windsor border guards

On Oct 8, 6:23 pm, Dave Smith wrote:
jdoe wrote:

Some of them are real dicks and are too ignorant about simple geography to
understand. My brother lives close to Fort Erie and frequently travels to
Ottawa to visit his son. If he sticks to Ontario highways he has to drive
north to get to the QEW and drive almost 30 miles west to get around Lake
Ontario and then start going east. It is shorter to hop across the border
at Buffalo and save that extra distance around the lake. He also misses the
heavy traffic congestion in, through and out of Toronto. He figures it
saves him at least an hour. He always gets hassled about the border, not
just that they don't understand how it can be shorter, but as if taking a
short cut through the US is not a valid excuse to enter the country.

bingo, using the US as a short cut is indeed not a valid reason for
entry.

If that is the case, we should shut our border to the thousands of US
trucks that use the Ontario corridor to get from NY to MI.


Maybe you should. But then again, the immigration officers are
trained to look for the unusual. If there were "thousands of US
trucks" that use that route, then it's not unusual anymore. And long
haul trucks are now computerized to the extent that they are tracked
through their entire journey. But one person using a route as a
personal short cut may seem unusual and gets an added scrutiny. He
was not denied, so the route was not closed to him.

PeterL wrote:


heavy traffic congestion in, through and out of Toronto. He figures it
saves him at least an hour. He always gets hassled about the border, not
just that they don't understand how it can be shorter, but as if taking a
short cut through the US is not a valid excuse to enter the country

The last sentence is exactly the reason why your brother is hassled.
They don't like it when someone just drive thru the country to save
some miles. So they want to make sure your brother don't do that
anymore. It has nothing to do with geography knowledge.

Why should it be a problem? Bear in mind that Americans are under the
impression that they are a free country, and a person driving through a
portion of the US to get from one point in Ontario to another point in
Ontario should be no more of a problem than someone driving through the US
to get from Canada to Mexico. From my brother's account of the hassles the
worst part seemed to be getting them to understand the geography. They just
didn't accept that it is shorter to slip below Lake Ontario from his place
than to go all the way around the and of the lake. In fact, online mapping
services give that route. Then there is the traffic to deal with in
Toronto. If you leave here between 7 and 9 am you are looking out heavy
traffic for at least 30 miles going into Toronto, which can add 2 hours or
more to the trip.

On Oct 9, 11:28 am, Dave Smith wrote:
PeterL wrote:

heavy traffic congestion in, through and out of Toronto. He figures it
saves him at least an hour. He always gets hassled about the border, not
just that they don't understand how it can be shorter, but as if taking a
short cut through the US is not a valid excuse to enter the country

The last sentence is exactly the reason why your brother is hassled.
They don't like it when someone just drive thru the country to save
some miles. So they want to make sure your brother don't do that
anymore. It has nothing to do with geography knowledge.

Why should it be a problem? Bear in mind that Americans are under the
impression that they are a free country,

Oh please. That don't mean anyone can just come in and out freely.
Just go down to the Mexican border crossing and you'll see that your
brother's problem is totally minor. Try being a Mexican and telling a
border guard that you are just driving through.

On Oct 9, 12:34 pm, PeterL wrote:
The last sentence is exactly the reason why your brother is hassled.
They don't like it when someone just drive thru the country to save
some miles. So they want to make sure your brother don't do that
anymore. It has nothing to do with geography knowledge.- Hide quoted text -

It's odd how they have opinions of such things... I mean, driving
through to save miles in the OP's case means he pays to stay at a US
motel, buys US food, and US gas. Yet that's not really considered
"good" for tourism.

I do have a tidbit... when going on trips, plan to visit a National
Park or something. I seem to never get hassled when I'm going to the
parks, I heard it's because visiting parks is taking an interest in
their country, and a unique experience you don't expect to get
elsewhere. I get hassled a whole lot more when I go shopping for the
day than when I went for four weeks to visit various National Parks (I
had mentioned three to the CBP officer, as my destination in the US,
then his only question was how I was getting from place to place, then
how I was getting home. He didn't even ask if I was camping or staying
in a hotel).

S.

On Oct 9, 12:06 pm, "Graham Harrison"
wrote:
Absolutely true that *Canadian* citizens don't fill in I-94 but the person
who got hasseled was travelling on a European passport - he just happens to
be a permanent resident in Canada.- Hide quoted text -

The discussion seemed open enough to refer to Canadians crossing into
the US, since lots of Canadians post here. True enough that the OP's
husband had to file an I-94w, which would cause him to go into the
building for the relevant processing. Even under normal circumstances,
anyone needing an I-94w will be subject to some border crossing delay,
I can only advise those people to do what I used to do, and pick up
extra cards (if possible) and save them for later if you travel often
enough.

I don't think the OP's nationality makes any difference on whether or
not he'd be hassled, it's the situation.

Personally I haven't found Michigan officers to be too friendly. I've
had much more pleasant border experiences on the New York side (I'm
roughly equal distance from both NY and MI crossings). I have to go
through Detroit on Greyhound, and they're always too busy processing
bus passengers to bother with anyone unless there's a really good
reason. At worst, I've been held up for 15 minutes while the officer
checked me out. I don't sweat it too much on the bus, since I've
always got a good reason for taking my vacation in the US. Seems that
shopping isn't such a good reason anymore... It certainly doesn't
encourage me to go often.

