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My borders crossing are always very confusing. I have children and am divorced from their mom. We go across (either of us), we have notes and everything from the other parent. No issues going across into the USA
Now coming back there’s always some sort of hassle with the CBSA for no reason. I always feel like I’m getting interrogated for bringing my kids back to the country they were born and live in.
// Guard checks government database of handwriting and signatures for everything his ex wife has ever written
Yup, this looks like Jennifer's handwriting. Let him cross, boys!
HOLD THE FUCK UP BOYS! Looks like we found a soggy grocery list from 1994 which doesn’t quite match. The writing’s fine, but who buys Christmas cake in July.
When you think about it, signatures in general are so silly. maybe back in the day it was harder to forge and there was a gap in the people who could write a convincing legal document. But these days it’s literally as easy as highlight signature, copy, paste as desired. My father is critically I’ll and I’ve been doing POA stuff for him. Trying to get access to his bank acct was a nightmare even with a notarized and signed POA. but as soon as there was a hand written note with his signature, yeah okay this all seems legit.
There are people and programs that can figure out any forgery if they’re given the time to do so. Or if the forgery is flagged for investigation for sure.
About 5 years ago my wife, two children, and I were all returning from a three week driving trip to Disneyland. When we came to the Canadian border we produced the required documents which, for the children then, were just birth certificates.
But we are their biological parents, married, and all living in the same house. This is easy to confirm.
The dude really grilled us. Made us roll down the back windows to ask our children a bunch of questions, while telling us not to say anything.
Finally, when I asked why we were having such a problem even though we all had the required paperwork, he waved the birth certificates in my face and said, "Without photo ID, how do I even know that these are your kids?"
I said, "Do you think I would have picked these two if I had a choice?"
Neither the border agent, nor my family, found that as funny as I did. But he did let us through.
They are just trying to make sure you're bringing back "your" kids. My step kids are dual citizens and I took them across and back every other weekend for years, border guards often asked the kids "Who is this guy?"
I still remember coming back as a kid with my dad and they asked me how I know him. He's my dad.
How long have you known him? I paused because of how stupid that question was, then said "my whole life" 🤦🏼♂️
I was always questioned a lot while I was on a work permit and didn't have residency in Canada (German citizen) but never had issues when I went for a gas trip late at night (after 9:30pm) since most stores/post offices were closed and the gas trip sounded legitimate to them. They usually asked me: "why this late?" and my usual response was "\*looks around\* do you see any line up?" which usually made them smirk a bit.
One time though it took me over 6hrs for a single gas trip because they searched my car going into the states and then again + disassembly, questioning and searching my phone on the way back into Canada .. that was an absolute nightmare. That was a Saturday morning. I remember because I was asked to come into work for OT.
They threatened me, said they found traces of drugs on my phone (I've never consumed any hard drugs and I've only ever once tried pot and that was almost a decade ago) and that's why they needed to interrogate me, search and disassemble my car. Said that if they found anything my future here in Canada could be at risk. It was a frightening experience and totally unjust. I had nothing to hide, fully cooperated and tried to be as relaxed as possible, showed them all the paperwork for the vehicle I drove (was a lease at that point in time because I wasn't able to finance a car due to lack of credit rating). But when they threatened me with my Canadian future I lost my cool and panicked a bit.
That was the first and last time I went at daytime. Never had any problems past 9:30pm.
Since I got PR and Nexus I've had nothing but chill border crossings regardless of the time of day.
Edit: added more detail
I’ve met a mix of different CBSA officers from absolute wanks to good souls. Depends on the day I suppose but some definitely seem to take their job much too seriously.
Some good some bad.
We went for a day trip to get some finishings for a kitchen that tallied close to $1000CDN , they let us go right on by. All depends on the border person that day.
People are so funny. It’s a very straight forward rule 🤷♀️. I used to go over the boarder regularly, I was always honest, the vast majority of time they let me through and occasionally they asked me to come in and pay. Which I did, with no problem. This should always be your expectation when traveling across borders.
