Yeah, that’s pretty much it. Remember that Ahmed Ressam was caught because the Customs inspector noticed that he was acting “hinky”.
They’re customs agents. They ain’t paid to be nice to you. For me, England has always had the toughest customs. Back in '96, when I was traveling on a work-student visa, entering in and out of the UK was always a minor hassle, and I was exposed to the same questions as you. We were also told to keep our financial papers on hand (proof that we had enough money for a visit). I actually was never asked for them, but other student travelers were.
When I came back from Hungary in '98 on my first trip back home after having moved out there, I was asked at O’Hare (I have an American passport and I lived most my life in Chicago): Why I was here. Why I was there (Hungary). How long have I lived there? How long have I lived here? What I did there. What degree did I have? Where did I go to school? When did I graduate? What’s my school’s mascot? Do I have any of the following: (list of food items). Brief pause, answer. “A ha! You paused there, why?” “Because I have a couple extra bottle of wine, and wasn’t sure if your list included those.” Etc…
All, in all, the man was actually very pleasant and wished me a merry Christmas and “welcome back!” at the end.
At any rate, better than my experience with the customs agents in Moscow that took us into the windowless back room… (OK, it wasn’t that sinister, but it did worry me slightly.)
don’t know.
maybe they weren’t really canadian, but from some other country and just coming in through canada.
That would make sense.
A friend of mine who’s an Australian customs officer working at Sydney airport says that they often run a sweep at work on how soon on any given day they’ll get a smartarse traveller (generally English or American) spouting the “I didn’t know that was still a requirement” line in a tone suggesting it was somehow original and humorous.
Ugh, my condolences. My boyfriend and I used to have the very same problem, and there were several times where he felt like he’d just barely made it across the border. My advice, for what it’s worth, is that if you and your boyfriend DO have a plan for how you’re eventually going to be together legally… tell them! If they know that he’s planning to come up to Canada for grad school, or will qualify for immigration on points soon, or that you’re going to get married if things work out and deal with it that way, they’re probably less likely to think that you’re going to stay illegally.
The problem is that the plan isn’t really all that clear yet. I’m writing an exam to qualify me as a medical technologist in the States, and then I’ll try to find an employer in my boyfriend’s area who’ll sponsor me for a work visa. I think that if I told the customs guy that I have these semi-amorphous plans that depend halfway on luck, it’ll make things worse. My mentality on this sort of thing is that the less I tell them, the better. I mean, I’ll answer their questions honestly, but I’ll never volunteer anything extra, just in case they decide to take it the wrong way or something.
Speaking of married, one time they asked “you’re not going to get married on this trip, are you?” I couldn’t help myself - I laughed and said “God, I hope not!” The guy took it well, smiling and handing me back my passport.
But damn, cross-border relationships are a bitch.
Question: When they swipe my passport, are they seeing a record of my travels? Do they see that I go there every couple of months and that’s why they’re being so inquisitive?
Right after my husband and I were engaged we decided to go to Victoria BC for a long weekend. We used the Blackball ferry from Port Angeles WA as walk ons. we had one bag between us. We just didn’t need that many cloths for three days.
We were happy and excited to be getting away. When the agent asked why were were going to Canada, my husband said “to spend money” and laughed. That, for whatever reason, raised a flag for that agent who passed us on to another agent who grilled us in a little room for two hours, and tore our bag apart, dropping my underwear on the floor, and walking on it, by accident, sure, but no apology.
After two hours and 40 million questions, he “allowed” us to repack our bag and sent us on our way.
That was eight years ago and we haven’t been back since, and as far as I’m concerned never will. It was rude and uncalled for.
We just hadn’t heard about the “salmon wars” between Washington and Canadian fishermen. When we got home there was an article in the local paper about the increase in reports of harrassment by border agents due to the disagreement.
I don’t even LIKE salmon!
Exactly. My story from a recent return from a cruise:
CUSTOMS AGENT: Where did you travel to?
ME: Costa Rica, Aruba, Panama, etc.
WIFE TO ME: Relax, don’t tell him anything.
ME: Shhhh.
CUSTOMS AGENT: What do you do for a living?
ME: Sales, was in the Marines before that.
WIFE TO ME: Why does he want to know that? Where did you put it?
CUSTOMS AGENT: Put what?
ME: The colognes and perfumes. Dirty look to my wife.
CUSTOMS AGENT: Who’s three boxes of Cuban cigars are these?
ME: Mine, why? Are they illegal?
I think they sometimes talk just to see your reaction, and how you answer your questions. Remind me to tell my wife to shut up next time.
I believe that, yes, they can see all of your entry and exits from the US and any notes recorded from those visits. If you are red flagged (happened to a Canadian friend who failed to declare an Oriental rug which turned out to be Iranian) they know as soon as they swipe your passport and they look at you much more closely.
I think the agents in the U.S., in addition to keeping a watchful eye for suspicious people also just do random checks on certain people.
Whenever I’ve gone to Canada, the agents would just ask why you were coming over and how long you expected to stay. Pretty simple.
Coming back is a little harrowing. On one excursion three of my friends and I decided, after seeing a Detroit Tigers game, to hop over to Windsor and hit the casino for a couple of hours. We told the Canadian border guard exactly that and he wished us luck. Coming back, of course, there’s the interminable line(s). We sat in line afor about 30 minutes. An agent strolled up to our car as we were waiting an peeked in. He was friendly but I suspected his interaction was very deliberate and he was watching us very closely. He asked to see all of our I.D.'s then asked what we did in Canada, I told him we saw the Tigers and decided to do some gambling. He started asking me about the game. I told him they won, and hey what a great double play that was in the fourth inning, yada yada. We were all being silly and groaning about how none of us hit it big at the casino and I told him I stopped after being up a whopping $35 at the blackjack table. All the while, this guy’s eyes were darting back and forth between the four of us, while he smiled like he was your big brother. Finally, he told us to have a good day and motioned to the guard in the booth that we were good to let pass.
