Difficulty at Can/USA border

[ChristinaG 91]

My daughters (now 12 & 9) have been crossing back and forth at a minimum of every other weekend - and sometimes more often during the holidays. We make the 2-3 hour round trip to drop them off Friday with their father in Canada and again on Sunday to pick them up... yes it's a lot of driving, but it works for our family...... 

 

Our GC expired in August - we filed within the 90 day window, completed our biometrics, and settled in to wait....

 

Just in the last week though we have been getting more flack at the border - only my name is on the extension letter because this is the only stage where they were listed as dependents rather than having their own individual applications (like we did for the CR1/CR2). Christmas Eve we get pulled over in to secondary after they guard is a jerk to us, and luckily we'r there maybe 10-15 minutes. They confirmed our status and let us go on our way... two days later, we had been celebrating Boxing Day at my dad's (Ontario) and coming home late, again the guard is giving us a really hard time. I found it rather challenging to not throw back snarky responses to his BS questions like "So I'm just supposed to take your word for it that they [daughters] have extensions like you...?!" I didn't say anything at first, hoping it was more of a rhetorical questions....  But my goodness, I'm sure they keep track of how often people are crossing and can see that we are very frequently doing this trip. We also have Nexus cards and often use that lane when it's open...... Once in awhile they would ask about why only my name was on the letter, but accepted my response ("They were listed as dependents under my application rather than their own individual apps at this stage of the process") they'd nod, ask their standard border questions, and send us on our way - never with an attitude or any of the BS!! 

 

So what changed around the holidays or do they just have sticks up their ####### for having to work the holiday?!?!   

 

The last guy told me to "get my travel documents in order" (eff you they are-jerk) -- but what else can we do?! 

[gregcrs2 1,778]

Perhaps you can carry with you a copy of your I-751 you submitted.  It will show your dependents on it.

Edited December 29, 2017 by gregcrs2

[CharlieTanger 76]

I would say to him... “I’m pretty certain Canadians are NOT purposely trying to sneak across US borders for illegal immigration...it might be more believable the other way around.”

 

  LOL 

[Leo7777 243]

14 hours ago, ChristinaG said:

The last guy told me to "get my travel documents in order"!   "So I'm just supposed to take your word for it that they [daughters] have extensions like you...?!"

Switch positions with the border guard.

I am sure you would be saying the same thing to them that they  are saying to you.

[Ontarkie 14,226]

Actually you got pretty lucky they bothered to look up the info. Without the extension letter for each child they could have turned them back. 

 

Yes kids often get bundled in with the parent doing ROC my four did too. Some members here get the letters for their kids others like us do not.  It sucks but that letter is everything and the kids should have had one before traveling. 

 

Now what you need to do is make an infopass appointment and get their passport stamped showing (don't know the name of the stamp) it will be all the proof they need.

[Mollie09 1,543]

9 minutes ago, Ontarkie said:

Actually you got pretty lucky they bothered to look up the info. Without the extension letter for each child they could have turned them back. 

 

Yes kids often get bundled in with the parent doing ROC my four did too. Some members here get the letters for their kids others like us do not.  It sucks but that letter is everything and the kids should have had one before traveling. 

 

Now what you need to do is make an infopass appointment and get their passport stamped showing (don't know the name of the stamp) it will be all the proof they need.

It's the I-551 stamp, also known as ADIT stamp

[Kim & Zak 195]

Like someone else said, I'd carry the original app

 

My fiance and I have to cross the CAN/US border at least every 6 weeks or so and sometimes you get a real jerk (we've been searched only by American patrol), sometimes you get someone nicer. My fiance has basically been interrogated for an hour by them before (he was bringing a car over to me). Always a toss-up it seems. 

 

I'm sorry you've had to go through this - it's one thing to be alone, but I'd imagine entirely another case when you have children with you. I remember being a child and my grandmother getting pulled over by a cop and even that was terrifying!

[bakphx1 789]

I feel your pain.  Having traveled back and forth from about 15 countries, I got the oddest and gruffest grillings coming over the US - Canadian border.