Best time of week/day to cross Canadian-US border?

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

This is all quite amusing but... Seriously, OP, let your girlfriend go home to Ireland for a few weeks while you figure out what to do. That way you’ll (1) know she has “properly” left contiguous North America to validly end her stay in the US before attempting re-entry, and (2) if she does get denied re-entry, she’ll be at home (pre-clearance in Ireland) rather than stranded in a third country.

Edited June 23, 2019 by SusieQQQ

[N-o-l-a 7,167]

17 hours ago, Paul & Mary said:

They aren't ready for "that" even tho he has been asking about options for a year.

 

I can't say the phrase I'm thinking of on VJ, but OP either needs to poop or get off the pot.  One of these times, his GF is going to get denied entry.

[TBoneTX 45,308]

An objective answer not yet given to one interpretation of the OP's question:

 

Phone ahead to your planned POE, ask for the CBP supervisor, and ask when the least disruptive window of time would be for the K-1 or CR-1 beneficiary to appear for processing.  There are shift-changes, redeployments of manpower away from the port for various operations, etc.  It's guaranteed that the CBP people will appreciate your courtesy in asking, because they can then arrange to have the proper personnel available to handle the specific entry along with everything else on their plate.  Then, of course, show up during the agreed-upon window and tell them that you called ahead.

[Boiler 45,525]

I thought this was about returning as a visitor, but am prepared to be corrected.

[TBoneTX 45,308]

You're right, but wanted to address an answer to one interpretation of the OP's quite general query in absence of a timeline.

[SusieQQQ 11,586]

1 hour ago, TBoneTX said:

An objective answer not yet given to one interpretation of the OP's question:

 

Phone ahead to your planned POE, ask for the CBP supervisor, and ask when the least disruptive window of time would be for the K-1 or CR-1 beneficiary to appear for processing.  There are shift-changes, redeployments of manpower away from the port for various operations, etc.  It's guaranteed that the CBP people will appreciate your courtesy in asking, because they can then arrange to have the proper personnel available to handle the specific entry along with everything else on their plate.  Then, of course, show up during the agreed-upon window and tell them that you called ahead.

But ...wouldn’t she just AOS if they were looking at CR1? 

[jskibo 588]

The rest of the OPs post history is all about resetting the visa by driving into Canada. 

[threeoten 0]

As far as the original post, we were simply wondering if there are busy times to avoid or any other factors about the time of day/week that could potentially play a role in getting through smoothly. I hear most of you saying that there is not. Thanks.

We're not aiming to reset any visas. We're leaving the US into Canada for 2 weeks via land before her student visa ends, hoping that her leaving the US is recorded to her I-94 which we will confirm with the border officer when trying to enter Canada. Once our time visiting in Canada is over we plan to re-enter the US on her tourist visa in order to do some traveling in the US (which she wasn't able to do while studying). After that we will be heading overseas to her home country, ideally mid Sept. We are considering buying our plane tickets flying out of the US before we do any of the US/CA land border crossings in order to show them that she has plans to leave, but at the same time we feel hesitant to do this because we also don't want to risk being denied entry into the US and stuck in Canada where she can't catch her non-refundable flight.

We've had consultations with 2 different immigration attorneys and called CBP to confirm (as much as we can) that our plan is abiding by the law and they have all told us that what we are doing is legal and should work in theory, but noting that it comes down to the discretion of the officers that we're working with at the border. I'm open to hearing people's thoughts here on this as well.

[HRQX 4,145]

On 6/23/2019 at 1:33 PM, SusieQQQ said:

Seriously, OP, let your girlfriend go home to Ireland for a few weeks while you figure out what to do. That way you’ll (1) know she has “properly” left contiguous North America to validly end her stay in the US before attempting re-entry, and (2) if she does get denied re-entry, she’ll be at home (pre-clearance in Ireland) rather than stranded in a third country.

^this is the safer approach

[Canerican 242]

I second the approach by SusieQQQ

[threeoten 0]

Just thought I'd update this post with the fact that she was let back in on her tourist visa with no problems whatsoever. It was a breeze. We even took a ferry from Vancouver Island to WA state so she had to go through 2 checkpoints.. twice the questioning. Her departure out of the US on the student visa was recorded and no overstay. She didn't have to fly out overseas and wait.. just up to Canada for a couple weeks and back. Easy.