I’ve been to Canada a few times. All I’ve needed was a driver’s license. Once they didn’t even check that (I was a passenger in a friend’s car).
I have this fantasy about crossing the border: I’m wearing sun glasses. The border guard asks me to remove them… and I’m wearing mirrored full-coverage contact lenses.
While I have had no problems (yet) crossing the border either way, a friend was detained for about 45 minutes. He had been arrested for DUI. Yes, you can be denied entry if you have a DUI. They let my friend in because he was not convicted. They earlier denied my friend entry on his second trip to Canada. He had planned to move there and rented a house, but he’d neglected to get immigration squared away before he moved. There he was with a Ryder truck, a girlfriend, a car and his dog; they’d moved out of their home on the east coast and the only place they had to live was the rented house in B.C. Oops.
jab1, I know you don’t have to worry about this, but for anyone else: Don’t try to get across the border if your’re carrying firearms. In either direction. Also, don’t try to bring back any Cuban cigars. Thanks to a small voting bloc in the southeast, we’re still mad at Cuba and it’s illegal to buy Cuban products. (I’m not clear if it’s illegal, under U.S. law, for a U.S. citizen to smoke a Cuban cigar in another country.)
My experience, you don’t need a passport to drive into Canada. They ask you where you are from and log it into the computer. I don’t even remember if they ask for a DL.
Driving back, they ask you for your driver’s license. I believe they do a check with the state DMV to make sure you are who you say you are. Once during a really crowded day at the border they let me drive through without asking for my DL at all.
I believe the customs agents have a lot of training in spotting people who are illegals etc. They caught the guy in Port Angeles, WA with the explosives because he had sweaty hands or something.
The airlines are required by law not to allow people to board international flights without the documentation they’ll need to enter the foreign country. As they were presumably booking you through for your entire journey, the Albany-Pittsburg lane would count as an “international flight” for this purpose.
I’d like to remind everyone who might be confused by all this anecdotal evidence that there is a difference between what documentation you are required to have and what documentation you may be required to present. In most cases, as we’ve seen, US and (especially) Canadian immigration are a bit lax in checking paperwork at the land borders - I’ve crossed the border a dozen times and never had to show anything. But the laws of both countries do require proof of citizenship or permanent residence - and if you can’t produce it in the rare cases it is demanded, tough shit for you.
wooba, I don’t recall what the pre-NAFTA rules were exactly, but I believe the paperwork requirement kicked in with a certain depth of penetration. I’ve visited border towns like Juarez and Matamoros with no interaction with officialdom.
But our field trip was going into the interior and, IIRC, that required the visa. I suppose I could have walked across, kept my quarter, and gone on with the trip and just hoped that I didn’t talk to a cop while deep in Mexico. Apparently Dooku encountered immigration officials.
Voter’s Registrations, while they do provide proof of citizenship, aren’t the best form of documentation to use. After all, would you be able to recognize a voter’s card from the Mexican state of Chihuahua?
Using a Voter’s Registration will probably suffice, but don’t be surprised if you get hassled if that’s all you have.
I had driven back and forth across the Canadian border several times in my life, with no hassles, not even any ID checks. They pretty much waved us through.
Until in 1986 I married my wife who is from India and drove to Canada with her. The Niagara Falls Canadian border guard ordered her out of the car because she had an Indian passport. They took her into the building and tried to deny her entry. It took a half hour before we persuaded them that she was legit.
On the way back into New York at Niagara Falls, we had some African-American friends riding with us. The U.S. border guard was convinced that a multiracial group could only be up to no good. They harrassed us and accused us of being drug smugglers.
Goddamned scum sucking fascistic racist asswipes. They can suck my dick!
Just got a passport myself, you need an original birth certificate (find the website of your state of birth & order from them, about $17 & one week). $60, in two money orders, one for $45 & one for $15. drivers license. You got to wait 6 weeks & the blasted thing last for 5 years or 10 if you want to pay more. You don’t get your birth certificate back until your passport comes.
What cares if they need one for Canada or not since they are fun to have.
