Favorite and least favorite US- Canada Border Crossings

[roadman65]

I was always wondering, which border control crossings between the US and Canada have anybody experienced good things or bad experiences either on our side or the Canadian side.

I once went through the Detroit- Windsor Tunnel heading back into the US and was hassled by our own customs.   This was back in 95 way before 9/11.  Because I was traveling alone, had not shaved in days, and was from Florida, the inspector did a check on my license before I  could continue. 

He made me pull over and park the car, and then go inside the facility to retrieve it.  When I went into the building, there was a desk and when I asked the inspector behind it what was up, he asked me "Well what did you do wrong?"  I told him, nothing and I wanted my drivers license back.  Two minuets later, I was handed it back and free to go, with no explanation.

One year later I went across the Bluewater Bridge at Port Huron.  The US Customs Officer let me through with only a few questions and I was alone and with my Florida tags and this time clean shaven.

Into Canada, I used the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara Falls and was asked a series of questions and one was " You live in Florida, that means guns, do you have one on you?" That was in my 95 trip.  I was then let in to Canada after all of this.


In 1996 I entered Canada at the Peace Bridge and had no problems.  No prejudicial remarks about us Floridians owning guns at all.
However, I have found Georgia Police to be skeptical of Floridians to have guns on them when traveling, even in Charlton County next to Nassau County, FL.  I guess its cause I had a rented vehicle with Dade County tags (Florida uses county names on general plates) and if I had Duval, Nassau, Baker, or any border county I would be a fellow redneck and not be prejudiced against.

Which are your favorites and which are the ones that you hate?  Which crossings should we use and which ones to avoid?
A chance to talk about your experiences.

[corco]

My crossings-

I've used I-5/BC 99 probably the most in various situations (by myself, with friends, with family), and I've never had any hassle at that crossing. I've used WA-543/BC-15 heading back into the USA with friends, and no hassle there.

I've crossed WA-9/BC-11 by into the US by myself once in a Jeep Wrangler. The guy just opened my trunk and looked under the car real quick, but otherwise no hassle.

Didn't have any trouble with friends crossing into Canada at I-94/ON 403.

I've only had trouble twice. Once was on A-55/I-91 crossing into Vermont at 2 AM in 2007 with some friends. We were all 18 and had planned on getting drunk in Quebec on our way from Idaho to New Hampshire, but we didn't get to Quebec until too late (we started in Milwaukee and stopped in South Bend for a while) and decided to just keep pressing on to New Hampshire. We hadn't showered or shaven in a while, and we just looked kind of sketchy. They made us get out of the car and stand with them and we watched as they searched our trunk and coolers for beer, the whole time saying "If you just tell us where it is your life will be a lot easier." We were exhausted and pretty calm because of it, and when they opened up a cooler full of Wisconsin root beer they cracked a joke and sent us on our way.

The other time was in late 2008, crossing from Washington into BC on SR 539. I was with two friends and had drank a lot the night before so was pretty dehydrated so I was shaking like a motherfucker. I was driving and my shakiness when handing over the passports got us pulled over for secondary. They searched the car, brought us in, had us empty out our pockets. The guy asked me why I was shaking so much (at this point I was hungover and scared so I was really shaking) and my friend said "He's just a shaky guy." The officer responded with "Is he a shaky guy or a shady guy?" Again, they told us just to tell us where the drugs are and we'd be OK. Eventually they let us go.

[agentsteel53]

Grand Marais, MN was a bear last time.  they held me for an hour and a half, and we had some exchanges of this sort:

"why are you unable to sit still?"
"I haven't eaten in a while, and I also need to use the restroom."
[writes something down, ostensibly "hasn't eaten in a while; needs to use restroom"]

[J N Winkler]

I haven't really had trouble crossing the Canadian border in any direction, aside from a couple of crossings at the Peace Arch in 1991 where I felt the wait was excessively long in both directions.  I have since religiously avoided the Peace Arch, once driving all the way from the Fraser Valley suburbs of Vancouver to Osoyoos to use the Osoyoos-Oroville border crossing (US 97), and then crossing back to the rainy side of the Cascades via SR 20.  Nowadays there are VMS signs, websites, and smartphone apps which give the wait times at various border crossings, so it is much easier to time your arrival at a given crossing on the US-Canadian border to minimize wait time.

