43 ms·

True. I live in Seattle and had a friend visiting early last month and I wanted to take him to Vancouver for a day trip. We drove to the border and I explained

True. I live in Seattle and had a friend visiting early last month and I wanted to take him to Vancouver for a day trip. We drove to the border and I explained to the border guard we are just sight-seeing for the day. The guard directed us to pull over near their facility and they made us give them our keys, cell phones, and wallets while they went through everything in my car. We were put into two different rooms and questioned for 1.5 hours. They even went through my laptop bag and found paperwork about an upcoming surgery in a week and accused me of not giving them details about that. They left my car in a mess. All in all, the day trip wasn't worth the feeling of violation.

bruceb 10y ago
I think what is frustrating is not the stopping and questioning but the attitude. I have been stopped on the way to Vancouver. For the most part Canadian border control is professional and polite. On the way back a few times I have encountered surly demeaning behavior. Being a border patrol officer would be a tedious job at times and I don't expect a smile but outward hostility is ridiculous. For non citizen encountering this it is a terrible and lasting bad first impression of the US.
- VygmraMGVl 10y ago
  In my singular experience crossing this border, the US guards were way more relaxed than the Canadian guards. The Canadian guards seemed very concerned that my plates were from the East Coast and asked us about 10 questions down that line, while the US guards asked us maybe 2 questions total.
  - mahyarm 10y ago
    I think your experience depends on your citizenship. As a canadian the canadian border guards are nice to me. With a work visa, the american border guards aren't as nice. Also the border guards start becoming nicer once they see a history for your passport in their console if you never had any shit happen. Also a NEXUS / Global Entry card makes them far more nicer.
- wangchow 10y ago
  Honestly the day trip people would annoy me if I were a border patrol officer. Commuting in and potentially exploiting economic loopholes or something. That or smugling drugs across the border. Especially given the strength of the USD over CAD these days
  - jdavis703 10y ago
    Then perhaps you shouldn't be a border patrol officer. It would be like waiters being annoyed at being asked what's in the food they're serving.
    - wangchow 10y ago
      True. :) I suppose that's why I'm not!
  - pjc50 10y ago
    There is a similar border near Basel, between the EU and a small country with a very high currency, that people routinely commute across. Last time I went through it (admittedly many years ago) I barely noticed it.
    - rjsw 10y ago
      Switzerland is in the Schengen Area so the border guards won't usually check your passport. There are sometimes customs checks though, you are only allowed to bring really small amounts of meat into the country for example.
      - saiya-jin 10y ago
        On the way to EU, no problem at all. Entering CH, depends on your plates, they check these first. When with Swiss plates, you have much better chances of hassle-free slide. Once I was stopped, checked thoroughly for about 40 minutes, in the middle of the night. They did some sort of exercise on me, taking away all my money, put them into envelope, then returning back and so on. Went through whole car, backpack, everything. Not a nice experience
- dboreham 10y ago
  I'm in Vancouver - flew here from Seattle yesterday and fwiw had zero hassle with immigration, but when I've crossed the border by road in Montana I noticed the same assholery with the US customs guys. One of themy accused me of trying to import contraband seashells (solely based on the fact I had traveled from Italy via Calgary!).
pmorici 10y ago
They probably thought you were trying to smuggle pot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_Cannabis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_Cannabis
- mcrider 10y ago
  Into BC? That seems counterintuitive. I had a friend who worked at the Canadian border in BC a few years back. According to him, the main reason the border exists is to control goods coming from the states so that they can be taxed. A lot of people go south of the border to go shopping and don't accurately declare what they're bringing back.
  - pmorici 10y ago
    Well if you were headed north you might have had a wad of cash to buy the goods.
wattt 10y ago
Sorry to hear this, but unfortunately I am not surprised. Back in the 1990s until about 2001 you couldn't walk down the street anywhere in downtown Vancouver without finding a majority of the population was American tourists. Then the CDN dollar shot up, passports became required, and then this new attitude began. The BC economy tanked. I still do not think tourism has recovered even though the CDN dollar is super low again and has been so for at least 2-3 years. Tourism is huge to the BC economy, almost 30% or some crazy high number. They want it all to be high-income tech workers now so it is all focused on becoming an H1-B visa workaround destination now, mostly for Microsoft employees and other big corps that have hit their quotas in USA. Would be nice if tourism was a thing in BC again but I don't know who would champion it, all of the companies shut down or moved to the US.
- Canada 10y ago
  Here are the recent numbers: http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/StatisticsBySubject/Economy/EconomicAccounts/SatelliteAccounts.aspx http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/StatisticsBySubject/Economy/Eco... Forestry is about the size of tech ($14 billion) which is twice tourism. To put it into perspective, the BC government spends and collects $50 billion each year. Financial services, real estate, retail, and other services are big. I doubt tourism is or ever was more than 3% of the economy, except maybe in 1986 and 2010.

