About crossing the border (just visiting)

[Liz0224]

I hope this hasn't been posted before, if it has my apologies. I need some advice on visiting the states. I'm a Canadian citizen, have a passport, of course I fell in love with a guy from the states He flew me down early in May, I had a return ticket for August 8th. Problem is that I live with my parents, and to save a long story, I don't work, don't own property. He wanted to pay for my trip, I had some savings though. I got to the airport, passed security, and next thing I knew the border officers were asking questions like how can I prove I intend to come back, how can I pay for my stay, and etc. I got lucky, told my story to someone, and he let me stay for 3 weeks since that's about all I could pay for. He put a paper in my passport, an I-94 I believe, and wrote in the day I was supposed to come back. So I came back on the date supposed to, now I'm missing my man and planning on going back down. I have a few questions. I still have my ticket to come back in August, planning on flying down in July, 2-3 week stay. Is there anything I can do to make my crossing easier.. this time I'll have the money to prove I can pay for my stay, should I print off a balance of my bank account? What if I rent, should I get a copy of my rental agreement? If I only plan on staying for 2-3 weeks, are they even going to care? Or this time maybe I'll have a hard time because of what happened before.. What if I decided to stay later than Aug 8th.. Would that hinder my being able to enter the states later on? Will they know or care? I know these are a lot of questions, I've been trying to find the answers and have only managed to get myself confused. I just want to be able to visit him, hopefully for longer than 2 or 3 weeks, or if that's all I have, I want to be sure that they'll let me on that plane. Any advice or info would be greatly appreciated

[Reba]

Once you've been flagged, you're flagged for life basically, and will be pulled in to secondary inspection every time you try to visit.

If you live with your parents still, do you even have a rental agreement, and if you don't have a job, how do you pay rent?

If you have no job, and no ties to Canada, and you have a US citizen boyfriend in the US, any time you try to visit is going to be a hassle. I wouldn't recommend lying to US CBP officials ever. They're trained to catch you in it. And they won't be very nice about it either.

You can try to go visit, but without ties to Canada, you'll have a hard time.

[Liz0224]

Thanks for the quick reply, although it's definitely not as good as I was hoping for. My ties to Canada are mostly personal, I have a daughter here who would be unable to come to the states, and am still legally married. I can get a job between now and the time I would leave in July. Is there anything else you could recommend I do? I'd love to be able to stay in the states for a few months rather than a few weeks. Sounds like we have a long road ahead of us until that can happen.

[Steven]

The law requires you to have proof of abode abroad and sufficient funds to cover the trip, so that's what you need. A rental agreement and a copy of your bank statement would certainly help. It helps to be specific about the departure date as well. If you have a specific date in mind, you can tell them that and even request an I-94 with that date on it if they get suspicious.

[fiestagirl]

It would probably help if you were going to come back and could convince CBP of that. The first time I visited my boyfriend in the U.S., the guy questioned me quite a bit but I was honest about everything. I did plan on coming back as I had a year left of my degree to go, and I just answered his questions truthfully and from then on, I had no problems. I know every experience is different though. I think what really helped is that I had a job in Canada that I was going back to.

Also when you're going in for months, it probably does raise alarm bells for them as they think you'll stay. If your ticket is for only week or so, it doesn't seem to make them as alarmed. And once you're there, you can change your ticket to stay a bit longer if you decide to. Just don't overstay!:)

[Reba]

How would you plan to tell your employer shortly after you're hired that you plan to immediately take several months vacation time?

[Liz0224]

My employer would be a family member who is aware of the situation. She wouldn't have a problem with it. So just to get this straight, if I go down in July and tell them I have my ticket and plan to return in August, I can't decide to stay longer? I thought you only had to return by a certain date if they give you the I-94 that says it. And just wondering, is it this hard for Americans to come to Canada?

[Steven]

You certainly can stay longer than what you declare to the CBP officer if your plans change, but if they parole you in and give you an I-94 with a fixed depature date, you must leave by that date.

Given that your entry record will reflect your previous status (with an I-94) there's a good chance the same thing will happen again and this time they may be even more suspicious because you're doing it again. So like I said, get all your ducks in a row - have proof you live abroad, have proof you have sufficient funds to cover an extended trip.

And no, it's generally not this hard for Americans to come to Canada although technically from a legal standpoint the law is basically the same in this scenario, the only major difference is the US has a fiancée visa provision and Canada doesn't, but Canada recognizes common-law marriages more easily than the US. The reason it's easier is because CBSA tend not to be hardasses to the same extent as CBP, although it can happen, as Reba can attest to.