I have never been selected for secondary inspection.

The Mexican border is, by comparison, much harder to deal with.  Infrastructural provision for limiting wait time is much less generous (you get websites but not VMS signs), and the requirement to return a temporary vehicle importation permit on final exit from Mexico additionally constrains the crossing points that can be used.

[1995hoo]

Never had any problems anywhere other than having to wait on line. Had to wait a really long time in Portland after we exited the Cat Ferry from Nova Scotia, simply because the facility was too small for the amount of traffic. The Customs inspector was either an idiot or trying to be funny when he looked at our list of stuff to declare because he wanted to know what "golf rainwear" is. I responded honestly: "You know, rain pants and rain jackets to wear when we're playing golf and it starts raining, like it did last week on Cape Breton Island. We each bought a pair of rain pants and a rain jacket with the golf course's logo." Seemed to satisfy him.

Crossing back to the USA at the Thousand Islands Bridge in January 2006 the first thing out of the inspector's mouth was "What does your license plate mean?" When I told him it was a reference to flying at Mach 2 he became more interested in that and we talked about airplanes for a few minutes before he sent us on our way.

Sometimes I think they just come up with random questions to see how you answer so they can decide whether you're being evasive.

Funny thing, the only Canadian stamp in my passport is from the ferry terminal in Yarmouth. None of the others have ever stamped it, even at the cruise ship terminal in Vancouver. All my US stamps are from airports (never gotten a stamp when driving), but the weird thing is that the border preclearance station at the airport in Vancouver did not stamp it. I wonder how they decide whether to give you a stamp.

[J N Winkler]

Sometimes I think they just come up with random questions to see how you answer so they can decide whether you're being evasive.

Yes, they do.  Since I am deaf, I always ask them to write down such questions because I want the audit trail (I don't want to get jammed up as a result of their asking me one question, my misunderstanding it, and then answering a completely different question).  Usually they don't bother.  The one time an immigration inspector did, he wanted to know how long I had been outside the United States.  I did a quick mental calculation and finally wrote down, "About ten months."  That was it.

In my decade-plus of attempting to lipread mumbly immigration officers, I have had the suspicion that they read out loud the name on the passport.  I wonder if they do this on the assumption that a person travelling under a false passport will not react the same way to the alias name that an ordinary person would react to his or her real name.  I wouldn't expect such a crude technique to work on people who are seriously focused on the task of travelling under false documentation, but a lot of law enforcement is about getting people to inculpate themselves through stupid mistakes.

All my US stamps are from airports (never gotten a stamp when driving), but the weird thing is that the border preclearance station at the airport in Vancouver did not stamp it. I wonder how they decide whether to give you a stamp.

I think the policy is just at airports on US soil, and it is quite recent--it started sometime in the last ten years or so.  Previously, my passport was never consistently stamped on entry to the US.  I wonder if the policy has something to do with passport books being required for airport arrivals (I am not sure if you can use a passport card when arriving at an airport on US soil).  Alternatively, it could be the default position that all arrivals get stamped but land arrivals aren't stamped in order to avoid creating problems for cross-border commuters.  Passport stamping has the potential to be quite expensive for frequent international travellers because we no longer get additional passport pages free of charge.  In fact, the current charge for insertion of additional pages is close to the cost of a passport renewal.

There is a similar disparity in use of Customs Form 6059B.  You can be required to fill out the written Form 6059B only at the customs officer's discretion:  if he does not require a written declaration, then you can make it verbally.  Verbal declarations are the norm at land crossings and arrivals are rarely, if ever, asked to fill out the written form.  At airports it is precisely the opposite.  If you offer to make a verbal declaration, you will be handed Form 6059B and sent to the back of the queue.  The one time I tried to get away with a verbal declaration at an airport, I had to fill 6059B out in Italian ("Benvenuto negli Stati Uniti") because the immigration officer could not find an English-language copy at his desk.

I have never tried to cross the border by car on a vanity or specialty plate:  every time I have had a vanilla Kansas license plate.  At the moment I have a Kansas veterans' plate on my car because the last person to drive it regularly, who is still on the title, was entitled to it.  I am not, because I have never served in the military, but I cannot get a vanilla plate until we find time to wait at a severely understaffed tag office to get the title amended.