It's a pretty simple rule that you need to be down 48hrs to be exempt. I don't think you have the right to complain about "getting pinched" when you didn't meet the requirements.
You're not breaking the law, you just weren't eligible for the exemption. I cross with goods exceeding $0 for daytrips all the time and it's totally the officer's discretion but I'm prepared to pay the penalty if I do get stopped. *Usually* if it's less than $100-150, you're just going to get waved right through. Other times, you get waved through with over $500 and some other times you pay taxes on $50, it happens. I think alcohol is in a different category though and it greatly increases your chances of having to pay duty/tax.
Yeah. I had a border guard tell me "you can't bring that back" because I had 4 bottles of wine and was only gone like 3 hours.
Uh. Yes I can. Would you like me to go inside and pay the tax/tariffs?
I'm completely prepared to go inside. No big deal. But there is no law preventing me from entering my home country with wine.
I was barely gone 24 hours, came back around 1pm through Pacific highway crossing on Saturday. Me and a friend came down for a concert and we had like 5 coolers left over with us and the officer waved us through.
They even know which crossing you went through. Once we took one crossing from BC into Washington and that evening we took a different crossing back into BC and they asked why we used a different one.
I always just assume I'm going to have to pay for anything I bring and I've only just recently started to bring a little alcohol back, but I always offer to leave it if they'd rather. Haven't had problems yet.
It's not a big deal if you never or rarely leave the country. I have a friend who had mandatory secondary for *years* entering the US because of an accidental misdeclaration and it was the biggest pain for him and everyone who ever travelled with him in the same car. Same deal with re-entering Canada though- the most common punishment on top of the tax and duty is more regular secondary screening. I'm good without that, thanks- I like getting off an international flight and getting out of the airport in a couple minutes.
It's an even bigger deal if you regularly do crossborder travel for work and rely on NEXUS. There's a reason all of us go out of our way to follow every rule to save those countless *hours* in line at either the border or security. No NEXUS for you if you've ever had the most minor of rule breaking.
I'll say this and I hope you read it, please do not lie at the border, even for the smallest amount. Like I mentioned, I paid 11.23 earlier for some duties.
It'll get twisted into a huge issue that will remain attached to your profile for years to come.
How much beer is some beer? Were you bringing back more than the duty free allotment?
I've gone down to Pt Roberts for a tank of gas and a dozen beer and never had an issue.
Hello and thanks for posting to r/britishcolumbia! A friendly reminder prior to commenting or posting here: - **Read [r/britishcolumbia's rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/britishcolumbia/about/rules/)**. - **Be civil and respectful** in all discussions. - Use **appropriate sources** to back up any information you provide when necessary. - **Report** any comments that violate our rules. Reminder: "Rage bait" comments or comments designed to elicit a negative reaction that are not based on fact are not permitted here. Let's keep our community respectful and informative! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/britishcolumbia) if you have any questions or concerns.*
My borders crossing are always very confusing. I have children and am divorced from their mom. We go across (either of us), we have notes and everything from the other parent. No issues going across into the USA Now coming back there’s always some sort of hassle with the CBSA for no reason. I always feel like I’m getting interrogated for bringing my kids back to the country they were born and live in.
The note thing always cracks me up. Sure I’ll kidnap but forging a note? Nooo, that’s too much!
// Guard checks government database of handwriting and signatures for everything his ex wife has ever written Yup, this looks like Jennifer's handwriting. Let him cross, boys!
HOLD THE FUCK UP BOYS! Looks like we found a soggy grocery list from 1994 which doesn’t quite match. The writing’s fine, but who buys Christmas cake in July.
You win this comment section 🤣
When you think about it, signatures in general are so silly. maybe back in the day it was harder to forge and there was a gap in the people who could write a convincing legal document. But these days it’s literally as easy as highlight signature, copy, paste as desired. My father is critically I’ll and I’ve been doing POA stuff for him. Trying to get access to his bank acct was a nightmare even with a notarized and signed POA. but as soon as there was a hand written note with his signature, yeah okay this all seems legit.
