Crossing the Canadian border--what do I need to know?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Next week we will be driving from Buffalo to Chicago. I thought we might go through Ontario. Google says the time and distance differences between going via Port Huron/Sarnia and going via Cleveland are pretty negligible. That’s my recollection from the nineties, when we did make that drive through London several times.

Turns out that the last time we did this trip via Canada was 1998, and the last time we were in Canada at all was 2000, which is now 17 years ago, yeeks. Since then rules and regs have changed. Thus my question: is there anything I need to know?

Background: We are US citizens. We each have a passport, though our state has not gotten around to enhanced licenses yet. We will NOT be traveling with the dog (this has been the main reason for not driving through Canada recently; it seems like transporting pets across the border is a huge hassle). Neither of us is wanted by law enforcement for anything (as far as we know). Not that it matters, I suspect, but we will not be spending the night or anything in Canada as we plan to make the drive in a day.

How long a wait can we expect at the border crossings nowadays? (Most likely Peace Bridge and the Blue Water Bridge)

What are the regulations these days regarding bringing food (snacks, presents, lunch for later on) into Canada, or back into the US?

My wife takes lots of prescription medications. She sorts them each month into pill carriers–long boxes with a week’s supply. Would there be an issue with carrying these across the border in either direction?

Anything else I haven’t thought of?

Thanks. I tried looking some of this stuff up on official websites but found it confusing; would appreciate hearing from anyone who can make things a little clearer!

2

I haven’t used that border crossing so can’t help with that.

You can bring packaged food through without any questions. Fresh foods and veggies could be a problem.
Presents, normal stuff, no problem.
They will most likely ask you the purpose of your visit, (vacation). Do you have any firearms, (don’t). Where and for how long will you be staying.

I have brought my dogs with me before. While the dogs weren’t a particular hassle,( bring papers), it was the only time we had to get out of the car while they searched it.

I would forgo the pill box , just bring the original prescription bottles. I don’t think that they WILL cause a problem but, they certainly could, causing you needless delay.

3

Crossed there last summer. Things went fast (minutes), US customs stopped our car and asked “where you from/born/reason for entering/etc.” Brought packed food no fruit/veggies. No prob. Crossed back in Canada at 1000 islands border crossing thou. Things went even faster.

US customs guy gave off a “I’m-reading-your-every-gesture-bub” vibe. Canadian customs felt procedure and much less tense.

An interesting anecdote is that the US custom guy never once signalled the ending to our interview. Nor did he even say “alright, you can go.” He just handed our passports back and looked at us. We just (dumbly) looked back and said “um…is that it? …are we okay to go?” And he still said nothing…OoooooooooK.

I took the silence as tacit approval, said our thank yous, and drove on in.

4

Prescription drugs need to be in the original bottle when crossing international borders, as a rule.

(They are also sometimes picky about DUI convictions. But not always.)

5

Are you covered for health insurance for your time in Canada?

6

Border guards can be bribed* with Tim Horton’s coffee and/or maple syrup. :slight_smile:

I hope you enjoy your trip through Canada.

    • Do not try to bribe border guards.
7

Try the poutine

I actually love it.

8

If you have ever been convicted of anything, determine if it is a bar to your entering Canada. For example, if you had be convicted of misdemeanor dui many years ago, you would not be allowed in Canada until you had been deemed by Canada Border Security Agency to have been rehabilitated. Rehabilitation might be a simple as the officer filling out a form, or as complicated as you having to provide well in advance of your trip certified copies of your conviction, completion of the sentence, and an otherwise clean criminal record check.

If the conviction was for something that could have been prosecuted as an indictable offence had it taken place in Canada, then it bars you from entry. In general, American felony offences are often similar to Canadian indictable offences, and American misdemeanor offences are often similar to Canadian summary offences, but a person planning on entering Canada should never assume that a past misdemeanor conviction would necessarily equate with a summary offence.

For bringing food into Canada, here’s the definitive list of what you can and cannot bring: http://inspection.gc.ca/food/information-for-consumers/travellers/what-can-i-bring-into-canada-/eng/1389648337546/1389648516990 . Please note that what the USA permits you to bring from Canada into the USA is not necessarily the same, even if the item originated in the USA with you.