While I am happy to travel domestically with a veterans' plate on a temporary basis, I don't want to travel with it internationally.  It draws too much attention.  The Kansas veterans' plate design also has the eagle with shield, olive branch, and arrows on it, which encourages uninformed foreigners to confuse my car with an official military or US Government vehicle.

[agentsteel53]

after my fun experience at Grand Marais, I asked for a passport stamp and was told that policy was to not give one for lawful US residents (citizens or green card holders).

I did get a stamp going into Canada at Fort Frances by land, though, just for asking.  the Canadian authorities gave me a secondary inspection as well (identity verification and vehicle search) but their questions were reasonable and I was done in 20 minutes.

[kphoger]

Two minuets later, I was handed it back and free to go

Boy, talk about a song and dance!

I have never tried to cross the border by car on a vanity or specialty plate:  every time I have had a vanilla Kansas license plate.  At the moment I have a Kansas veterans' plate on my car because the last person to drive it regularly, who is still on the title, was entitled to it.  I am not, because I have never served in the military, but I cannot get a vanilla plate until we find time to wait at a severely understaffed tag office to get the title amended.

While I am happy to travel domestically with a veterans' plate on a temporary basis, I don't want to travel with it internationally.  It draws too much attention.  The Kansas veterans' plate design also has the eagle with shield, olive branch, and arrows on it, which encourages uninformed foreigners to confuse my car with an official military or US Government vehicle.

I've driven in México with a specialty plate, one that is just as likely to stand out but is much less likely to draw unwanted attention of the violent kind:  breast cancer awareness.  I knew a man who was chased nearly across the entire state of Idaho a few decades ago, supposedly because of his National Guard license plates.

OP

Other than a fuzzy childhood memory or two, I've only driven across the Canadian border once.  This was in the summer of 2002 or 2003, I believe, and we crossed at the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit.  It was me, two coworkers, and the wife of one of them.  We crossed into Canada after dark; the border official on the bridge asked from out the darkness, 'Where ya headed?' – 'Rondeau Park.' – 'Go ahead!'  On the return trip, the American official on the bridge took our passports, asked how we knew each other and why we were travelling together, what we'd been doing, then let us through.  BTW, I remember it being difficult finding a place to exchange currency that late at night in Windsor.  We ended up using a debit card to buy snack food at the grocery store and just asking for cash back.

[J N Winkler]

after my fun experience at Grand Marais, I asked for a passport stamp and was told that policy was to not give one for lawful US residents (citizens or green card holders).

That policy clearly doesn't apply to airport arrivals--the last few times I have entered the US by air I have been stamped (US passport, immigration officer never asks if I would like a stamp, I never ask if I can not be stamped).  Most of my stamps are from ORD but I have one from MSP too, so I don't think it is something that varies by port of entry.

[kphoger]

I've been stamped inbound at airports in Atlanta, Chicago, and Denver.

[corco]

By my count it's going to take about 25 trips to Canada with no clear explanation (I'm gonna clinch me some highways! be back in three days. Oh, well, I'm crossing here in Scobey because I need to clinch these highways.) over the next five years to clinch the Alberta, BC, and NWT highway systems, so I think I'm about to have some fun

[Dr Frankenstein]

Favourite: unsigned NY 22 / QC 219 (Mooers/Hemmingford).

US side usually asks the routine questions and lets me go.
Canadian side is usually quite friendly (rather than cold), and on one or two occasions they didn't even grab my passport from my hand. Could be related to the fact that it's the closest one from where I live.

Least favourite: I-87 / A-15 (Champlain/Saint-Bernard-de-Lacolle).

I'll always wait there if I cross during the way. I've waited half an hour Canada-bound in February.
I have no reason not to avoid it now. It is surrounded by other smaller crossings, most of which are fairly quiet. (same for I-89 and I-91, too, by the way).
I've been selected for secondaries twice there in Canada, within a few weeks. No reason was given, and on both occasions I waited 20 minutes while parked before someone came. On both occasions, everything was left in a completely unorganized mess. On the second time, they damaged my friend's cooler.

