By “exit customs” I mean a person would need to be cleared on the US side by US Customs just to leave the US. Back when I used to go to Canada, no evidence of this existed. And even if they were checking license plates, if I were travelling as a passenger with someone else no way US Customs could know.
Not generally for individuals. But don’t try to export a load of guns for Syria. But they could at any time institute a regime of examining people departing. Most places I have been to do; US and Canada being the main exceptions. At least a passport control is generally part of the exit process. Come to think of it, the one time I went to Mexico (but only by foot to Tijuana) there was no exit control (or entrance to Mexico, for that matter) although the US entrance examination was fairly elaborate.
I have never seen any such thing as “Exit customs” for human beings in either the U.S. or Canada, and I’ve entered and exited both countries from many locations on scores of occasions.
To be honest, as a Canadian, I was not even aware such a thing as “Exit customs” existed.
Why would the U.S. need such a thing?
Read Hari Seldon’s post. Outside the US and Canada exit customs is common. My guess is the US has decided as a matter of policy this really isn’t much of an issue. Only time it is concerning things like sending a boatload of weapons to Syria. But unlike with individuals, hard to slip a big boat of guns out of the US discreetly.
Please elaborate on this. While only claiming a low-to-middling rating on the ‘well-travelled’ board, I’ve never encounted any attention that wasn’t from the country I was entering.
I went by friend’s car from US to Canada - the customs person looked at my large wrapped up paintings, asked what they were and how much they were worth going into US and exiting Canada.
While US citizens leaving the country are generally not subject to any sort of document check, foreign citizens here on a visa when returning to their home country ARE required to document their exit from the US. This requirement was very laxly enforced in the past, and it was basically impossible to know if a visa holder was still in the country when his/her visa expired. This became an issue when it came out that several of the 9-11 hijackers had overstayed their visas.
Customs has been implementing a new electronic system that will require any departing visa holders to check in with Customs at their airport/seaport/land crossing to verify their identity at exit. More info available about US VISIT.
This is mostly to protect foreign visitors in case they return to the US. No question if you overstayed on your last visit. Although I wonder how this will universally work? Imagine a Canada enters the US and the Detroit/Windsor crossing. What if the return to Canada in the vast Western land border that is unguarded? No Customs office to check out at (or, to check in at on the Canadian side.) There’s a huge amount of US/Canadian border where folks can literally waltz across it unnoticed. Is the US gonna build a huge wall a la Berlin with armed guards over 1,000 miles long? I missed that news report.
And the US will have to check papers in the future of everyone entering from Canada. Years ago, they typically didn’t.
You don’t even need to worry about the land border to screw up the visa system. I’ve got a friend who flew back to Britain from Toronto via JFK in the summer - and several months later realised that in the rush to make the connection, they forgot to do anything about her visa and the documents were still in her passport.
Back when I used to commute to Latin America, I got stopped once or twice. They were looking for large sums of cash.
You know, a lot of what I do not like about government springs from the War on Drugs. (Sigh)
Is this really true? My understanding is that it is totally illegal to enter the US without reporting to customs. It is illegal to cross at an unguarded border point.
Case in point: Some while ago, as a result of a resurvey, a small piece of a French-Canadian town was moved from Quebec to Maine. The main industry in the town immediately became cigarrette and gasoline smuggling. Since there was no road connection to any other part of the US, bonded trucks would drive from VT or NH to QC and cross this border to deliver loads of cigarettes and gasoline on the US side of the line. This went on pretty much unnoticed by the authorities until one day some poor schlub crossed 50 feet into the US to buy gas and was arrested for crossing without reporting, the sort of thing everyone in the town had done ever since the border shift. The thing is that they searched his car and found a hunting rifle (or maybe shotgun, some hunting weapon) in the trunk. They held him in prison for 45 days and then deported him and made him unable to enter the US ever again.
Had I been running the Canadian govt, I would have had them arrest the US border guard for carrying a weapon without a licence the first time he crossed the border and then offerred a prisoner exchange. He had to cross the border unless he was able to survive on cigarettes and gasoline. He could have left his gun home, but I know these guys; they would sooner leave their pants off.
True. It is illegal to enter without at least a nod at customs.
It happens all the time, though.
Some of it is malicious, but sometimes it’s purely accidental. On the Great Lakes one can cross the international border and not realize it, storms can wash you up on the “wrong” shore, and so forth. Happens all the time. If it’s folks in distress they’re usually sent home with a stern warning to be more careful next time. If it’s smuggling, well, that has penalities.
Along the land border there are wilderness areas where, again, a lost hiker could easily stray over the border without realizing it.
Small private aircraft can basically cross wherever they want to, but you are required to file an “air defense” flight plan and land at an airport with customs as your first stop.
I don’t know what the rules on boats are, but I expect some similarity.