I was up in Canada again over the weekend
For the curious, I was in Toronto at the Economic History Association conference, and at the University of Guelph to give a seminar. If you're ever in Toronto, do make time to go to Dufflet Pastries. Good stuff.
Now, this may be old news to non-U.S. citizens, but to the Americans used to tripping across the border with just their drivers license, do I have news for you: the Canadian immigration officials are the most inquisitive of any I have ever met. This includes communist countries, and post-9/11 America ...
The only time I've been asked more questions by an immigration official was the first time I entered the U.S. on a student visa. Every subsequent time—yes, even since September 2001—I have had nothing but the most perfunctory enquiries about my purpose in the United States. Now, I concede that I have several things going for me that may account for my welcome, (1) my visa sponsor has been the Department of State, (2) my home country is a small, harmless country not known for its religious fanaticism, and (3) I'm white. I say the last, not because I think it should smooth my way, but because I'm sure it does. Positive supposition, not normative suggestion.
But back to Canada ... every time I've gone, multiple questions about the purpose of my visit. When I was there in April, they asked me more questions about historical census microdata than I've heard in a long time! Who was I meeting? Where was I meeting? My experience was not unique, my Scandinavian colleagues (Norway, big enemy of Canada if you'll recall ...) were also amazed at the level of inquiry about the meeting and their purpose in Canada.
And then, this always gets me, remember I'm going into Canada, they ask about my status in the United States. Guess that student visa must be intriguing ...
This time I decided to show my British passport, and see if the purple passport of the mother country didn't get me a little more respect than the bad photo in my New Zealand passport ... Not so much as it happens. Multiple questions again. How long was the conference? Why was I going to Guelph? (Actually, Guelph was very pleasant to visit, in case you wonder) etc ... And then, what was my status in the United States. I replied that I was a student, and they asked to see my other passport with the other visa ...
After that, I was away and into Toronto to eat pastries, enjoy the comforts of the Westin, and be enthused about economic history. But those Canadians, more aggressive immigration officers than you might suspect!
Posted by robe0419 at September 21, 2005 04:24 PM | TrackBackBack in my undergrad days, in Sault Ste Marie, Michigan, across the river from Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, we went to Canada all the time. We rarely had to even show a drivers license, and the questions were simple: where do you live?, where are you going?, how long will you stay? I think one time we had to pull over to go into an office and show ID and answer some more specific questions. Roughly 50% of our trips through customs were made with most/all of us, including the driver, under the influence of too many beers. I was only refused entry once, when my companion and I only had $20 between us, which was, as they told us, 'not enough to sustain ourselves' in Canada. Briefly, I had a loose woman I was seeing on the other side, and I often made the crossing 2-4 times a day. No problem.
Posted by: Jim at September 21, 2005 05:45 PMAs someone who grew up along the border in Buffalo, NY, it seems pretty random to me in terms of the amount of questioning you get -- sometimes they pretty much wave you on through, other times they're very interested in where you're going, what you'll be doing, etc etc. I found that coming back into the US was oftentimes the more 'difficult' crossing, in terms of interrogatory questioning. In either case, I usually had a much easier time than my Spanish friends did with the border crossing, so perhaps it's something to do with the whole issue of crossing between two countries where you're a citizen of neither.
My experience with flying into Pearson Airport in Toronto is less extensive, but the couple times I've done it, they didn't give me a hard time at all. Now flying into Heathrow in London these days, with my old UK student visa stamp -- whoo, that has been interesting.
Posted by: Erik at September 22, 2005 07:51 PM