Best way to avoid getting harassed by immigration?

[IamNY]

How does NEXUS work if there are people in your car without the NEXUS card.

Everybody in the car has to have a NEXUS card unless they are under 15 years of age. Driver is responsible for everyone in the vehicle. Driver will lose their NEXUS card privileges for at least one year if this happens.

 

[CaptRenault]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has a lot of useful information about digital privacy at the U.S. border.

Keep in mind, the EFF is stating its opinions about how privacy should be respected, and not how it actually is or isn't respected by border officials. Also, this info applies mainly to U.S. citizens returning to the United States.

https://www.eff.org/wp/digital-privacy-us-border-2017

 

[IamNY]

Great link CR!

A 5x increase of electronic media searches is no joke. I thought it was interesting that they said that if you have an erased/clean smart phone you'll be suspected of being up to no good. That does make sense, but if I'm at the point where a border agent is looking through my phone and they discover it to be empty I'm already being suspected of something so what does it matter. I'd rather be suspected of something than having a border agent looking at my text messages with an agency setting up an appointment.

 

[IamNY]

Anyone ever thought about saying Fuck It and just bringing a disposable prepaid with them?

I have. Only problem is that a US prepaid doesn't usually come with an international plan.

For me, it takes about 5 minutes to erase my iPhone and another 5 minutes to bring it back to life when I arrive at a hotel. I've got 10 minutes for that, and I can use my own device. Erasing an iPad takes even less time.

 

[Sol Tee Nutz]

How do you guys put phone numbers in your phone? Scarlett, GFE and rims....Or Escort XO....?
Try Scarlett Prete, fill out the workplace as ABC interior design.
Some of you are so paranoid that there is no wonder patrols check you, they can tell.
Make shit up, they will not call.

 

[CaptRenault]

How do you guys put phone numbers in your phone?.

For those who are concerned about such things:

There's no need to keep agency numbers in your contacts list. When you need to call one, you just look up the number on the website, jot it down and call the number. It's not like the numbers are secret and so you have to save them.

Don't add agency numbers to your contacts list and delete the numbers from the recent calls list before you cross a border.

 

[Mistral]

There's no need to keep agency numbers in your contacts list. When you need to call one, you just look up the number on the website, jot it down and call the number. It's not like the numbers are secret and so you have to save them.

Don't add agency numbers to your contacts list and delete the numbers from the recent calls list before you cross a border.

You can also keep numbers and notes in the cloud. There are many free email services, including some obscure ones that most people have probably never heard of.

Create an account, start a new email, leave the "To" field empty, type all your numbers and notes in the body of the email, and save as draft. Or maybe you have already done a lot of research before a trip and saved them in notepad on your computer, just copy and paste them into the body of the email, and save as draft.

Make sure there is no link to this account whatsoever on your phone. Log in after you arrive and copy & paste to a simple notepad app on your phone. Take a few minutes to input a few numbers into your contacts if you want. You can also use this in reverse mode to transfer notes from your phone to your cloud email account before you clean your phone and return home. You can also do this with photos and other files too as email attachments.

This system is a piece of cake, just remember your account logon information. Hotmail isn't good as it can block you when it detects a login from a different country. There are other free services that don't care about login location.

 

[IamNY]

This poor lady was hassled going into Canada. Usually it is the other way around.

She was a paid speaker to work at a sex club. Crossing the border to work. She “claims” that they flagged her as a sex worker, but there’s no proof of that. She told the border agent that all of the details regarding her paid job was all negotiated on social media. So it’s pretty obvious they are going to look at her social media profile. Also, the border agent is doing their job by protecting jobs in Canada by vetting the people crossing the border to work. IMHO the article was more about being clueless crossing an international border than anything else. Especially when crossing a border for employment.

This was an interesting quote from the article“In trying to avoid the same treatment he deleted his accounts before border crossing and was told by the officer, ‘Next time you come through here, don’t have your phone cleared.’”

He was suspected of sex work because of a “dating app”. They don’t go into detail in regards to what app it was or the circumstances as to why it came up in the first place. Once something like that happens your going to be flagged, no way around it. Then he was supposedly told this by an officer on a following trip. I guess my point here is that he wasn’t getting his balls busted for clearing his phone. Had he cleared his phone in the first place none of this would have happened.

 

[RobertNYC]

Quick question for you folks.

I’m thinking about returning to Montreal over next few weeks. I usually fly in from NYC for entire weekend. I’m thinking about only doing one night (Sat), driving up on Sat morning and returning Sunday night. My issue is my GF often uses a car we share on some weekends for family visits so I’m thinking about just doing a Hertz or Enterprise rental.

My question is: 1) anything to know about bringing a rental car into Canada re insurance, contracts, restrictions, border check, etc? I was told by a friend to get the rental insurance - including supplemental - from the rental agency to breeze through border security instead of showing my Progressive insurance card. 2) Does staying one night, driving a rental from NNJ, raise suspicions at border? I’m usually excellent thinking on my feet and my reason for visit is often hockey (winter), casino, jazz, etc. I especially like Patron’s reason for visit (biking).

