CanuckGurl
Difficulty:  | Review Topic: Port of Entry Review
Ambassador Bridge
I travelled with my husband and a good friend over the border by car. I was a bit nervous, especially when the CBP guard at the gate said 'uh oh, immigrating' when I flashed him my envelope of documents. He reached in and stuck a large flourescent orange paper on the inside of the window. (It showed our license plate no, 3 people in the car, what alcohol we had on board, how much cash we had on hand.)
We were guided to a spot to park the car, instructed to put keys and cell phones on the dash board, unlock all doors and pop the trunk, then go inside with our passports and wallets. My friend went to bring a paperback book with him but was instructed to leave it behind in the car.
The building is quite chilly inside - wish I had had a sweater/light jacket on. We walked inside to a very grumpy officer who sat back in his chair and asked for our last name - which my husband told him, the officer asked him for it again, my husband said it, then spelled it. The officer, still not getting it right, listened as my husband repeated it a 3rd time and spelled it again, but slower. He then waved us away - no instruction of "have a seat and we'll call you" nothing... just a wave of his hand to go away. My husband asked to use the washroom and was told no. A few minutes later he called my husband back up and had him hand him the orange ticket the gate guard had given us.
We found three chairs together and sat down, and I watched him be grumpy with everyone else. It actually looked like he was standing having back pain - doesn't mean he should be power tripping with us though. (He was relieved of his shift approx 20 min after we go there.)
We waited for approximately 15 minutes, then got called to the window by a very nice Officer Kitchen, crew cut, gray haired gentleman with a great sense of humour. He asked if my husband and our friend were the married couple trying to do the immigration and made a few more jokes from there, obviously trying to set us at ease.
I could tell he was asking questions he knew the answer to, just was asking them to confirm things.
1. Are we married.
2. Where does my husband live.
3. Where does our friend live.
4. Where do I live (gave my Canadian address and said I hope to make the US one my address)
5. Who do we each work for.
6. Have any of us been denied entry (he looked straight at me first, and when I nodded he looked to the other two waiting for them to shake their heads). He asked why I had been denied entry - I gave the same answer as previously given - he nodded, satisfied.
He then instructed us to have a seat and that he was pretty much finished with everyone but me. He gave the OK for my husband to use the washroom.
We sat down for approximately 20 more minutes while he did the paperwork. He called me up and pointed to my passport telling me numerous times that I MUST have it on my person at all times until my GC arrives. Once my GC arrives I MUST have it on my person at all times.
He took my right index finger print, using black ink, twice and had me sign the blank form twice too. He said that my fingerprint will be on my GC, hence him taking it twice. I was told to sit down again.
A few more minutes later he called us all back up to get our passports - but he made our friend sign his passport before he would give it back to him (our friend had never travelled outside the US before).
He made a few more jokes about things in general, warned me to keep my visa/GC on me at all times and to have a nice day.
We went outside to the car and found things, in general, in their place, but it was obvious they had gone thru everything - medicine bottles on top of luggage bags, box of alcohol unsealed, etc.
In all we spent just over 45 minutes at the border and aside from a grumpy door-greeter it was a very easy process.
|
Port of Entry Member Review #15011
Entry Date: 2011-09-26