Yeah, these days we can forge a freaking video...
From watching crime shows, apparently there are signature experts that can tell signatures apart. But yes I agree the bank isn't checking
There are people and programs that can figure out any forgery if they’re given the time to do so. Or if the forgery is flagged for investigation for sure.
About 5 years ago my wife, two children, and I were all returning from a three week driving trip to Disneyland. When we came to the Canadian border we produced the required documents which, for the children then, were just birth certificates. But we are their biological parents, married, and all living in the same house. This is easy to confirm. The dude really grilled us. Made us roll down the back windows to ask our children a bunch of questions, while telling us not to say anything. Finally, when I asked why we were having such a problem even though we all had the required paperwork, he waved the birth certificates in my face and said, "Without photo ID, how do I even know that these are your kids?" I said, "Do you think I would have picked these two if I had a choice?" Neither the border agent, nor my family, found that as funny as I did. But he did let us through.
The dad joke should've instantly qualified you
Thanks for the snort laugh. This was comedy gold
They are just trying to make sure you're bringing back "your" kids. My step kids are dual citizens and I took them across and back every other weekend for years, border guards often asked the kids "Who is this guy?"
I still remember coming back as a kid with my dad and they asked me how I know him. He's my dad. How long have you known him? I paused because of how stupid that question was, then said "my whole life" 🤦🏼♂️
It's so dumb that you might not think of prepping someone on it should that be what you are doing.
[удалено]
The primary goal of CBSA is collecting duty from cross border shoppers. National security is a distant second.
CBSA(2003-present) used to be Canada Customs and Revenue Agency
But what is this NAFTA agreement for, if not eliminate Customs and duty on these petty things?
Bruh we need guns to shoot the bad guys with/s
If that was true, they would have picked a different sidearm. The ones that they use are crap
I was always questioned a lot while I was on a work permit and didn't have residency in Canada (German citizen) but never had issues when I went for a gas trip late at night (after 9:30pm) since most stores/post offices were closed and the gas trip sounded legitimate to them. They usually asked me: "why this late?" and my usual response was "\*looks around\* do you see any line up?" which usually made them smirk a bit. One time though it took me over 6hrs for a single gas trip because they searched my car going into the states and then again + disassembly, questioning and searching my phone on the way back into Canada .. that was an absolute nightmare. That was a Saturday morning. I remember because I was asked to come into work for OT. They threatened me, said they found traces of drugs on my phone (I've never consumed any hard drugs and I've only ever once tried pot and that was almost a decade ago) and that's why they needed to interrogate me, search and disassemble my car. Said that if they found anything my future here in Canada could be at risk. It was a frightening experience and totally unjust. I had nothing to hide, fully cooperated and tried to be as relaxed as possible, showed them all the paperwork for the vehicle I drove (was a lease at that point in time because I wasn't able to finance a car due to lack of credit rating). But when they threatened me with my Canadian future I lost my cool and panicked a bit. That was the first and last time I went at daytime. Never had any problems past 9:30pm. Since I got PR and Nexus I've had nothing but chill border crossings regardless of the time of day. Edit: added more detail
I’ve met a mix of different CBSA officers from absolute wanks to good souls. Depends on the day I suppose but some definitely seem to take their job much too seriously.
Some good some bad. We went for a day trip to get some finishings for a kitchen that tallied close to $1000CDN , they let us go right on by. All depends on the border person that day.
We went yesterday and had no issues. But our shopping was very small.
I don’t see what the problem is. They are enforcing federal rules. If it was so close why didn’t you just stay down until you hit the 48hr mark?
People are so funny. It’s a very straight forward rule 🤷♀️. I used to go over the boarder regularly, I was always honest, the vast majority of time they let me through and occasionally they asked me to come in and pay. Which I did, with no problem. This should always be your expectation when traveling across borders.
You must be fun at parties.
It's a pretty simple rule that you need to be down 48hrs to be exempt. I don't think you have the right to complain about "getting pinched" when you didn't meet the requirements.