I don't wait as much on I-91, but it does get quite the traffic on weekend mornings with people heading to Jay Peak and other Vermont ski resorts. There are VMSes on both A-10 and A-55 but I've never seen them display anything at all. On one particular occasion, on the first morning of the vacation season in Québec, the U.S. bound lines were going all the way to Boulevard Notre-Dame (Hwy 247) in Stanstead. I avoided it via Canusa Avenue. When I go to Jay, I usually cross on Hwy 243 in North Troy, but I've had mixed experiences there. I once had a very bitchy female agent that was aggressively trying to expose a weakness in my declaration by unsettling me and otherwise making me feel uncomfortable. She was borderline (pun unintended) treating me like an idiot. Going back in Canada on Hwy 139 / Richford / Sutton I sometimes get asked why I get through there.

I've had one secondary on I-91, I suspect because my friend's passport wasn't signed (they didn't tell him either, he was only informed of that coming back into Canada). It took about 45 minutes, which included waiting for them to process other people that were already there, asking questions to each of the four people in the car, searching the car without our presence and filling written declarations. I hope they learned that the question "Have you ever been fingerprinted?" is dangerously ambiguous for someone who isn't a native English speaker.

I've waited in both directions at many crossings in Ontario, but that's understandable as there aren't nearly as many since the border is in the water and the bridges have to clear the Seaway in many places, which makes them even more expensive to build and therefore sparse.

I think it is imprtant to say, though, that I cross the border dozens of times every year and in almost all of the cases, it's pretty damn down-to-earth and uneventful. It'll be even moreso once I get my Nexus card.

I've never flown, except for one domestic flight when I was 4.

[Mdcastle]

The hassle I got from the US side leaving the US at the peace gardens- car and person searched, made to sign a statement saying I wasn't exporting more than $10,000.

[J N Winkler]

I hope they learned that the question "Have you ever been fingerprinted?" is dangerously ambiguous for someone who isn't a native English speaker.

It is difficult even for native speakers, who may very well have been fingerprinted outside the context of booking after arrest.  It is a bit like being asked on a job application whether you have ever been convicted of a crime:  do you have to say Yes when the only crime in question is a minor traffic offense?

If I were asked the fingerprinting question at a border crossing--I have never been--I would just say, "I can't remember offhand if I have been or not.  Why do you need to know?"

[corco]

Yeah, if somebody asked me that I would have said "yes" since I was fingerprinted when I worked for the Census and I'd have assumed they were just asking to see if my fingerprints were in a database or something, and maybe that could help expedite the crossing for some reason, not to see if I had been arrested.

[J N Winkler]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integrated_Automated_Fingerprint_Identification_System

In the US, IAFIS (sometimes just "AFIS" in thriller novels) includes fingerprints taken not just from arrest bookings but also various types of official proceedings where fingerprints are collected, such as background checks, applications for sensitive categories of employment, military service, etc.  One of the non-criminal routes through which prints can be added to the IAFIS is the US-VISIT program, which applies to nationals of visa-waiver countries who enter the US on an I-94W instead of an I-94.

If I were in Dr Frankenstein's position, my initial impulse would be to suspect that the fingerprinting question was designed to bring out whether he had participated in US-VISIT.  (I don't know if Canadian citizens are required to participate in this program to obtain entry to the US.)  But if that is actually what the immigration officer wants to know, he should ask the question directly, instead of using an open-ended question to fish for a damaging admission.  (Dr Frankenstein's entry-exit record should also be linked to his passport, and Canadian passports are machine-readable--which raises the question of why the immigration officer has to ask for information he should already have gotten when he scanned the MRZ on his passport.)

There is some risk of looking uncooperative and as if you have something to hide by pushing back against the fingerprinting question, but I think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.  If the immigration officer has no articulable reason to believe you are doing anything illegal, then pushing back against questions designed to elicit self-incriminating information sends a signal that you are aware of your rights and will not give up anything for free.  That encourages the officer to move on to a more gullible arrival and improves the chances you will be let go, albeit after a delay.

One other thing to remember:  a law enforcement officer has unlimited discretion to lie to you to secure a damaging admission.  (Saying "It's OK, you can admit you have drugs, nothing bad will happen to you" is a prime example of this.)  On the other hand, it is a federal crime to lie back to a federal law enforcement officer.

