When a resident alien (i.e., a non-citizen of the United States holding a green card) enters the United States, he or she has to show documentation (a passport and the green card) and have their fingerprints scanned, presumably to make sure they’re actually the person to whom the green card was issued.
What’s the procedure for non-Canadian citizens living permanently (legally) in Canada? Is there something similar to the American green card? Are they electronically fingerprinted at the airport every time they enter the country?
Permanent residents have to show their card but that’s usually it. Electronic fingerprinting would not be a usual step.
Confusingly, the rules are different depending on how you enter Canada. If the permanent resident enters by plane, they better have the card. If they enter by car (which of course would always be from the USA, unless you’ve got one hell of a car) it is technically possible to enter with other documents, though it is extremely inadvisable if you don’t enjoy spending lots of time with immigration officers.
I will confirm this. Having applied for citizenship a year or so before, I let my permanent residence card expire and had a hell of a hassle at the border. I had printed out the instructions from Ministry of Foreign Affairs that said you didn’t need the card if you came in by car. The guard said that they didn’t take orders from Foreign Affairs only from the Canadian Border Service. An hour later they relented. Now I am a citizen and the only argument I get now is from Air Canada check-in agents who are convinced that my US passport + Canadian Citizenship ID card is not sufficient, while the border service accepts it as normal.
We drive to Canada a lot, and my wife is a green-card holding Canadian citizen. We follow the same procedure going in and out - Present the green card and declare herself a Canadian citizen w/ us perm residency. Never had a problem with this. She does have a Canadian passport, but it has expired and needs to be renewed.
Does your wife have to show the expired passport to the Canadian officials or do they take her word for it that she is of Canadian origin? Could any US green card holder, let’s say a citizen of Kazakhstan, enter Canada showing only his American green card as travel document?
I do believe the Green Card has the holder’s country of origin/citizenship, so the Canadian officials essentially trust that the US Government has it’s stuff together. This obviously wouldn’t work if the green card holder is from Kazakhstan or any other country that would require a Visa to enter Canada.