join Date: Sep 2006
Posts: 6,967
Many FTers (mostly Americans) complain bitterly about furrin' security without realising that it is their very own government which has put those silly procedures in place.
I didn't say 'all' Americans, or 'all' FTers think that way, but certainly there are many here who do, and yet sometimes are the very same ones who complain about how things are done outside the US.