[1995hoo]

....

All my US stamps are from airports (never gotten a stamp when driving), but the weird thing is that the border preclearance station at the airport in Vancouver did not stamp it. I wonder how they decide whether to give you a stamp.

I think the policy is just at airports on US soil, and it is quite recent--it started sometime in the last ten years or so.  Previously, my passport was never consistently stamped on entry to the US.  I wonder if the policy has something to do with passport books being required for airport arrivals (I am not sure if you can use a passport card when arriving at an airport on US soil).  Alternatively, it could be the default position that all arrivals get stamped but land arrivals aren't stamped in order to avoid creating problems for cross-border commuters.  Passport stamping has the potential to be quite expensive for frequent international travellers because we no longer get additional passport pages free of charge.  In fact, the current charge for insertion of additional pages is close to the cost of a passport renewal.

....

I have never tried to cross the border by car on a vanity or specialty plate:  every time I have had a vanilla Kansas license plate.  At the moment I have a Kansas veterans' plate on my car because the last person to drive it regularly, who is still on the title, was entitled to it.  I am not, because I have never served in the military, but I cannot get a vanilla plate until we find time to wait at a severely understaffed tag office to get the title amended.

While I am happy to travel domestically with a veterans' plate on a temporary basis, I don't want to travel with it internationally.  It draws too much attention.  The Kansas veterans' plate design also has the eagle with shield, olive branch, and arrows on it, which encourages uninformed foreigners to confuse my car with an official military or US Government vehicle.

The passport card is not valid for air travel, though if for some reason you needed a second form of ID it could presumably be used then. (I use mine regularly as a primary form of ID simply because the piece of my wallet that holds my driver's license obscures the fourth digit of my date of birth and the date of expiry. It's easier just to pull out the passport card. Some people, especially the lady at the polling place in November, seem to have a real beef if you use anything other than a driver's license as ID. The guy at the Apple Store, by contrast, was impressed by it–but then, he has a green card!) The State Department's info on the passport card specifies that it is valid for entry into the US from Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Bermuda by land (obviously Mexico and Canada only) or sea and never by air.

Funny thing regarding stamping, I looked through mine again and I see a few air entries where I do NOT have stamps. Every time I've come back from Europe (once to JFK; other times to Dulles) I've gotten a stamp. Got a stamp in Philadelphia on the way back from Mexico. Did not get a stamp either time I connected in Charlotte on the way back from Mexico, and one of those was more recent than the Philadelphia connection. But I know some of the preclearance airports do stamp, even though I didn't get one at Vancouver–the facility at Dorval in Montreal does it, for example (or at least sometimes they do), because I know people who have those stamps.

Regarding personalized plates, all three of our cars have them, so we'll always be crossing with one (although the '88 RX-7 will never be driven that far so it's not an issue). I've never had any problem with it, mind you; the guy just wanted to know what it meant, and I've had other people ask me the same question so it didn't strike me as particularly odd.

[agentsteel53]

after my fun experience at Grand Marais, I asked for a passport stamp and was told that policy was to not give one for lawful US residents (citizens or green card holders).

That policy clearly doesn't apply to airport arrivals--the last few times I have entered the US by air I have been stamped (US passport, immigration officer never asks if I would like a stamp, I never ask if I can not be stamped).  Most of my stamps are from ORD but I have one from MSP too, so I don't think it is something that varies by port of entry.

correct. I did not speak clearly enough; the passport policy I mentioned was for land crossings only. 

no idea what ship entries are like.  or private aircraft.  on the latter, I'll have to ask some friends of mine, who fly to Mexico in one of their little Cessnas all the time.  from what I recall, they have to clear customs for both countries, on both legs of the flight.  they tend to do a Calexico-San Felipe leg (or the reverse) to take care of this.

[agentsteel53]

I hope they learned that the question "Have you ever been fingerprinted?" is dangerously ambiguous for someone who isn't a native English speaker.

It is difficult even for native speakers, who may very well have been fingerprinted outside the context of booking after arrest.  It is a bit like being asked on a job application whether you have ever been convicted of a crime:  do you have to say Yes when the only crime in question is a minor traffic offense?

