...not even a welcome home! Scrutiny at the border.

Hello all,

I was left puzzled and quite outraged after a recent incident at Pearson. I attend college in the States and flew in recently to attend for a sudden family emergency, at which point I was subject to intense scrutiny from the Canadian immigration officer.

'How long are you staying?'
'A couple of days, I'm home to attend to urgent matters in the family.'
'HOW LONG?' demanded the officer, suddenly raising her tone.
'Three days', I ad-libbed. The truth was, I had bought a fully flexible ticket and hadn't the foggiest idea how long I would have to be away from school for.
The officer then proceeded to make quite a fuss about the fact that I had declared a 15 month absence on my arrivals form (I tend to stay in the US for holidays and the like).

I was on the verge of demanding to know if there were any restrictions on the time I could spend in my own country as a Canadian citizen, but having toiled through a week of presentations and having to attend an unexpected funeral the next day, I simply didn't have the energy to put up a fight.

Is it commonplace, then, for this to happen to Canadian citizens? I don't ever recall being treated as nearly as bad this by American officers. My only guess is that it might have been the US address I filled in on the arrivals declaration - do non-residents get treated any differently? Are immigration officers even aware of the distinction in status in my file?

Happens all the time unfortunately. I've read of Canadians being grilled at the Canada border when they're going home to visit, and of Americans being grilled at the US border when they're going home. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it, other than you just got the short straw and the border official who just happened to be in a bad mood at the time.

Non-residents *do* get treated differently no doubt. I guess they're fishing to find out if you're carrying any contraband. Or just in a bad mood.

I'd say it depends 98% on the officer you get at the border. You may have all your ducks in a row, but if the officer is a power hungry moron, it doesn't make a difference. You can have all kinds of complications and end of with a sane officer and find yourself having a very plesant experience.

I'm a Canadian citizen (non-resident) but now a permanent resident of the USA.(came in on a CR-1 visa) I have gone back to Canada numerous of times, sometimes with my wife (USA citizen) sometimes alone. When traveling with my wife, they could care less about her, but they pay more attention to me. Never that rude, but ask a lot of questions. Same thing when I travel alone. They are just doing there jobs, some can just sound a bit "tougher" lol

My husband (a Canadian) drove across the border last weekend (note that we live in the US and his car has US plates). He was prepared to hand over his passport but the Canadian customs officer didn't even ask to see it. It's all luck of the draw, unfortunately.