Hi,

This is probably a very straight forward question, but travelling to and via the states has never seemed simple to me. Me and my girlfriend are heading to Bellingham from Vancouver for the day on Saturday. I am a dual citizen (Canadian and British) with a British passport (but have proof of Canadian citizenship), my girlfriend is a British citizen with an application in process for sponsorship.

So my question is, other than our passports, do we need anything else to get into the US? We have a return greyhound ticket and my girlfriend has flight tickets out of Canada. There aren't any crazy forms I have to fill out are there?

You will need proof of canadian citizenship to get back into Canada. A friend forgot hers once and had to go to the special room for some questions....

You will have to fill out visa waiver forms at the border. Pay $6 each, be fingerprinted and have your photos taken by the US people. They ask you where you are going and why.

Not if you are Canadian

don't know about land borders, but you probably need to fill in the ESTA jobby too before heading to the US.

https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov

Only when going by air.

That's great. Thanks all.

I filled that in online at the weekend (I'm in Atlanta at the moment), and upon reaching US customs at Toronto airport, I was told I need not have bothered, they still wanted the paper equivalent completing. That was just before the immigration guy noted that my passport said I was an 'F', rather than a 'M' - the dummies that issued it made a typo

It meant another 2hrs sat waiting for an interview (that lasted all of 10 seconds), then a mad dash for the plane.

If you are travelling on a British passport you may have to. Doesn't it depend on what Canadian documentation they have with them? ie Passport??

Yes, depends on what documentation you are traveling on. It may also raise questions as to why one is traveling on a UK passport with a Cdn citizenship card and no Canadian passport.

I have dual Canadian/British nationality. New regulations state you need a valid Canadian passport to travel to the States - previous to June a citizenship card was acceptable.
My Canadian passport has expired so when crossing the land border at Blane I presented my British passport, expecting to have to pay my $6. When questioned by the US immigration I explained I lived in Canada but my Canadian passport had expired. He asked where my expired passport was - "at home but I have my citizenship card" I replied. He actually accepted my Canadian Citizenship card and said my expired passport would have been OK.

Thanks for all the advice, I knew it wouldn't be simple. Luckily I have an old expired Canadian passport as well so I'll take that along.

One more question, can I pay the $6 fee in Canadian dollars or does it have to be USD?

Must be US Dollars.

So I guess you've already gone and are hopefully back ~ When we drove from Winnipeg to Deluph for scuba diving on lake Superior it took us 3 hours to cross the border. We had to fill out the visa waiver forms (we are canadian PR with british passports) and had photographs, finger prints and eye thinggys....... What a process........ Did you travel through easy or not.... Did the coach have to leave you behind and pick you up later?

As per much of the US, offer a Canadian dollar and you'll be greeted by this Might as well be offering them Zimbabwean dollars....

When we crossed at Niagara this summer I paid the $6 with a Visa card. Also, as well as mug shots and fingerprints they took photos of our eyes!