zenaxe
Difficulty:  | Review Topic: Port of Entry Review
Well I get to write a review. My father in law and I left Kamloops BC at 8am glad to get an hour's jump on the whole trip. The drive on the Coquihalla Highway was good as usual. We drove both of my vehicles, he in one and me in the other. We got to the Pacific Highway Crossing at 11 20am only to find delays. The electronic signage showed a 40 minute delay. I have a Nexus card but my father in law did not so we could not take advantage of that line. Too bad as it was moving nicely. We we were prepared for approx 40 delays but instead it took about two hours !! Bloody ridiculous. But it gets worse.
After the two hour inching up the road to get to cross, we hit the crossing booth. The CBP man asked a few questions and I told I was there to activate the CR1 visa/green card. He asked to show the US consulate entry package and then he allowed me through and sent me to secondary where we had to park and leave the cars outside, with keys on the outside of the vehicles, on the windshield. I was uncomfortable with this somewhat but the area is protected, guarded and monitored. The guys in the parking lot told me to leave all cell phones, wallet etc everything in the car...hence my discomfort.
So we do that and walk excitedly into the building where we were met by a huge human line up. Great. That line took an hour to clear. The odd thing was that many CBP staff were chatting it up together and talking about this and that but only two or three seemed to be working and dealing with the line ups. Then you'd see one of the ones chatting, sit down and call people up ie NEXT, was the big word of the day. But overall I think this part could be far better serviced. It was a gong show. After over an hour we got up to the front and told the CBP what we were doing. He asked a little of the CR1 and seemed a bit confused. Interestingly, this was the same guy that Wyatt's Torch had so I initially thought, great !! A guy with some experience. Right. As I'm explaining that I also have two cars to import as part of the process, he puts his hand up (talk to the hand girlfriend) and said ' let's do one thing at a time, first things first.' He takes my package and information and tells me to have a seat. Ok, fine by me.
He took 55 minutes and would often type, get up, type, look puzzled, leave, return and repeat this for the entire hour. Then he disappears. About 20 minutes later an older gentleman calls us up and apologizes and says things were missed by the younger guy and wanted to make sure all was done properly. He looked over everything, started typing and working on it. He then asks me for my extra pictures that I was to send it. Huh?? I told him the only pictures required were the ones at initial filing of the I 130, the medical and consulate pictures. There are no other pictures. He said then without these other pictures that likely my green card production would be delayed up to 90 days. I told him that the consulate didn't ask for anything else but that I had provided two pictures. I could see in the package that they had everything submitted. That's what's in the mystery package. All of your stuff !~!
So he leaves for another 20 minutes or so and then says that indeed the extra pictures are in the envelope afterall. He was quite funny and easy going unlike many in there that seem to be a tad too power aligned and 'serious.' In any event, he finishes up and says 'ok you're done' to which I replied I still had two cars to import. He looks at us and shakes his head saying that this department, pointing to a closed desk behind us, closed at 3 30pm and that importing would not be possible. We were floored and told him we'd been sitting there since after 1 30pm and now it's closed??? So he then asks where the paperwork for the cars where. I advised I was told to leave the paperwork in the cars prior to entering. I was made to get the documents. He took about another half hour or longer to process the one car. Then he said he was off and that another gentleman would help with the other car.
The guy continued to process the information accordingly and then he needed to inspect the car. I had advised both of them of the manufactor's letter , the EPA and HS forms I had but they said they didn't need any of this , but to give it to Dept of Motor Vehicles when I went to register them. Huh? Ok fine.
So after another 40 minutes or longer, the guy goes out to inspect the car. We ended up getting out of there around 5pm and I was thinking the whole thing may have taken about an hour or so. Riiiight.
My beef is in this process being less than effective. The car lines ups are one thing but then you have the human line up which moves ever so slow and it doesn't help to watch CBP after CPB person chatting and talking in the back , in front, everywhere and waiting. It's like being in a bank with twenty staff all chatting and two tellers working a line of 60 people.
But they have to get better at processing this stuff. It took hours and I ended up with three different people to process this stuff.
What made it worse was that my moving van lines had the truck at the border and were waiting for me to have the stamped visa....
Anyway, once through it was fine and well but there wasn't much efficiency at the Pacific Highway Crossing. Perhaps others had better luck. I didn't experience any harassment but man they could improve the way things are done. Five hours from start to finish is a bit much. It took five hours to drive from Las Vegas to just outside Phoenix.
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Port of Entry Member Review #14764
Entry Date: 2010-08-13