Just received a call from the Canadian/USA border guard, and now I'm terrified!!!

[Necrotica 0]

I am so sorry if this is the wrong place to post this, but I am in desperate need of advice and consolation!!! PLEASE tell me if you've been in this situation!!!

My fiancé lives in Montréal, and he left on the Greyhound bus (or Coach Canada?) early this morning to visit me. This has been planned for 3 months. I just got a call from border patrol in New York asking me if I know Réjean (fiancé), and I said that he's my fiancé. BIG MISTAKE!!! We had agreed prior to him coming here that we would refer to each other as boyfriend/girlfriend and not bring up fiancé/fiancée to avoid hassles. Well, I'm so used to calling him my fiancé now that it just slipped out. She then hit me with questions like machine gun fire: "Fiancé? He called you his girlfriend." "What is he bringing with him?" "Why is he bringing his guitar?" "Where is he playing at?" "What bar is he playing at?" "Who is Lythos?" Oh my gods, it terrified me!!! I tried my best to explain; I said that we were talking about marriage, that he's bringing his clothes, his guitar, and that he was only going to be playing casually with my friends' band, which is Lythos, and that they're not professional and that they were only going to play casually at their house, which was true. After her interrogation, she said "thank you" and hung up.

PLEASE tell me they'll let him through the border!!!! She would have told me otherwise, right??? She would have told me that they were going to not let him through at the end of the call, right???

I did not expect this. I didn't think anyone would call me about him, but with his looks (bald, septum piercing, labret piercing, guitar, and his goddamn bullet belt that I begged him not to wear but kept telling me it would be fine since he's worn it crossing the border before), I should have been more prepared for this.

Please, please reply. I am in near-convulsions I'm crying so hard!!!

[shirlJ831 0]

I remember in Sask. Canada at the border I was turned away once (cause they thought it was too soon to return for a visit) long story !!

but anyways the lady there (very nice) told me NEVER, NEVER!!! ever say your coming to see your fiancee, she never use the word. That stuck in my mind like GLUE!!! You could very well have tons of trouble. But I hope it works out

[Reba 2]

Its unlikely that the agent would have told you over the phone yeah or neh whether they would admit your fiance, but I'm sure he'd have a chance to call you if he'd been denied.

It really is not so unusual for border officials to phone/talk to the US person with whom a traveller says they're staying.

[gimygirl 0]

update!?!?!? ...

[Necrotica 0]

Everything's ok now. I got a voicemail from Réjean earlier, and he said he was in Chicago and close to being on his way to St. Louis. THANK GOODNESS. I had to pop a Xanax last night over all that #######. I had heard horror stories about border guards before, but goddamn... now I know!

Edited July 15, 2006 by Necrotica

[Leafgal 3]

Well it is good you will see him soon so you won't need any xanax tonight, which is good news.

[shirlJ831 0]

I am so glad it all worked out

[46]

I remember in Sask. Canada at the border I was turned away once (cause they thought it was too soon to return for a visit) long story !!

but anyways the lady there (very nice) told me NEVER, NEVER!!! ever say your coming to see your fiancee, she never use the word. That stuck in my mind like GLUE!!! You could very well have tons of trouble. But I hope it works out

I'm glad things worked out but I would never lie or evade the truth when speaking to a USCIS agent. I frequently visited the US when engaged and had no problems.

[pinac 0]

I remember in Sask. Canada at the border I was turned away once (cause they thought it was too soon to return for a visit) long story !!

but anyways the lady there (very nice) told me NEVER, NEVER!!! ever say your coming to see your fiancee, she never use the word. That stuck in my mind like GLUE!!! You could very well have tons of trouble. But I hope it works out

I'm glad things worked out but I would never lie or evade the truth when speaking to a USCIS agent. I frequently visited the US when engaged and had no problems.

I would underline the comment about being truthful in your answers. You do not have to volunteer information, but if you answer the questions that they ask, and only the questions that they ask, you should not have any problems.

I crossed many times while waiting and was actually told that I should use fiance and not girl friend.

The conversation was something like this ...

How are you visiting? My Girlfriend.

(Probably seeing a lot of entries) How serious is the relationship? We are engaged.

Is she moving here or are you moving there? I am moving there once I get my K-1

How is that going .... Have a nice trip ... And, by the way next time you should say fiance and not girl firend.

Edited July 16, 2006 by pinac

[zyggy 9]

Its unlikely that the agent would have told you over the phone yeah or neh whether they would admit your fiance, but I'm sure he'd have a chance to call you if he'd been denied.

It really is not so unusual for border officials to phone/talk to the US person with whom a traveller says they're staying.

Yeah.. we used to do it all the time.. to see if their stories were straight...

[Reba 2]

a few years ago a bunch of us internet friends got together to go camping in Vermont (this was in May 2000, well before 9/11 obviously) and one guy came from Holland, and landed in Boston. He was meeting 2 ladies there, and they were going to drive up to Vermont.

He was delayed at immigration, interviewed, and then the 2 ladies were paged in the arrivals area and *also* taken to be interviewed! I think it took like 4 hours or something to clear him thru immigration.

Seems for some reason back then US immigration was suspicious of us freaks who meet up with internet friends

[QC2CO 1]

I'm glad to hear he made it fine!

I, for one, have been refused 3 times in a row at the border, in the past. IT was a nightmare. I think me and my USC girlfriend (now wife), were pretty ignorant of what the visiting laws were and stuff.

Heres the short version of what happend.

Basicaly I was going to visit there for 3 months (I said we were just friends), and I drive a sports coupe, so I had rented a small U-Haul to bring my bike, PC, clothes and stuff and the girlfiend was with me. Bad move. The first agent, after looking through our stuff, refused me to enter and told me that I had too much stuff for someone that was visiting for 3 months. Said to go bring some stuff back and come back. But no guarantees that the next agent will let me in. So we come back the same day after dropping all my stuff back, answered that I have been refused at POE this morning, they split us up, checked our stuff and interogated us seperately. After learning that I had also just lost my job and that I had put my stuff in storage , they took my picture and fingerprints, and said I was trying to cross illegaly and I didnt have any ties to Canada. And if I tried to pull this again, I would go to jail.

A few months later I tried again, but they still said I didnt bring enough proof of ties (refused again), and then afterwards, I was able to cross succesfully 4 times. It's always a scary experience to cross the border, once you're flagged. They harrass you.