S.

PeterL wrote:


The last sentence is exactly the reason why your brother is hassled.
They don't like it when someone just drive thru the country to save
some miles. So they want to make sure your brother don't do that
anymore. It has nothing to do with geography knowledge.

Why should it be a problem? Bear in mind that Americans are under the
impression that they are a free country,

Oh please. That don't mean anyone can just come in and out freely.
Just go down to the Mexican border crossing and you'll see that your
brother's problem is totally minor. Try being a Mexican and telling a
border guard that you are just driving through.

Just so I know...... what are valid reasons to enter the US if simply
travelling through it to save time and money is not?

- shopping and trying to save a few bucks?
- going to a restaurant because you want to try something different?
- watching a hockey game because the arena is closer than the nearest
Canadian team's home ice?
- going south for vacation because it is warmer in winter?


When exactly did the US turn into a police state where border officials get
to decide whether or not foreigners have a good enough excuse to step foot
in the US? It is not like they are flooding in and staying illegally like
they do from Mexico.

jdoe wrote:

Why should it be a problem? Bear in mind that Americans are under the
impression that they are a free country, and a person driving through a
portion of the US to get from one point in Ontario to another point in
Ontario should be no more of a problem than someone driving through the US
to get from Canada to Mexico. From my brother's account of the hassles the
worst part seemed to be getting them to understand the geography. They just
didn't accept that it is shorter to slip below Lake Ontario from his place
than to go all the way around the and of the lake. In fact, online mapping
services give that route. Then there is the traffic to deal with in
Toronto. If you leave here between 7 and 9 am you are looking out heavy
traffic for at least 30 miles going into Toronto, which can add 2 hours or
more to the trip.

it all has to do with canuckistan's very liberal policy towards
immigration, the canucks allow just about anyone to move in regardless
of the immigrants history and the US is quite afraid of the
undesirables who are using canuckistan as entry point to the US.


Like those 9/11 hijackers that some jackasses still believe had snuck into
the US from Canada the night before? Those guys were there for months
ahead of time. They had passports and visas.

What you seem to be telling me is that if I wanted to cross the border here
to slip up to the south side of the lake on my way to Ottawa or Montreal
your border nazis would have reasonable grounds to suspect that we might
really be planning on staying illegally and taking advantage of your
wonderful health care system, or perhaps carry out a terrorist attack, but
if I told them that I travelling to Florida to visit Disney Land or some
other cultural mecca I would not have ulterior motive.




so because the US border agents are extra vigilant, all the residents
of canuckistan are suffering from canuckistan's open borders when
dealing with the US officials at border crossings.
__________________________________________
Never argue with an idiot.
They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.

Greg Rozelle wrote:


One of these days, I would really like to Visit The Underground City
in Montreal

The is an underground city in Toronto too.

and the Canada side of Niagara falls. Hopefully, by the
time I can afford to go. The U.S., Canada, and Mexico will have
worked out a passcard system.

The problem is not in Canada and Mexico. It is the US that is the problem.
They are still pushing for passports, just like thos 9/11 hijackers had.

Greg Rozelle wrote:

O

Oh please. That don't mean anyone can just come in and out freely.
Just go down to the Mexican border crossing and you'll see that your
brother's problem is totally minor. Try being a Mexican and telling a
border guard that you are just driving through.


What about people from the USA going to Alaska there is no
difference? There really no other way to drive to Alaska.


He would probably consider that to be a different case because it suits
Americans.

On Oct 9, 7:06 pm, Greg Rozelle wrote:
Shopping not a good reason?

When I told them I was going shopping (this is one incident in
particular), I was asked where I was shopping, what I was hoping to
buy there, and why I wasn't buying it in Canada. Some of what I buy is
diet soda and flavour crystals in flavours not found in Canada. As
someone who was involved in the Coke/Pepsi order of my store, I was
well familiar with Canadian flavours, but they don't make very many of
them in diet, so I don't get to drink them. I got hassled over it, and
I explained that I get bored drinking the same stuff, and wanted to
stock up. Might I mention the trunk was pretty full when I was done?
2L bottles, cans, boxes of crystals... I spent over $100 on the stuff
to stock my cupboards for two months, and did some Christmas shopping
too (this was last year).

So if I'm being questioned intently about it, it's like I should be
shopping in Canada and need a good reason to shop in the US. I had a
good reason, but I was already in secondary getting the third degree
because I carry too much cash on me (I had $600 for the record, and
spent most of it down there... they thought that was too much shopping
money, because it was answering *that* question that got me sent over
to secondary for the drill sargeant routine).

What about those that live close to the boarder? They probably use
Nexus any ways.

You have to be approved... and I'm born in the wrong country and had
too many trips to secondary to be approved by either Customs or
Immigration. I'm Canadian now, btw.

Shopping should be a good reason, Canada dollar value is up.

It is for me. I buy consumer electronics in the US, DVD players and
the like, whenever I need something. I price shop at walmart.com to
see how much down there, check Wal-Mart here, and if the savings is
worth it, I make a trip down, and stock up on my snacks while I'm
there.

S.