POE at Piegan

[gad33 47]

So I've just put our journey in Google maps and it comes up with crossing the border at Piegan - Carway on the Canadian side. I have crossed at this crossing before and it is small. So I was wondering if anyone had activated a visa at this particular border crossing.

[neiks 19]

I think you can activate your visa at any port - even the small ones. They may not be familiar with doing it as they don't do it on a regular basis but they can pull out their manual and get it done or call someone for help. If in doubt, just give them a call directly and they will tell you for sure if they are capable of doing it or not. I activated mine at a very small prairie port - but then again that was a few years back.

[HeatDeath 430]

Your best bet is, once you're ready to cross within the next few days, call the post directly and discuss your plans with them to make sure they'll have the ability to easily process you at the particular time you plan to show up. You don't want to show up to find out that the only person there wo knows how to process a K-1 is off that day.

I drove in with my K-1 at Emerson/Pembina in Manitoba, which is fairly big, and even then the officer I got took 90 minutes thumbing through reference binders to get me processed. So even at the larger prairie border stations, K-1 visas can seem like a strange and unusual thing to them. Things might have gone easier if I had called them first.

I've never crossed at Piegan but I have crossed back into Canada at Waterton Lakes, just to the west. Now there's a small PoE

[Kathryn41 3,205]

Definitely contact the POE and ask them specifically if there will be someone who can process your visa on the day you plan to enter.

I ran into problems even though I physically went to the small POE at Algonac, Michigan here I planned to cross a few days prior to my crossing to verify they could process my visa and to make sure I had everything I needed to bring in my belongings without a problem.. The immigration officer on duty told me, yes, there was no problem, I would be able to enter on my visa and they would be able to process it. I even told him when I would be crossing and he assured me that they could process me.

Fast forward 5 days to when we arrive at the Algonac POE office to enter with my K-1. We had crossed into the US over the river on the ferry and I went into the station while my fiance waited in the van outside with my 6 cats. The woman on duty there categorically refused to activate my K-1 and said that they did not do K-1s at that POE. She said she didn't care what the other officer had told me, she said they did not process visas at that POE and that was that. We had to re-cross back into Canada and drive up to the next major POE at Sarnia/Pt.Huron adding an additional and unnecessary 4 hours to our travel time by doing so. At Pt. Huron, I told the immigration officers there what had happened and they told me that Algonac was able to process my K-1 visa and should have done so.They couldn't explain why the officer stationed there had refused. I reached the very obvious conclusion that the officer on duty the day I arrived either didn't know how to process the visa, or just didn't want to be bothered to process my visa.

So, definitely approach the POE and ask them directly if there will be someone on duty the day you intend to enter the US who will be able to process your CR-1. And have a back-up plan in case the same officer who refused to process me in Algonac, Michigan has inexplicably been stationed to your POE!

[Flames9_RN 358]

I crossed over in Maine (think it was Calaise) they had no clue on how to do it,lol They got out the magical black book, made a few phone calls and off I went! All ended up ok

[gad33 47]

Phoning ahead sounds like a good idea. Could even do that just before we leave to see if there would be someone there to process.

I moved the route on google maps to cross at Sweetgrass/Coutts and it gave the same total driving time but more miles. The advantage of that crossing point is it is much busier with more guards. The disadvantage is it is a lot busier.

[EvilSquee 7]

This makes me glad we plan to POE at Port Huron when I drive my fiance here. Hopefully whichever port you go with it goes quickly and smoothly.

[Canadiandggal 49]

I used Cornwall Poe and I just called right before I left and asked if they would be able to do it. At the time we were visiting a friend in Cornwall and the Poe was 2 minutes down the road. Call Ahead:)