Back when I used to live in Plattsburgh, NY, I used to hang out once in a while in Montreal. Good times, good people, and I got to practice my French. Since 2001, though, I’ve been avoiding it, as I’ve heard horror stories about getting back through customs without a passport (and I refuse to go through the rigamarole to get one to visit somewhere a half-hour’s drive away).
Week after next, I’m headed back to Plattsburgh for my annual visit, and since I have a week, I thought it’d be nice to visit Montreal again. So, those Dopers with personal experience…how hard is it really to get back into the U.S. without a passport, assuming I have my driver’s license, birth certificate, and Social Security card?
And, as a follow-up…if I’m not looking at a five-hour delay by the prestigious American Anti-Canadian Terrorism Unit (successfully preventing Canuck terror attacks since, well, forever apparently)…Montreal Dopers, veut-quelqu’un me joindre pour une bière?
I haven’t gone to Canada in a while. Hey, it’s four miles away, gimme a break! But I did cross the truck route in Blaine, WA Friday. They’ve been doing construction for a while, and traffic was backed up onto the freeway.
As for the passport thing, I always carry mine when I go to Canada. Except this one time…
(This was two years ago, so the new rules didn’t apply.) I was going to the post office in Blaine. Normally I take the back roads, but this time I went on the freeway. I was thinking about one thing or another, and I missed the last U.S. exit. I turned around before I got to Candian Customs, but the turnabout was after the U.S. station. So there I am ‘getting back into the U.S.’ with only a driver’s license. I explained to the U.S. Customs girl (who was pretty cute, BTW) what happened. She asked how long I’d lived here and I told her. She said, ‘If you were me and someone told you a story like that, would you believe him?’ I told her that I just wasn’t paying attention to the exits and missed mine. What else could I say? She let me in.
On the other hand, some border guards can be real hard-asses and will hassle you even if you do have your passport.
It’s not a problem if you’re from around here, or look like it, and you’re not doing anything controversial or ‘subversive’. I have an acquaintance who is a European citizen, but he was born in Iran, and he had all kinds of difficulty getting into the States. Another friend was going to an Esperanto conference in New York, and was detained for three hours.
On the other hand, I’ve crossed the border for Esperanto events without problem.
Mind you, I haven’t crossed the border since… 2002, I think. So it’s probably different now.
Not a holiday, probably a weekday, and the time doesn’t matter…it’s a quick drive, so we can pop up whenever it’s convenient.
True, there are assholes everywhere. When I was 12, my grandfather and I got held up for an hour on our way back from an Expos game. Few things more threatening than a kid and his grandpa decked out in Mets clothes with a souvenir baseball bat in the backseat, y’know?
On my way back from Plattsburgh a couple years ago, I got pulled over by a particularly vigilant AACTU member just north of Lake George, whose plan to uncover my secret agenda was to ask me whether I was a U.S. citizen, where I was coming from, and how far away from this spot that was. With a “yes”, “Plattsburgh” and “about 100 miles”, I was on my way, and the world was a safer place.
I’m a Canuck who hasn’t updated his photo ID in almost twenty years, never mind applying for a passport. I have never been personally held up at the U.S. border. The only hassles I’ve had are long waits related to traffic volume (long weekend, etc)
If you have valid U.S. identification, I very much doubt you’ll run into any extraordinary difficulty, unless you look like trouble and take absolutely no steps to correct it.
One of my rules-of-thumb is go for the queue with the attractive official. They’re so bored of flattery and chest-staring, on top of the normal arrogant businessmen, that a genuine smile and good morning goes a long way. (Best quote, finally getting through JFK at 2AM after a major winter storm: “hey, we want to get out of here as much as you do”.)
It was a two hour wait earlier this summer going from Quebec into Vermont. The process itself only lasted 30 seconds or so with 4 of us in the car.
Why don’t you just get a passport? They are good for ten years and useful for all kinds of things only one of which is sudden international travel. I never understood this mentality. Even starting a new job or applying for anything official that requires definitive proof of identity is much easier with a passport. You just hand them your passport and nothing else and it is done. It is complete proof of identity by itself for almost everything.
I’ve been to Canada from NYS twice this year, once crossing in the Thousand Islands, and the other time crossing at the Canada-Vermont border (mostly because I missed the turn-off for Plattsburgh.) All the border folk, on both Canadian and US sides, were pleasant, friendly. Thousand Islands crossing was quick, no delays. There was a two hour wait crossing into Vermont, but if you have something to read, or a friend to talk with, so what?
It’s a pain in the ass, and takes longer than I have unless I pay some ridiculous amount to have it expedited. I do plan on getting one at some point next year.
Precisely. I don’t care about the in-car wait time, I just don’t want to be backroomed by some overzealous customs agent. From what I’m getting from this thread, it sounds like that shouldn’t be an issue.
It’s mildly annoying in Bumfuck, Montana, simply because you have to be really really sure when all of the Ports of Entry close for the night. That means if you take a day trip you might have to go pretty far out of your way to get back into America because the PoE you used to come to Canada has closed and isn’t reopening until 0-dark-hundred tomorrow. Hotels near the border love this arrangement, by the way.