bruceb 10y ago

I think what is frustrating is not the stopping and questioning but the attitude. I have been stopped on the way to Vancouver. For the most part Canadian border control is professional and polite. On the way back a few times I have encountered surly demeaning behavior. Being a border patrol officer would be a tedious job at times and I don't expect a smile but outward hostility is ridiculous. For non citizen encountering this it is a terrible and lasting bad first impression of the US.

VygmraMGVl 10y ago
In my singular experience crossing this border, the US guards were way more relaxed than the Canadian guards. The Canadian guards seemed very concerned that my plates were from the East Coast and asked us about 10 questions down that line, while the US guards asked us maybe 2 questions total.
- mahyarm 10y ago
  I think your experience depends on your citizenship. As a canadian the canadian border guards are nice to me. With a work visa, the american border guards aren't as nice. Also the border guards start becoming nicer once they see a history for your passport in their console if you never had any shit happen. Also a NEXUS / Global Entry card makes them far more nicer.
wangchow 10y ago
Honestly the day trip people would annoy me if I were a border patrol officer. Commuting in and potentially exploiting economic loopholes or something. That or smugling drugs across the border. Especially given the strength of the USD over CAD these days
- jdavis703 10y ago
  Then perhaps you shouldn't be a border patrol officer. It would be like waiters being annoyed at being asked what's in the food they're serving.
  - wangchow 10y ago
    True. :) I suppose that's why I'm not!
- pjc50 10y ago
  There is a similar border near Basel, between the EU and a small country with a very high currency, that people routinely commute across. Last time I went through it (admittedly many years ago) I barely noticed it.
  - rjsw 10y ago
    Switzerland is in the Schengen Area so the border guards won't usually check your passport. There are sometimes customs checks though, you are only allowed to bring really small amounts of meat into the country for example.
    - saiya-jin 10y ago
      On the way to EU, no problem at all. Entering CH, depends on your plates, they check these first. When with Swiss plates, you have much better chances of hassle-free slide. Once I was stopped, checked thoroughly for about 40 minutes, in the middle of the night. They did some sort of exercise on me, taking away all my money, put them into envelope, then returning back and so on. Went through whole car, backpack, everything. Not a nice experience
dboreham 10y ago
I'm in Vancouver - flew here from Seattle yesterday and fwiw had zero hassle with immigration, but when I've crossed the border by road in Montana I noticed the same assholery with the US customs guys. One of themy accused me of trying to import contraband seashells (solely based on the fact I had traveled from Italy via Calgary!).

pmorici 10y ago

They probably thought you were trying to smuggle pot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_Cannabis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kid_Cannabis

mcrider 10y ago
Into BC? That seems counterintuitive. I had a friend who worked at the Canadian border in BC a few years back. According to him, the main reason the border exists is to control goods coming from the states so that they can be taxed. A lot of people go south of the border to go shopping and don't accurately declare what they're bringing back.
- pmorici 10y ago
  Well if you were headed north you might have had a wad of cash to buy the goods.

wattt 10y ago

Sorry to hear this, but unfortunately I am not surprised. Back in the 1990s until about 2001 you couldn't walk down the street anywhere in downtown Vancouver without finding a majority of the population was American tourists. Then the CDN dollar shot up, passports became required, and then this new attitude began. The BC economy tanked. I still do not think tourism has recovered even though the CDN dollar is super low again and has been so for at least 2-3 years. Tourism is huge to the BC economy, almost 30% or some crazy high number. They want it all to be high-income tech workers now so it is all focused on becoming an H1-B visa workaround destination now, mostly for Microsoft employees and other big corps that have hit their quotas in USA. Would be nice if tourism was a thing in BC again but I don't know who would champion it, all of the companies shut down or moved to the US.

Canada 10y ago
Here are the recent numbers: http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/StatisticsBySubject/Economy/EconomicAccounts/SatelliteAccounts.aspx http://www.bcstats.gov.bc.ca/StatisticsBySubject/Economy/Eco... Forestry is about the size of tech ($14 billion) which is twice tourism. To put it into perspective, the BC government spends and collects $50 billion each year. Financial services, real estate, retail, and other services are big. I doubt tourism is or ever was more than 3% of the economy, except maybe in 1986 and 2010.