Usually crossing at Sarnia/Port Huron is free of delays: We couldn't find that Web page (Error 404) .

For both crossing into Canada and crossing back into the USA, any medications should be carried in their original packaging, including prescription labels.

I assume that you are not going to try to bring firearms into Canada, but if you are, there is some paperwork required first, and some firearms (handguns, automatics and some semi-automatics) are not allowed in, whereas single-shot, manual-repeating and some semi-automatic long guns usually are. It comes down to the specific gun, so check the regs well in advance, and also get your paperwork ready but don’t sign it until the CBSA officer asks you to. There are Canadian specific requirements on how firearms must be stored and transported. Remember that you will be importing guns into the USA when you re-enter the USA, so you will have to meet the American regulations as well.

(A note to American law enforcement officers: no, you can’t just bring your handgun into Canada, and don’t even think about not declaring it and hiding it in your vehicle. If the CBSA officer is in a good mood, the best that will happen is that you will be turned back a the border and your handgun will be couriered to your chief of police along with a polite letter. The worst is that you will be locked up on criminal charges, held without bail until your trial, and have your firearm confiscated in addition to whatever criminal penalty is applied.)

9

Crossing Sarnia to Port Huron should be very fast. Avoid the truck and NEXUS lanes.

I never had a problem with my dog; I cross the border with her all the time when I lived in Mississauga.

If, for some reason, the bridge is backed up when approaching Sarnia (say, out to km marker 3 or so), head south, then west to the river, and look for a town called Sombra. You can take the ferry across the river for a few bucks more, and then it’s a quick drive to I-94.

In fact, the ferry might be kind of fun even if the bridge isn’t backed up. It only works assuming you’re taking I-94 from Port Huron rather than I-69, though (e.g., to avoid the Detroit traffic).

10

Thanks for the responses thus far! Lots of great information.

–Nope, no firearms, or any kind of weapons.

–We checked about health insurance when we went to Ireland and the UK a few years back, and we’re covered pretty much anywhere. And a good thing too.

–No DWIs. No felony convictions, no misdemeanor convictions. Like Big Julie, but without the 33 arrests.

–Food–we’d probably just be safe and not bring anything in an opened container, and not much in that either. (I have had poutine. Not a fan. Cheese is not my bag. Cheese curds, no thanks.)

–I like the idea of the ferry across the river. My plan was to take I-69, but I suppose it doesn’t have to be that way. I do recall getting (surprisingly) stuck for a very long time at the Blue Water Bridge once; I expect it was a one-off kind of thing, but it’s useful to hear it isn;t common.

–The prescription meds question is an interesting one. Turns out we can’t either of us remember what she did when we were in Ireland/UK. It would have been a LOT of bottles, some of them very big, and on the whole she prefers not to travel with them. Hmm. Anyway, good to hear some opinions.

–There was some specific thing about the dog, and I’m trying to dredge up what it was. I want to say it had to do with the timing of a rabies shot–something about the shot needing to be more than a month old? Is that possible? I believe it applied only to returning to the US, not to entering Canada. --Anyway, the dog is not a nice dog to people she doesn’t know, barks at strangers, and hates men in uniform, so even if there were no particular legal issues it just doesn’t make a lot of sense to bring her across the border.

Thanks again. Other thoughts, I’d love to hear 'em.

11

Gas up your car before crossing into Canada. Gas prices are usually higher in Canada. You’ll see prices that look great - but they price it by the liter not the gallon.

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Unless they have some other reason for searching your car, the meds will almost certainly not be an issue. Does your pharmacy provide a printed summary of your prescription list, that you could bring in case there’s an issue? Such things are common in Canada. I suspect that would be sufficient for the Canadian border guards if it ever even comes up. Unless you have some sort of heavy duty narcotics, I suspect they’ll all be legal in Canada, as we seem to be more sensible than the US when it comes to drugs in general.

13

Good advice above, and for someone who rarely crosses the border it’s good to be informed about the main things you need to be aware of – for instance, at one time almost any reasonable ID was sufficient, but post-9/11 both sides require a passport. Though I might add that it’s possible to overthink it – there are thousands of people living very close to the border who are so accustomed to going back and forth between the US and Canada for trivia like shopping or just for dinner that it’s almost like the border wasn’t there at all. It’s even easier with a NEXUS card, but usually very routine even without one. But you definitely want to do things right because in the end, it is an international border crossing, albeit between two countries with a very close relationship.

