First time I went through Vancouver, BC, the Canadian side was terrible. The second time, they were amazing. Each time I've rolled through Toronto, I've been beyond impressed with the professionalism and demeanor of the Canadian customs agents.Terry B. wrote:Sorry, I was thinking of crossing over in the Vancouver Airport, one side of which is "Canada" and the other "the United States". You go through customs for the US, then are able to catch a domestic flight - a nicer way to access the west coast than having to venture through the mess that is LAX. The last time I went through the TSA on the US side were ridiculous. I was pulled out and questioned for over ten minutes because I answered that I "lived" in a foreign country despite having a US passport. The line of questioning, over and over again, was "let me get this straight - you are a US citizen but live in [country]?" After finally being released the Canadian guys on the other side yelled out - "better hurry or you may miss your flight...and the Americans will catch you!". Perhaps not that professional but it made me laugh nevertheless.DrDonkeyLove wrote:I drove from San Diego to Yuma, AZ and back a few years ago and hit several checkpoints. Most were immigration related and a couple were agricultural products related. Longest interaction with any authority figure was about 2 seconds.Ed Zachary wrote:I've heard the Canadian border patrol are a bunch of cunts.Terry B. wrote:If you treat people with respect, they generally return the favor which describes why I tend to get along with people in real life quite well but not so much so online. I got sucked into several of these videos from the above link and there is a lot of cuntish behavior on both sides.
Are there that many checkpoints nowadays in the US? I go through a drunk checkpoint every so often on the way home and wish they had more of the sorIft as they don't do anything but get drunks off the road. It seems that a bunch of people are fighting against such "illegal stops".
On the other hand, there's a fair stark contrast between border patrol in the US and in any other developed nation - go across the Canadian border to see how one side is far more professional than the other.
I did a road trip with my family last summer through the southeast part of the US hit 2 check points in 1 day. Both in Arizona. One agent looked in the window saw a truck load of rednecks and just waved us through, the second checkpoint the agent asked us to tell him our nation of origin and waved us through. No ID was requested and they didn't ask to look in the truck.
I cross into Canada and back at one of the Buffalo/Niagara Falls crossings a few times per year and hit the other occasional CanAm crossing. I find the Canadians to be a little friendlier in general but haven't had a real asshole on either side in years. When I meet the rare one, I stay polite and adopt a not obsequious but fatalistic "you're the boss" attitude.
I wonder if my Passport shows a pattern that doesn't raise any red flags. I do get the occasional question from the US people about my Saudi trips but it's never hostile. Have never seen anything as slovenly, surly, and lazy as a Saudi border guard. They're almost caricatures.
I have less experience in border crossings but have never had an issue on either side - I think that I needed to open my trunk one time - they did state that it was a random check and were polite about it. I believe that stop took perhaps two minutes and questions were all "good" questions.
The US side has always been indifferent or at least friendly. The local TSA agents are usually comical in their ineptitude. No horror stories for me to personally deal with, it's just clear that they're not exactly looking for people with much more than a GED.
