tonrob

Going to Winnipeg on Sunday for 2 days for a work meeting - do I need this? Our travel dept. reckons I do but they can't usually find their arse with both hands so asking here.

I posted this question in the Canadian Immigration section before realizing that the answer may be better known to Brits living in the US (and it's not about US immigration so posting in the general USA section).

I have a colleague who's a Yank - presumably the answer for me will be the same for him.

md95065

Never heard of this.

I have traveled from the US to Canada on business many times and have never needed or been asked for a "letter of introduction" (whatever that might be ...)

tonrob

Yes - I reckon it's bollocks. How long ago did you go last?

Jerseygirl

My husband's never carried one. He only had a problem one time about 5 years ago...he had to show the immigration officer his laptop...showing his calendar and what he was there for.

MsElui

the only time i ever heard of a letter of introduction was when the UK team i worked with sent a chap to the india office for a week. He needed one of these with his indian visa.

Jerseygirl

Maybe I should have said it was before he became a USC...so he was entering Canada using his UK PP and GC. The IO wanted my husband to prove he was only attending meetings and not working.

Bill_S

"To whom it may concern:

Mukluk, Tundra, and Mukluk extend an invitation to Mr. Tonrob to visit our facility for two Canadian days. His combination of British class and American brashness will be a welcome addition to our meeting of otherwise backward, provincial hicks. Please permit him safe passage across the border and onto the permafrost."


couldn't hurt...

md95065

Actually it has been a couple of years now but I must have been to Canada on business well over 50 times in the last 20 years as a UK passport holder (initially in the US on an H-1B and subsequently as LPR) and never got asked anything like that.

Only time I had any trouble at all was arriving in Toronto very late one night (actually early the next morning) on a flight out of Newark that had been delayed about 3 hours because of weather - I was really tired and got subjected to a lot of questions - probably because I gave very literal answers to the questions - for some reason they wanted to know "who had decided that I needed to be in Toronto" for the meetings that I was going to be attending and I told them (the truth) that I was the person who had decided that I needed to be there - it took a little while to convince them that I was in a position where I got to make decisions like that for myself ...

md95065

For some reason a "Letter of Introduction" (especially one where both "Letter" and "Introduction" are capitalized) sounds to me like something straight out of Jane Austen ...

celticgrid

I was across the border last month. Travelling with UK passport and green card. By car. Simple and smooth experience at the border. Asked what I was going for and answered "business meeting". End of questioning.

JAJ

Wouldn't have made any difference if he had been a USC at the time. Americans do not get a "free pass" into Canada.

Jerseygirl

I know but I thought it was worth mentioning.

You may be interested in this....on one occasion last year my daughter's finance (Canadian citizen) drove into the US from Canada in a rental car. The US IO questioned him about the reason for driving a rental car when he owns a car of his own...gave him quite a hard time about it!! So no there is no break on either side of the border for the respective citizens.

gingerkitten

The travel/visa company that we deal with at work has started insisting lately that it's a "requirement" and always has been for anyone visiting Canada on business to have a letter of introduction from their company, but (after further questioning from me on whether this is really true or not), they have conceded that it's probably enforced rarely, if ever. Sounds like they're erring on the side of extreme caution to me. A colleague went to Toronto last week, armed with his "letter of introduction". I should see him back in the office tomorrow, so I'll ask whether he was actually asked to produce the thing at any point.

seawaternow

I've had 4 managers so far who needed the letter of introduction when they went to Canada to do business there (client site). They went somewhere near Toronto I believe.
Also, I had 3 of them who upon return from Canada had to file some paperwork for Canadian taxation or something similar.

md95065

Well, I just looked at the Checklist for Business Visitors page of the Citizenship and Immigration Canada web site and one of the items in the list of "Documents you must have at the border into Canada" is, indeed, "letters of support from your parent company and a letter of invitation from the Canadian host company", not to mention "24-hour contact details of your business host in Canada" ...

That having been said, I can honestly say that I have never heard of anyone being asked for these things.