If I were asked the fingerprinting question at a border crossing--I have never been--I would just say, "I can't remember offhand if I have been or not.  Why do you need to know?"

for me the question is easy.  "sure have, you guys do it all the time"

[vdeane]

All my crossings in 2012 were at either Ogdensburg or the Seaway Bridge, so I've noticed more variation between crossings at one port of entry rather than between them.  For some reason, it seemed to get easier to cross after I got my enhanced driver's license.  On my last trip, the US officer only wanted to know where I was coming from, the purpose of the trip, and if I was bringing anything back - nothing else; it took about 15-20 seconds to cross (not including the wait, because it took everyone else longer).

The hassle I got from the US side leaving the US at the peace gardens- car and person searched, made to sign a statement saying I wasn't exporting more than $10,000.

Since when does the US do exit inspections?

[agentsteel53]

Since when does the US do exit inspections?

since whenever they want to.  I got one at Columbus, NM heading into Palomas, Chih and I am thinking they simply were bored.  When I crossed into Mexico, I looked back and saw - for the first time in my life - nobody in line to enter the US.

[Brandon]

after my fun experience at Grand Marais, I asked for a passport stamp and was told that policy was to not give one for lawful US residents (citizens or green card holders).

That policy clearly doesn't apply to airport arrivals--the last few times I have entered the US by air I have been stamped (US passport, immigration officer never asks if I would like a stamp, I never ask if I can not be stamped).  Most of my stamps are from ORD but I have one from MSP too, so I don't think it is something that varies by port of entry.

correct. I did not speak clearly enough; the passport policy I mentioned was for land crossings only. 

no idea what ship entries are like.  or private aircraft.  on the latter, I'll have to ask some friends of mine, who fly to Mexico in one of their little Cessnas all the time.  from what I recall, they have to clear customs for both countries, on both legs of the flight.  they tend to do a Calexico-San Felipe leg (or the reverse) to take care of this.

After the two cruises I've taken thus far in the Caribbean, I did not get my passport stamped coming back through customs (Tampa and Houston).  They seem to be on the lookout for people bringing back too much alcohol without paying the duty and people bringing back drugs they shouldn't have.

[Brandon]

All my crossings in 2012 were at either Ogdensburg or the Seaway Bridge, so I've noticed more variation between crossings at one port of entry rather than between them.  For some reason, it seemed to get easier to cross after I got my enhanced driver's license.  On my last trip, the US officer only wanted to know where I was coming from, the purpose of the trip, and if I was bringing anything back - nothing else; it took about 15-20 seconds to cross (not including the wait, because it took everyone else longer).

The hassle I got from the US side leaving the US at the peace gardens- car and person searched, made to sign a statement saying I wasn't exporting more than $10,000.

Since when does the US do exit inspections?

I've never seen one at the Soo, Niagara, Port Huron, or Detroit.  Of course, they don't seem to be set up very well for any sort of exit inspection at these crossings.

[AsphaltPlanet]

There are two car ferries across the St. Clair River between Ontario and Michigan.  Generally, it never takes more than 20 minutes or so to cross the border, while the wait at the Bluewater Bridge in Sarnia could be over an hour.  I find customs at these locates to be quick and fair.

Like Dr. Frank, I have had a few opportunities where the Canadian border patrol hasn't taken my passport for verification on a return trip back to Canada.  I am always driving a car with Ontario plates, and speak like an Ontarian so I don't raise too much trouble.

I sometimes (often?) find the border patrol staff ask questions that are both abrasive and a little rude, but I have always figured that was just how they determined if the interviewee was lying, and have never been particularly bothered by it.

[Alps]

My least favorite is the amazingly overused I-87 crossing. US 11, old? NY 22, and others are so close by and empty most of the day. Honorable mention to the two Niagara Falls crossings at ON 405 and 420. QEW for me! I don't really have a favorite, nor do I rate them by my experiences there beyond wait (you can get a dickish stop at any one or breeze through equally plausibly), but:
* Fort Kent, for its beauty
* A couple of the St. Lawrence bridges from ON-NY, for their beauty
* US 3 NH-QC, because you can literally walk across the border without stopping at Customs. You park just before, walk by, tell them you're going hiking, and the trail is along the border.