Amazing. Handy first posts the link to the correct information and them immediately after it, in the very same posting, puts incorrect “information.”
From the site to which handy linked:
Also:
Also:
And, finally:
There’s nothing about “want to pay more” in there, handy. The length of validity of the passport is based on the age of the applicant when the passport is issued.
And, yes, I was actually a Passport Agent when I was on Active Duty in the US Navy - and even got trained in that stuff by the State Department.
“There’s nothing about “want to pay more” in there, handy.”
Well, it was a reasonable assumption. If you want something longer, it costs more You’re right though, maybe I should have asked the passport agency. It was part of the post office in Monterey.
But youll agree you can get it shorter than 6 weeks if you pay more, right?
Yes, you can pay more: $75. And it only took one week - but I live in Chicago and have a passport agency at my disposal downtown.
IMHO - if you’re going to Canada, get a passport. It just makes life easier. You can get in to Canada without so much as a student ID, but getting back into the USA can be a problem if the border guard is a dick.
Oh, and one more thing, jab1: if you’re NOT WHITE, GET A PASSPORT. I’m Asian, and every time I’ve been to Canada, coming back into the US side has been a hasle. Have a passport. I’m told that border guards will stop lots of minorities and give them a hard time (one time I was in a car with 3 other people…all white - and I was the only person that they asked for a passport).
When you’re not in America, there’s things you take for granted…like the power to sue people for violating your civil rights
We adopted our son in Jamaica and - granted there are those who deny there is such a thing as “race” but somehow “La Migra” seems to always notice his lack of resemblance to me when we re-enter the US from Mexico. When he was about six, the Immigration guy asked me who he was. I said, “He’s my son” and so - to test this - the guy pokes his head in the car window and asks him, “What do you call her?” (pointing to me). My son, thinking this was the right answer, says, “Jill!” I had to say “No, dammit, you call me Mommy!” This is why we always carry passports.
ruadh, a rún, my wife had her Green Card with her, of course. As handy and Monty demonstrated, a Green Card is (supposed to be) sufficient. They were accusing her of not being really married to me just because I’m American and she’s Indian. The idiots. Reminds me of Gandhi saying: “According to them, our wives are all whores and our children are all bastards.”
As mellonhead’s post corroborates, those border Nazis are evil racist assholes. On both the Canadian and U.S. sides.
suziek, would you care to elaborate a bit? As a foreign visitor, you wouldn’t have a guaranteed right to enter or stay in Canada, but once you’re in the county, our laws apply equally regardless of citizenship.
For example, foreign visitors in Canada (even those in Canada illegally) have equal access to the rights guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. A foreigner who is under investigation for a potential crime committed in Canada, or actually charged, would have the full benefit of our constitutional protections, would face only the same penalties as a Canadian convicted of the same offence, and so on.
mellonhead, that’s true, but the opposite is also the case: you shouldn’t assume that the foreign country doesn’t provide the same sorts of legal protections. If the federal customs discriminate on the basis of race, there are potential remedies under the Canadian Human Rights Actand under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
No. That’s why I actually posted the full information. Read it.
Oh, please. Call or write to the Civil Registrar (or whatever that position’s called) in the jurisdiction you were born. If you need help with that: http://www.vitalchek.com
Uh, thanks, Monty, for giving me the link to Vital Chek.
When I said, “I can’t find my birth certificate,” I meant I can’t find it at home. Why would I spend even $10 and wait two weeks or more to get something I already have? I’m going to have to do just that, though.
Now watch me find my birth certificate at home after I order the replacement!
Maybe this’ll help: Some good reasons to fork over the geld.
You don’t give up the only copy you have of the certificate.
You’ll have a just printed and legible copy of the certificate.
and
Chances are the certificate you have at home is the “hosptial certificate” which is damn near worthless. Well, it is suitable for framing.
Go ahead and purchase two new certificates. Oh, and if you’re getting the thing because you need a passport to travel in connection with your job, some employers actually pay for the costs incurred to get the passport and/or visa.
You’re right though, maybe I should have asked the passport agency. It was part of the post office in Monterey.