Hi there!

Well after nearly 18 months in Canada we're finally adventuring across into the US in the next week or so for a weekend away in Seattle.

Can anyone advise whether we need anything other than our passports and permanent resident cards to get back?

Also if anyone knows any good things to do in Seattle (we'll be there 2 nights) then please let me know.

Thanks

Zoé M. x

For U.S. entry, http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Visa_Waiver_Program

If it's anything like Windsor you sometimes don't even need a passport to get back in

I dont know if we got the American As#hole jobsworth on the border but we planned touring for 3 weeks in the US, winging it and staying in hotels.....he refused the family entry unless we gave him a permanant US address where we were staying!! I explained we we didnt have one as we were touring and despite our tickets paid for and ferry booked (going vancouver island route) and the fact we had a six week old baby he refused us entry! After a few frantic calls we came up with a friends distant friends cousin removed six times address....that was fine.....welcome to America!!! :curse:

Sounds like you did have a jobsworth! We usually just give the name of a town we will be visiting and get the have a nice trip, if you don't think you'll be back down in 3 months then make sure you hand the visa waiver back in.

As for Seattle, I have heard there is a fab market there - have no idea what it's called (something to do with fish or something) but daughter went with the cadets and had a great time - someone that's more awake will let you know.

Pike Place Market... quite the zoo on weekends.

I don't think you do need your passport to get back in as long as you have your PR card.

The USA need your passport and don't want your PR card.

Golden rule of US border crossing is ALWAYS take an address with you where you're going first, even if it's the address of a shop - they go into meltdown if you haven't got something to write on the green visa slip!

That's the thing - we don't have a PR card..... Sometimes they don't ask to see anything!!!! Or other times they've taken the passports but not even opened them

Don't joke!!! And never say "Hi Jack"!!! A bunch of us were driving to Vegas: A friend of mine thought it would be cute to joke. It was another 11 hours and a strip search later before his car crossed the border. (That thumb has a glove on it BTW)

Anyone who tries to joke or argue with those guys is a fool.

I got yelled at a couple of years back by the US border agent in Ottawa simply because I hadn't written "hotel" after the name of my destination address. I declined to point out that what I had written made it bleedin' obvious it was a hotel.

We saw someone in the immigration office drunk and giving them some verbal the other week - was expecting them to get filled with lead, till it turned out they had US passports, therefore can get away with it....

care to explain your logic?

You can't be denied entry to the US if you're a US citizen.

If they'd had a different passport, they'd have been turned round back to Canada for sure, probably after receiving the rubber glove treatment....

I'll explain it for him. US officials and airline crew, like Canadian/UK/whatever officials and airline crew treat domestics much differently from foreigners.