Travel to the USA
 

Hi I am currently looking into travelling to the US to visit family and was wondering on the rules on flying to Canada and then crossing the border into the US on surface transport for UK citizens. Any info would be greatfully recieved.
Thanks

Valid passports and patience, I believe.

If you go here:

http://travel.state.gov/visa/temp/wi...hout_1990.html

you will see the regulations for travelers coming from a "visa waiver" country such as UK.

I agree with the suggestion of "patience". Depends on the mood of the guy in the booth. You very likely will have to go into the office at the crossing point. It should be "yes, sir", "no, sir", and "Thank you, sir". Muttering about the lineage of the agent should only be done in the car at least 100 yards later.

Thanks, so nothing special then apart from probably a few extra questions as to why I am entering from Canada and not direct from the UK.

Yes, you'll likely get a few extra questions about why you traveled to Canada first, particularly if your stay in the US is a short one. They will ask you how long and possibly where you are staying.

Canadian border staff are much friendlier, in my experience

I have done it afew times now and it is no different than if you came from the UK. They are not so interested in why you came via Canada...more in your passport and nationality and what your reason for coming into the states is.

Sign the Visa waiver form....answer the questions at border control...and be on your merry way. Depending on where you are crossing the queues can be quite long.

There are direct flights to Canada from numerous UK cities at considerably cheaper prices Having a plausable reason to arrive via CYYZ should be fairly apparent

I did it last year with no problems.
One thing to remember is ensure that you give back the part that gets stapled to your passport. They did not seem to want it in Canada, so l parked and walked back over to the USA and gave it back to them, so that l would not have any problems in the future.
Just remember you will need to have around $6 per person ready to pay with your Visa waiver form.:ok:

Surface is usually ok, unlike the mob inhabiting Pearson. However make sure you have some US dollars on you (theres a min limit so they dont consider you destitute, cant remember what). I got turned back at Niagara and had to get some on the Canadian side before crossing again.

Thanks for the quick responses.

Onion

Never had any problems going into the US from Canada, always been treated politely and in a friendly yet professional manner. As always "Yes, Sir" is the key to an easy transit. Going into Canada is another matter entirely. Shoved in a room for over an hour and treated like a criminal.:\

How come you know what being treated like a criminal feels like Lexxi?

I remember as an exchange student crossing the boarder near detroit about 5 years ago. The offical barked into the open car window at my friend and accused him of "having an attitiude" despite my friend never actually opening his mouth!!

I could do nothing but hysterically laugh at this point which seemed to put the official on the wrong foot, and we were waived through...

Yank border officals = bunch of animals who only know how to obey rules!

I flew directly into the US a few years ago on a Visa waiver. So I had the green stub stapled in my passport. Drove to Canada in a rental car to visit a friend for a day or two. No problems at both border crossings. Canadian official stamped my passport on the page opposit the green stub with an arrow pointing to it. Two days later the US official saw my passport with the green stub, waived me through.

The way I understand it is that the first time you enter the US, whether by land or air, you need to fill in the green visa waiver form (one per person) and the white customs form (one per family). The stub of the visa waiver form is stapled into your passport and acts as your visa during your visit. You need to give it to an official (or the checkin staff will hand them in in bulk, when leaving by air) when you leave the US (unless you intend to come back within the visa waiver validity period, I guess). The paperwork apparently costs a minor sum of money, which is included in the ticket price if arriving by air?

Do allow plenty of time for your border crossing though. On the way back, I had to queue up for more than an hour. And staying polite to any customs or immigration officer is a good idea in any country.

All the above is correct. There really is no issue with it. However a piece of advice. Try to exit the US from the same point of entry (i.e. back into Canada) that you entered in to. In theory you can leave from a different point but on occasions when I and colleagues have done this (i.e. for business / connection reasons it has ALMOST ALWAYS caused problems.

But be friendly, and they will be too. They are human - just doin' their job.
PM

Done this twice as a Brit. At Jackson (Maine) and the one south of Thunder Bay into Minnesota. No problems, just the usual questions about my intentions, despite on both occasions it being about 0200 hrs ! No trace of a queue either, at that time of night.

Hi thanks for the help. Went to the states on a round trip entering at O' Hare and exitng via Seatac. I didn't have any problems entering even though I had no address for my stay in Chicago, just a phone number, immigration stamped the passport asked purpose of the stay (family and holiday) and were very pleasent. My girlfriend on the other hand had problems, she was sent to another immigraton offical. Her immigration offical was very rude to her even though she explained that we had no address just a phone number for my relatives. We were told while in the queue a phone number was sufficent. Anyway the immigration offical started getting angry and being very rude toward my girlfriend. She then asked to see her flight details and saw that we were spending time in Seattle. She then asked for the hotel information for our stay in Seattle, this caused even more problems as I was the only one of the two of us that had a full set of details, she wouldn't accept the name of the hotel with booking reference number etc. This meant that I had to be recalled back into the immigration area (I had already passed into baggage reclaim) to provide the full details, which i duly did while being stared at and scrutinised as if I were a criminal. On exiting baggage reclaim had one final check where was asked again for where we were staying and said with relatives which again was sufficent.
The flights from Chicago to Seattle and the flight home from Seattle were no problem and at no stage did we have a problem.
All in all the immigration staff were helpful and polite, it just a shame one or two have to spoil it. Ok I know its there job but they have to remember we have just been on a 7 hour flight and are then made to queue up for 30 minutes only to be treated in a rude manner.
Anyway thanks everyone for the info and advice, just thought I'd share my experience!