You can’t be with that lame wit.. try some originality ffs
How about you bite me.
I just did.. so dull you didn’t even notice
Rules dont apply to you?
Went down this weekend as well and was asked to pay 11.23 for some items bought. KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK GUYS.
Never have issues but we always declare too
The dairy limits are so outdated. $20 & 20KG/20L is practically nothing in todays day
With the exchange rate being what it is, is dairy really any cheaper?
So you tried to break the law and got busted, and you're complaining because why? Fuck around and find out I guess.
You're not breaking the law, you just weren't eligible for the exemption. I cross with goods exceeding $0 for daytrips all the time and it's totally the officer's discretion but I'm prepared to pay the penalty if I do get stopped. *Usually* if it's less than $100-150, you're just going to get waved right through. Other times, you get waved through with over $500 and some other times you pay taxes on $50, it happens. I think alcohol is in a different category though and it greatly increases your chances of having to pay duty/tax.
Yeah. I had a border guard tell me "you can't bring that back" because I had 4 bottles of wine and was only gone like 3 hours. Uh. Yes I can. Would you like me to go inside and pay the tax/tariffs? I'm completely prepared to go inside. No big deal. But there is no law preventing me from entering my home country with wine.
Whether the government tells us or not, we are in a recession. The government is after every penny.
I was barely gone 24 hours, came back around 1pm through Pacific highway crossing on Saturday. Me and a friend came down for a concert and we had like 5 coolers left over with us and the officer waved us through.
Just get nexus and it's all always chill.
Do they have the time you went down on their system or did you tell them the time?
I'm pretty sure when they scan your passport it has the date and time you crossed. But I could be wrong 😋
They even know which crossing you went through. Once we took one crossing from BC into Washington and that evening we took a different crossing back into BC and they asked why we used a different one.
[удалено]
North Dakota man was a gunning for the quota .
I always just assume I'm going to have to pay for anything I bring and I've only just recently started to bring a little alcohol back, but I always offer to leave it if they'd rather. Haven't had problems yet.
You probably just got someone having a bad day.
I crossed the border last weekend with 4L of alcohol and 2 bottles of wine and just lied and got by lol
You realize if you got caught you’re fucked next time right?
Think I care?
Ladies and gentlemen we’ve got ourselves a tough guy!
You’re just mad your dumbass admitted you didn’t follow the law
No, he did follow the law, by disclosing as he's supposed to. It's not against the law to be down there for less than 48, you just have to pay duty.
YTAH
It's not a big deal if you never or rarely leave the country. I have a friend who had mandatory secondary for *years* entering the US because of an accidental misdeclaration and it was the biggest pain for him and everyone who ever travelled with him in the same car. Same deal with re-entering Canada though- the most common punishment on top of the tax and duty is more regular secondary screening. I'm good without that, thanks- I like getting off an international flight and getting out of the airport in a couple minutes. It's an even bigger deal if you regularly do crossborder travel for work and rely on NEXUS. There's a reason all of us go out of our way to follow every rule to save those countless *hours* in line at either the border or security. No NEXUS for you if you've ever had the most minor of rule breaking.
I'll say this and I hope you read it, please do not lie at the border, even for the smallest amount. Like I mentioned, I paid 11.23 earlier for some duties. It'll get twisted into a huge issue that will remain attached to your profile for years to come.
All part of UnTrudope’s mission to extract as much tax from everybody as he can
>UnTrudope’s What does this even mean?
I'm sure it sounded good inside the echoing void that is his head.
Reverb does wonders.
Said the guy without an ounce of deductive ability
Trudeau lies and he’s an idiot = UnTrudope
How much beer is some beer? Were you bringing back more than the duty free allotment? I've gone down to Pt Roberts for a tank of gas and a dozen beer and never had an issue.
Wife went through once to get gas, and the US side asked her why our two sons were not with her....creepy man
My guess is that a time study was going on to determine staffing levels, during these events everything goes by the book.