I had less of an issue coming back to the States while I was leaning out of the car vomitting from a hangover all during our slow crawl through the line. Maybe that’s the key right there. Just puke up a storm and they’ll leave you alone.
We had a great experience with Aruban Customs & Immigration a few weeks ago. We travel light when we are hitting warm-weather destinations, so each of us had a backpack, and that’s it. We were the first people from our plane to hit Passport Control at Queen Beatrix Airport, and we handed the guy our US passports.
“Good afternoon.” Swipe swipe, stamp stamp. “Welcome to Aruba!”
That was it- a twenty-second event at best. Wow. Efficient AND friendly? Go figure.
Then we got to Customs. There were two Customs agents and a couple of guys with full-auto weapons. A couple of people from the last plane were having their stuff opened and looked at when we walked up. Our Customs guy looked at us and said “Luggage?” We answered “Just the backpacks.” “Really? That’s it? Go ahead, and welcome to Aruba!” And we walked right through. Didn’t look at us twice. We actually hesitated a bit and asked him to repeat what he had said! We couldn’t believe that we were walking right in.
I love Aruba.
My Amusing Customs Anecdotes:
Boulougne-Sur-Mer, France, 1996. Mum and I had just gotten off the Ferry from Folkestone, and were following the sign that set “Douane et Sortie” (Immigration and Exit), along with everyone else on the Ferry.
Passport Control at the Boulougne Ferry Terminal consisted of the most bored gendarme I have ever seen, standing at a small podium and barely looking at anyone as we filed past- I wouldn’t at all be surprised to discover he was reading L’Express or Le Figaro.
Anyway, a few seconds later, Mum and I find ourselves outside in Boulougne- ie, in France- and stand there looking at each other saying “Was that Customs?”. Turned out that yes, it was Customs, and the French really didn’t seem to care who came into our out of La Belle France.
Channel Tunnel, UK, 1998 (First trip). Dad and I were on a bus about to board Le Shuttle for a trip to Calais via the Channel Tunnel. The UK Immigration people stamped our Passports, and then about 10m down the road the French Immigration officer boarded the bus. He glanced- and I do mean glanced- at the covers of our passports, and waved us on with a typically Gallic handwave. Once again, the impression is that as long as you have A Passport- could be anyone’s, really- the French Immigration Service really don’t care.
(Second Trip) Mum, Dad, my brother, and I are all on a bus doing the same trip to Calais some 3 months later. Bus Driver pulls up outside the French Customs Booth and says “Everyone on board is English, Guv” to which the French Immigration Officer just nods and waves the bus through- even though the bus was chock-full of people on Non-EU passports! :eek:
My brother and Mum were annoyed because they didn’t get the Channel Tunnel passport stamp out of it, either. 
The funny thing was that HM Customs & Excise wanted to give everyone who looked “Foreign” the 3rd Degree, but all three times I came back the formalities consisted of
“Been to France, then Sir?”
“Indeed I have. Nice to be back in the UK, though!”
“Right you are, Sir. Have a nice day. NEXT!”
I imagine it’s changed a bit now, though…
Question… what sort of visa are you entering under? If it’s just a tourist visa then none of these bullshit questions makes sense. Sure, if you’re entering under a student visa, let’s see that you’re in a valid program. If you’re entering under a work visa, let’s make sure you’re still employed. If you’re entering under a fiance visa, let’s make sure the guy exists and that we know where he lives.
But this kind of grilling on a tourist visa? It makes no sense to me, unless they’re trying to pre-emptively catch people at risk of improperly changing their immigration status. I guess this does happen a lot… people enter on a tourist visa, get a job, get married, or enroll in school, overstay the tourist visa, leave the country, try to re-enter and get shot down… then it’s 12 hours of “whaaaaaaa… you can’t turn me away, I’m in school/have a job/just got married and just spent 12 hours and $2000 on air travel to get here”. Then it turns into a huge ugly headache for everybody. So I guess I can see how they’d want to avoid these misunderstandings up front.
I got popped for DWI a little over 3 years ago. I understnd that pretty much puts to kibosh on me travelling to Canada, but in what other countries (esp. European) is this likely to be a problem?
Dear God, yes. Reminds me of an exchange I had at airport security on 9/21/2001:
TSA AGENT: Do you have any weapons, lighters, fingernail clippers?
ME: No.
My wife: Yes he does! He has a lighter!
TSA AGENT: Please empty your bag, sir.
EPILOGUE: I didn’t even have a lighter.
Canadians don’t need a visa to enter the United States, and vice versa. Canada is part of the US’s Visa Waiver Program.
What timing. I am crossing the Canadian border tonight around 11:00 pm-midnight. I’ll be in a large group with roughly $ 1/2 Mil in video, audio, musical and computer gear with us. Everything is documented very well, and I have no concerns. We’re all set with work permits, etc.
Okay. I do have small worries, but not big worries. I have MUCH bigger worries about the fact that I am driving into Canada but flying out of Canada a week or so hence. I suspect that will not make the US Customs people happy but I’m not sure why I feel this way.
Being the paranoid guy I am, my gear is being trucked back into the U.S. when we wrap and sent by Federal Express back to me.
Don’t need one to visit the States. Once I start down my path of entering the states for good (or at least long-term) nice and legally, I’ll need a visa for sure, but till then… just a passport.
Telemark - I don’t think I’ve been flagged for anything. The most I’ve ever brought back with me was a Hershey bar!
I dunno, maybe I just look dangerous.
Geez, if it’s this bad now, how horrible must it be to move across the border with a U-Haul full of crap?