withabix

No, I meant an I-94-W

foreigngirl

So, we did. We drove to Bellingham, didn't mention anything about flagpoling at the border, went to secondary, had to wait for about 2 hours (lunchtime and only 2 officers), my SO had to complete an I-94 (I didn't because I have a B1/B2 visa), we paid the fee and off we went. Two days later, when returning to Canada, we said that we're activating a PR, they told us where to park, we entered the building, went up to the counter (no queue) and really nice lady went over the form with us, told us where to sign, then sent us to read about Citizenship, 5 minutes later called us back, gave us our passports back, gave us some flags and said 'Welcome to Canada'.
Easy peasy

Tootlepootle

Congratulations! Hopefully that will be us very soon!

dave_j

We flagpoled at the Aldergrove crossing. Had a chat to the US official and explained the purpose. He opened a few bollards we never entered the US proper just redirected back into Canada. A quiet crossing and usually a few minutes wait.

Former Lancastrian

Just be thankful you had no issues with CBSA on returning as what the US did was not the correct way and could have landed you in trouble with CBSA if there had been a problem. For others reading this is not the correct way to flag pole as if Canada finds a reason to refuse you entry then we would return you to the USA and you are now stuck in the USA and they have to deal with you.
It doesn't happen very often but it has.

dave_j

Hmmm... Salient point FL, and sadly taken note of.
Just another example of the innocent at the mercy of the incompetent.
From ignorance of a valid visa type to a failure to issue required documents and now I understand this probably extends to a further failure to understand border control regulations, does anyone extend the hand of professional education to these officials?
Seems I'm fortunate that either CBSA officials were having a good day or like their US colleagues they just thought they were doing the job right.
Just goes to show that you can't trust anyone to do anything properly.

Gozit

Yep... If it were me i'd always go for doing a full trip across the border, not mentioning anything of flagpoling to the US officials, at the very least fill up with some cheap petrol and go to Meijer grocery shopping then go back across and land as a PR. That way no risk of incompetent/innocent BSO's or being given an administrative or actual refusal into the USA.

Cheers all.

Stinkypup

But if you just to flip round, do the flag poling at the border properly and then come back to beautiful BC. We had some boating on the lake to do, not fannying unnecessarily in a boring bit of the U.S. You know how much I hate shopping I would take the administrative refusal any day over shopping. It has never caused a problem on many many trips South of the border and nor do I in the future.

Gozit

Oh yes, in principle I agree. In practise though the risk of the CBP officer giving you a real refusal by accident instead of an administrative one would be too great a risk for me just to avoid ~3 hours in the home of the brave

Stinkypup

FL might be able to enlighten us with the frequency of this but I would think that it would be as likely as Canada adopting cricket as it's national game

R I C H

I flagpoled for my PR (at Sumas) and got a refusal of entry on my record from the US. It caused 6 years of secondary inspection flying to/via the US to anywhere and generally meant an extra 2-3 hours needing to be left between connecting flights. I had to apply for traveller redress via Homeland Security, which took over a year in itself, and resulted in a boilerplate photocopied response.

withabix

You must have got a bad one or Sumas is a bad choice - Peace Arch probably has a constant flow of Flagpolers....

Stinkypup

I amaware of your issues as previously posted but you aside I have not encountered any others - I would have no hesitation in recommending the administrative refusal given that 99.9% of procedures seem to be done correctly- sods law that yours wasnt

foreigngirl

Thank you and good luck

CReg91

Hi All,

I just read through the whole of this thread and learned a hell of a lot!

I'm currently in Toronto waiting for my CoPR. I plan on just driving down to Niagara falls for the day when it comes through.

Can someone just confirm that all I need to do is:

- drive down to the border with my CoPR, passport, and Goods Accompanying list
- tell them I'm checking out Niagara for the day
- return to the border later on and state that I'll be activating PR?

From what I've read above that should do the trick but I just want to double check so that I don't mess up!

Thanks in advance!