POE Peace Bridge

[Caladan 19]

Things that annoy:

2500 mile drives across Canada. Saskatchewan has not invented reflective paint on the roads.

Things that annoy more:

2500 mile drives across Canada that do not culminate in getting a temporary EAD stamp.

Things, however, that do not annoy:

Efficient CBP officials.

Crossed with minimal difficulties yesterday (n.b. do not cross on holiday weekends unless you want to be surrounded by petulant tourists.) We had about a half hour wait before the CBP dude came out and pulled us from door #1 to door #3, and it took about another hour from there to get processed and import C.'s car, which we did with no problems thanks to the lovely info here. I wasn't allowed to come up to the window.

CBP dudes insisted that they do not give out stamps, no one ever gives out stamps, told me, "you can't trust that Internet, the information could be five years old", which is when I pointed out that was why I'd telephoned five border crossings INCLUDING THEIRS WHICH TOLD ME THEY DID IT. The guy was nice and checked with his supervisor, and they told us more or less what we'd heard from Sweetgrass: CBP can't give out EAD stamps, "INS" has to do it, and "we used to be able to but then we were rolled up into Homeland Security."

"Had we been told that, we would have crossed at Sweetgrass and not driven across Canada with the higher gas prices. Detroit said anyone could do it."

"Detroit does things weird," he says. He also noted that I seemed to be unusually well-informed.

Not enough to get the stamp, alas. I suspect it might depend on who you get there that day. Anyhow, the guy told us it would only take two weeks to process the EAD (ha frickin ha) which was the point where I figured that I probably knew more about this process than he did. Not that that reflects badly on the CBP dude, of course, because there's so many different agencies involved.

C. will probably go to Hartford and see what we can get worked out.

But all in all, we're over the border, the car didn't break down, and it's all pretty good.

Happy Memorial Day, peeps.

[misa 2]

That's an interesting comment by CBP about how they're rolled up into DHS now. Maybe that's why there's so much confusion about whether they should or should not give out the EAD stamps now. With most mergers, people are always unsure about what they can continue to do and what they can't (just thinking about my experiences working for companies who have been acquired by others).

Glad your border cross wasn't all that bad. I wonder if we got the same guy. I was sent to #1 and then asked to go to #3 as well. The guy I dealt with (didn't catch his name) was super nice and friendly.

Edited May 26, 2007 by misa