Very Canadian

Hi,

I'm hoping someone can shed some light/advice to my situation, as it's
a little bizarre.

For background, I'm Canadian (born in Canada), almost 30, employed with
stable employment for past three years, although I only rake in around
20K per year. I'm married to a professional who brings in 80-100K Cdn
per year (depending on job... before it was 100, but his current job
pays a bit less). I'm disabled, and was receiving disability income
prior to my obtaining non-discriminatory employment.

At my job, I received approval to have three weeks vacation, and would
like to take it in the US. I have some problems that cause me to look a
little weird to average border officials... I'm afraid to fly, and am
the only person in my family (parents, siblings, spouse) who has not
been on a plane in 15+ years. Between my spouse and I, we have enough
aeroplan miles to travel twice around the world first class, yet I
refuse to go fly anywhere with him. That makes me a person of means who
will willingly use ground transportation when it does not seem
reasonable to do so.

I don't have any criminal history, or incidents of previously been
denied into the US, but I have been over a few times for regular
shopping trips, and yes I know not everyone else gets asked, but
because I'm young, I always get asked more stuff, and because of
disability, I had to prove my ties to Canada more heavily as they felt
it was too easy to collect a pension and live "anywhere". So I seem to
get looked at a little more carefully...

Now my situation is different, I have access to means and funds, but my
spouse and I never share banking stuff. For personal reasons, I do not
want to let another individual have access to my money, and need to be
sure I'm provided for. I have earned several thousand dollars that I
can prove I earned legally, but because of my income, it's assumed
someone in my income bracket is incapable of saving money. Whether or
not I can afford to be in the US for three weeks is likely to be
questioned, and I'm not really sure what to tell/show the border
officials...

I do have proof of bank account: chequing, savings, investment
portfolios (three of them with stable interest rates), as well I own
200K in assets in my name (that I also share with my spouse). The last
time I went over with friends, I was being asked all kinds of questions
about my spouse, because the officer did not understand how I could
afford to work only three or four days a week and live in a house I
owned. I feel vulnerable, like I'm being scrutinized (as someone who
works legally to cover up illegal income), but I don't know what to say
to that... I have credit cards with limits of 10K, yet no balance on
them... I have money I can spend, I will never be a financial burden to
anyone. My parents are professionals and have taught me well to fend
for myself, but explaining that to someone who is looking for something
is rather difficult.

What kinds of proof would I need for ground transportation? I obviously
won't have a return airfare ticket, and for buses and trains, it seems
as though return tickets mean nothing if the "possible immigrant" can't
provide the required proof. One officer told me to be sure to always
travel with proof of ties to Canada, and that because of my unique
situation, it's possible an officer will doubt said husband exists if I
don't have papers with both our names on it. (We have not ever
travelled together, we take separate vacations mostly... he flies to
Europe, and I Amtrak/Via/Greyhound to see friends locally).

Another thing that seems to always come up, they always want to know
how much money I have... as in, on my person. I understand we aren't
allowed to bring over more than 10K, but for me, that's not the
problem, the problem is, I travel always with less than $500 cash, and
since this is North America, that's what Visa, MasterCard, and Bank
Cards are for. But I can't prove to the officer that I'm not maxed out
and broke just by having these cards... would having recent statements
from all of the above help to prove funds?

I'm highly stressed out, as you can tell... last time I crossed, I
talked to a supervisor about my planned trip to ask what I needed to
bring, if there was anything that would exclude me. He was very nice
and helpful, but past experience tells me few are this nice. He was
trying to suggest if I just explained how I was married to a
professional who paid for everything (but had corroborating proof of
things being in my name) that would suffice as to how I can have a high
bank balance and not appear to spend much money. As I said, I'm
disabled, I don't do shopping and all that... I buy crap online because
getting around isn't the easiest for me. But at the same time, I feel
vulnerable because it looks bad on paper... I know how most of my
friends, co-workers, family and random strangers live their lives...
and I'm not like that, but proving that I haven't been shopping in the
last two weeks because no money has left my bank account is difficult,
when someone suspects that I have a secondary (not so legal) source of
income... it's not as if I have my spouse's bank statements either, in
our agreement, he doesn't look at mine, and i don't look at his, and
everything's arranged between us.

Any advice would make this easier... I haven't been in the US for more
than a couple of days since 9/11, and the way things are going with the
questions I get asked, I'm terrified of telling the officer I intend to
be there for three weeks because I don't know what I'll need to prove.
(But I won't lie... I just want to be prepared).

Thanks,
Lisa

Db

"Very Canadian" <[email protected]> wrote in

    > Another thing that seems to always come up, they always want to know
    > how much money I have... as in, on my person. I understand we aren't
    > allowed to bring over more than 10K, but for me, that's not the
    > problem, the problem is, I travel always with less than $500 cash, and
    > since this is North America, that's what Visa, MasterCard, and Bank
    > Cards are for.

It's not an inquisition, all you need to show is ties like Mortgage, utility
bills, your latest paystub and of course your Canadian passport. Just make
it really easy by saying your going for pleasure and you'll be back in 3
weeks.

Should not be that big of a hassle, thay have bigger fish to fry!

Voltes34

Surely, you DON'T understand!
There is no 10K US dollar amount limitation that you can bring into the US.
You just have to declare anything more than $10K!


"DB" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]. net...
    |
    | . I understand we aren't
    | > allowed to bring over more than 10K, but for me, that's not the
    | > problem, the problem is, I travel always with less than $500 cash, and
    |