Entering Canada. What will they actually check for?

[Nickybourne1992]

I'm going to be re-entering Canada in early April on a 2 year work/travel visa. I'm Scottish (UK citizen)
I first arrived back in October 2018. Being my first time arriving in Canada I made sure I was squeaky clean. Fulfilling all the requirements for entering. Proof of funds, Police certificates, visa etc etc etc. It cost me a fucking fortune for health insurance. $1000 for the year to be exact. I got to the counter with all my information in my hand and the officer only looked at my passport and welcomed me into Canada. I've heard a lot of stories like this from other backpackers about the immigration officers not really giving a shit. They make the visa so hard to get accepted for and the list of entry requirements is more than any other country I've worked and traveled in. (Australia and New Zealand)

I'd like to hear your experience with custom officials and do you think its really worth me forking out another 1000 bucks for health insurance, which by the way I haven't even used.

 

[Beegod Santana]

Well I got denied entry recently and it was certainly not the way you described. I was immediately flagged but the customers officer (I was dressed clean, had a passport, id that said I lived 20 miles away and a ticket for a jazz show happening that night right over the border, so no, I did not look like a dirty kid). After questioning me about work history and all that stuff I was told that I could not enter till ten years after the date of my last arrest. They for some reason saw only the third most recent time I'd been pinched so there's that, but otherwise I was rather surprised at how intense it was. That last I crossed legally was in 2006 and was questioned extensively then too, but was let in when I showed them a bank reciet showing I had $1500 to blow, so in my experience it ain't that easy.

 

[LEAN]

Canada seems like the hardest border to cross. I understand that they have to set a precedent so everyone doesn't just start flooding it (that reminds me of something LOL). I have most of my shit in line and can probably pass their test, but I just can't agree with the extensive probe they seem to enforce.

Just another reason to never go there....

 

[iamwhatiam]

Seems like it's very dependent on who you happen to get at the border crossing. Last time I tried to enter Canada which was like 5 years ago, they brought me inside to the building and one of the agents took my passport and came back a few minutes later. Sits me down and asks me about my criminal record....."oh I have a drinking in public ticket or two from a few years back, maybe a trespassing charge, i can't remember exactly". She then whips out several pages stapled together and reads a long list and questions me about each one. They were all small citations or misdemeanors...no violent offences or felonies, but that was enough to get denied entry. I was told the same as Beegod Santana....10 years after my last arrest.

 

[Django]

For me entering Canada (from the us, French passport) was the easiest thing in the world. In fact, I started by trespassing and the cbp guy yelled at me to stop, I returned and he stamped my passport in two seconds, even though the passport was demaged (to the point I was denied a US visa on it, had to get a new one in Vancouver).

I hope your experience will be similar to mine. Good luck mate

 

[salxtina]

Wait do you have to tell them you're entering on a work visa?
Because I recently made my first trip to Quebec and told them I was just going into Canada for the weekend (more or less true) and they asked me a few questions but nothing major, lied and said no arrest records and they didn't check/flag that at all.

 

[Nickybourne1992]

Wait do you have to tell them you're entering on a work visa?
Because I recently made my first trip to Quebec and told them I was just going into Canada for the weekend (more or less true) and they asked me a few questions but nothing major, lied and said no arrest records and they didn't check/flag that at all.

Yeah at customs they check my what visa your on then if its a work visa you get put in a different line. The official at this line, I guess, is supposed to be checking everything that you were told was a requirement when you were granted the visa. Enough money for the duration of your trip and a flight home, proof of health insurance, police certificates from every country you've lived in in the past 5 years. I think there was some more things but I cant remember the exact information.
But they never checked for any of this guess I was just lucky.

 

[Laski North]

It’s been mixed for me. I’m from Alaska and have drove through canada multiple times. The first time (Yukon Alaska border) they searched my van , but not super in depth. Second time (some small border in the middle region of The BC Washington border) let me in just by flashing my passport . The 3rd time (port Angeles, Victoria border) , was a nightmare. I was held at the detention facility for 2/3 hours while they rifled through my personal belongings, looked through my phone, took copies of some of my songs/drawings, And strip searched me. They held “reasonable” suspicion because I was carrying rolling papers, narcan, drug test strips, and saline (they didn’t care when I explained I carry these items for the safety of the people around me). In my phone of course was loads of things you wouldn’t want a border patrol officer to know about, you know, weed man business .. the scariest part of it all, was when they were trying to get me to tell them something, they listed off 4 different areas my van was “spotted” at the last few times I was in Canada . That’s the creepiest shit I ever heard . but luckily, they found no actual drugs , so I was let in .

 

[DoctorZ]

What if you have a police scanner installed in your vehicle, and super powerful hand-held spot lights. Will they let you in? What about coming back to USA from Canada. My Ham Radio License gives me permission to have the scanner in my vehicle in the USA (except State of NY) but I don't know about Canada. My radios are also illegally modified for out of band transmissions.