Very tangentially related is this story I just saw about a house for sale, with the unusual attribute that half of it is in the US and half in Canada. There’s a cool picture of the couple that owns it standing in front of it. The wife is in Canada, the husband standing behind her is in the United States. Border agents familiar with the situation have it down to a routine, but it can get confusing for all when a new agent shows up for work! The town names mentioned sounded familiar, and IIRC the Haskell Free Library and Opera House mentioned in the article also straddles both countries. There is a tape line across the library’s hardwood floor marking the international boundary.

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Do you need a passport for driving across the border? I though birth certificate plus photo ID was still enough?

(Haven’t crossed by car in a long time.)

15

The rules keep getting more stringent; these appear to be the latest:

Short version: Assuming US and/or Canadian citizenship, you don’t need a passport to enter Canada by car, only government ID like a driver’s license plus proof of citizenship like a birth certificate. However the requirements to enter or re-enter the United States are more stringent – you do need a passport, passport card, NEXUS card, or enhanced driver’s license. Traveling by air you need a passport going in either direction. If not a US or Canadian citizen, an Electronic Travel Authorization and any applicable visa are also required.

16

Don’t believe everything that appears on government web sites. According to the Canadian immigration site, an immigrant doesn’t need an official immigration card to cross the border by land. Ours were expired by a couple days. The border guard says that the Border Patrol has its own rules and they did require them.

As for prescription drugs, I also use a pill organizer. A border guard could get sniffy about it, but only once was I ever asked, going into the US. And that guard believe that ALL importation of drugs from Canada into US was illegal. This was on a train and I heard him explain this to the guy in the next seat, so when he asked me about drugs, I lied.

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As far as Canadians trying to cross into the USA by car without a passport/NEXIS/EDL etc., yes, the USCBP has discretionary authority to let you in on a birth certificate and photo-driver’s licence, but don’t ever count on it being let in. If you are in their database as having made crossings in the same vehicle, live in a nearby community, and have a reasonable excuse for not having the preferred ID (for example, you’re waiting on a renewal) then you’ll probably get through (or at least that’s how it usually works where I live at the western end of Lake Superior). The smart money is on getting a passport/NEXIS/EDL.

For a while, Americans trying to cross into Canada without a passport/NEXIS/EDL etc. were being turned back by CBSA to the USA without being permitted to enter Canada because USCBP was frequently turning back Americans who had been admitted into Canada but did not have a passport/NECIS/ECL etc. for easy re-entry to the USA. These days Americans have lightened up when it comes to re-admitting their own citizens – proof of citizenship along with a photo driver’s licence is usually enough to get an American back into the USA following secondary inspection. A lot of it comes down to embuggerance factor: the tighter the USCBP is on re-admitting Americans, the more reluctant the CBSA is to let Americans into Canada in the first place without a Western Travel Initiative level document.

There is a unique and wonderful way for Americans and Canadians to cross-over into each other’s countries without having to first deal with the CBSA or USCBP: canoe along the border between western Lake Superior and the Lake of the Woods, where the Webster-Ashburton Treaty permits citizens of both countries to portage on both sides of the border without further adieu, albeit they are not permitted to stop to fish, or eat lunch, or stray from the portages (and must report to CBSA/USCBP upon return from their excursion). As a bonus, you can go topless on the Canadian side, although the little black flies might persuade you otherwise.

18

“I’ll die with the black fly a-picking at my bones
In North Ontar-i-o, i-o,
In north Ontario…”

Well, there’s always winter.

Just to clarify–the prescription drug issue is not about the actual medications, which shouldn’t ping anybody’s uh-oh meter on either side of the border, but the wisdom of crossing with a pill organizer rather than 19 or so bottles. It’s been interesting to read the responses. We are staid and boring-looking people who don;t fit anyone’s steretype of DRUG SMUGGLERS and so it’s quite possible that no one will even bother to ask. Neither of us can recall anyone asking when we flew in and out of Europe, so…

we’ll see!

–I did remember about gas prices being higher, thanks for the reminder Little Nemo!

19

Topless nudity for women has been legal in New York since 1986.

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For 14, 15 years now.