Ralphstars

Hi - I am preparing to land from within Canada as a UK Spousal sponsorship PR

Can I land via Coutts on the Montana border ? Are there Immigration Services there and is it possible during a weekend - ie on a Sunday ? Or do I need to plan my trip during the week ?

Many thanks if anyone can answer !

mandymoochops

24 hr border crossing and yes you can land there

http://www.ezbordercrossing.com/list.../#.U0IfRfnxqWY

Piff Poff

Another yes here.

tim010

It's not 24 hours for immigration entry though. 0730hrs to 2300hrs.

Tim

Ralphstars

I struggled hugely to get to speak to anyone on any of the cic or border services numbers available using the web link or get the information I was looking for from the recorded messages but thanks for the advice so far -
So I can Land with my COPR on any day of the week at Coutts but only between 07.30 ad 23.00 hrs ?

Thanks everyone

Steve_

You can do it at Carway if you want, shorter drive.

If you're driving down there is always this problem that if you tell CBP this is the reason you're entering the US they put you down as technically denied entry, which can possibly cause problems on visits to the US in the future.

You might want to make a trip down to Great Falls and do some shopping and use your visa on the way back. Or have a nose around Kalispell.

Steve_

News to me but that's what it says on the CBSA website, I've been into Coutts POE many times, not sure why they couldn't process a visa outside those hours as the desk is always open. Must need some person who isn't always on-duty.

What really annoys me is the NEXUS lane is only open 3-5pm, M-F, these are apparently "peak hours" which is also news to me.

What happens at Sweet Grass is that it takes three hours to get there from Calgary so from 11-12 there is usually a fair bit of build-up and then 2-3 it happens again as everyone from Edmonton gets there.

Ralphstars

So no need to mention on entering the US for the shopping weekend that we intend to activate our PR on returning to Canada so they don't do the administrative refusal thing ? We knew that doing the " flag poling " thing would mean the technical refusal so we had already intended to make it a weekend trip to GF or Kalispell

Thanks again !

Piff Poff

Kalispell is much nicer than GF imo

neilg14

I did mine at Carway after hearing other people at my company had problems at Coutts, having turned up when they were busy.
Very rare they're busy at Carway.
Done & dusted in about 20 mins.

Piff Poff

We did ours at Carway too, really friendly there. They even retook our photos for free in case the ones we had were not quite right.

Ralphstars

Carway seems a good plan then ! We are in Lethbridge so either is not too far - I had a nice Immigration Officer when we arrived in Calgary to land with my son requesting a 12month Visitors Permit and they stamped it to allow him to go to school too - it took about 30 mins to approve but we had all the documents he asked us for and he was nice to us - the female officer in the next booth was giving people a hard time ! !

Assume Carway immigration desk is open on a Sunday ?

neilg14

I think you can google them and it tells you their hours.

mandymoochops

We did ours at Carway - got there told them we were shopping / weekend getaway trip for 4 days then going to land on the way back.

The US decided that I should land straight away (so refused me entry) we turned around, went back into Canada - landed and then came straight back to the US for our trip???

When we re entered the US again, I filled out the form that says "have you ever been denied entry" as "yes" and the bloke said "why did you put that??? So I said "well half an hour ago you denied me entry??? and I'm not gonna lie" he huffed and puffed, wrote something on the form and said "don't EVER put you were denied entry again as it could cause problems"

Ralphstars

That's exactly what I don't want to happen ! So I shall enter US as a 'shopper' and say nothing - then return to Canada telling them at that point my intention to officially 'Land' as a PR 😊

Is Carway open for Activating PRs on a Sunday ?