Toronto Pearson Airport & Customs

[sunshine82 0]

My husband will be visiting me in Canada for Christmas and then that weekend we're both traveling together to DC to see his family. I'm just wondering what the procedure is for us at the airport when we go through customs. Toronto Pearson has a line for Canadian citizens and another line for American citizens, do we go together to one line (if so, which one?) or do we go separately? And to follow-up to this question, when we fill out the customs declaration, we will each have to fill one out since we don't live together yet, but there's a question that asks 'how many family members are traveling with you'? Do I fill in 'ONE' if we go into separate lines? Thank you!

Edited October 4, 2008 by sunshine82

[Krikit 1,165]

I'm not going to be too too much help here but, generally, airports want you to fill in one form and stay together when you are travelling as a family, even if you live at separate addresses. Obviously, this is compounded by the fact that your addresses are in different countries.

Personally, I would stick together and both go through the American citizen line. That way he'll know what's going on if you are separated and sent to secondary. Or..... for a definitive answer, I recommend calling CBP (US Customs & Border Protection) and asking them directly:

Toronto Preclearance

Lester B. Pearson International Airport

P.O. Box 115

Toronto AMF

Toronto, Ontario, Canada L5P 1A2

Port Director

Phone: 905-676-2606

[SapphireDreams 71]

I would stay together and probably fill out separate forms since you have different addresses. On the form where it says family member travelling with you, I would probably mark 1.

I would probably plan to go through secondary. A friend who crossed while going through the process with her husband (k3 i think) had to go to secondary and explain their whole situation.

Edited to add: when my boyfriend and I travel through customs together, we go through the line together with separate forms, since we are not technically family yet. We just say we are travelling together and usualy they just want to know when I'm returning and see my return ticket. We always go through the non-resident line.

Edited October 5, 2008 by SapphireDreams

[sunshine82 0]

Thank you for the advice! I phoned Toronto Preclearance and they advised me that we need to fill out 1 form, even if we're not living together yet, and that it won't matter which line we go to (she said that usually during the holiday season they open both sides to everyone to speed things up).