Ive been to Montreal dozens of times, and 90% of time I fly. Only once when driving did I get asked a few extra questions, which ended up not being a big deal. Matter of fact, I flew to Montreal 6 consecutive months with only a brief raised eyebrow (how much cash?, don’t they have casinos in New Jersey? - “yeah, sure we do, but I’m not going to get mugged walking around the casino in Montreal.” Response: “Ha, don’t count on it. Good luck.”

Thanks.

 

[IamNY]

Find out if your current insurance provider will cover the rental car and while it’s in Canada. Then, make sure your car rental company allows you to drive it into Canada. Assuming all of that is good, just have your rental docs ready when you cross the border just in case they want to see them. If your going up for just one day it might raise suspicions. Just have an ironclad reason and you shouldn’t have any issues. Also, if you tell Canadian border agents your coming up for a few days it’s not like they will turn around and contact the US border agents so your in trouble a day later coming home early. Plus, if for some reason the US agents are aware of this, who cares your a US citizen, they have to let you in.

 

[RobertNYC]

Thanks greatwalooo. Yeah, I thought about just saying my plan is to stay two nights. If rental car is for two days (sat 9am - mon 9am) , I could say I plan on leaving very early Monday morning to get car back to agency in time. And I can always cancel second night at hotel before 6pm without penalty (if border agent asks for hotel rez). It’s likely no big deal and I’ll get passed right through both directions but just wanted to get an opinion from board. If my phone is clean, there’s no issue. A 1 1/2 day visit isn’t illegal, and it’s likely safer than saying two weeks.

 

[Cababusco]

I was in upstate ny and drove my rental to Montreal. I confirmed with the rental company before booking that taking the car to Canada would not be an issue. The phone person who took the res told me to be sure to get a ‘Canada card’ at the rental desk ( card showing insurance coverage card in Canada) I always decline additional coverage as my cc covers it. I had no problem.

 

[RobertNYC]

Thanks Cababusco. I think you’re referring to a Non-Canadian Resident Insurance card. That’s smart. My only issue is I checked with a rental car company here in my NNJ town + they had no idea what I was talking about. They just kept saying “show the insurance card in vehicle and your papers and you’ll be fine...you’re not the first guy from here to take a rental car into Canada. It’s not a big deal”. One other agents there (Enterprise) said get the supplemental in addition to collision and show the police or border guard the paperwork if asked.

 

[EagerBeaver]

If your liability and collision coverages are adequate there is no reason to purchase additional insurance coverage. Your own insurance company can issue a non-Canadian resident insurance card. Most good insurance companies can email you the cards the same day you ask. I never had a problem with this.

 

[RobertNYC]

Thanks EagerBeaver! Yeah I probably will just rely on my Progressive policy. A friend of mine recommended getting collision/supplemental to just avoid questions and for peace of mind, and of course the rental company was quick to recommend that likely from a profit motive. I agree the extra insurance would be a waste of money and unnecessary.

My primary concern at border is a 1 1/2 day trip in a rental car from NNJ, but perhaps I’m being overly concerned and it’s looked at as no big deal. I usually fly in for an entire weekend (2-3 nights, not just 1).

 

[TheJames101]

Reading this thread is quite confusing (not referring to the most recent conversation about rental cars though)... why would you get harassed by immigration? When I go to the States, I don't tell them what I'm doing step by step. I may say where I'm staying, but otherwise just say I'm there for pleasure, for a holiday and that's that. Why would what you'd be doing for not much more than a few hours out of your trip (with the sp's) even come up?

 

[RobertNYC]

SavoySuit I see your point + I made a similar comment to yours in this thread back on Dec 5th. No need to reveal every detail of a trip (a guy need not tell a border agent he plans to have sex with his wife after dinner at the Marriott. Not the agent’s business obviously.) Saying you’re going to bike, hit the casino, etc is sufficient. Be brief. Be gone.

I only brought up the rental car and short stay details to get expert advice from the community. I never thought driving a rental for a one night stay would be a red flag but perhaps someone here had the experience of it being a yellow flag. A lot of comments here confirmed my thoughts on what to say, how to handle. All good. Thanks all.

 

[Bred Sob]

I wonder, has anyone been harassed recently at the border? My two most recent trips went very smoothly in both directions, like they obviously should. That was quite unlike a bunch of times before when I had to spend an hour or more with CBSA agents trying to uncover all the numerous crimes I have committed in my life.

Have they finally come to their senses? Or is the sampling too small to draw any conclusions?

 

[IamNY]

SavoySuit, your comment makes a lot of sense. I guess a lot of us have way too much time to think on the drive and come up with ways to fuck things up even when theirs nothing to really worry about.

 

[RobertNYC]

+1 greatwalooo