Canadian customs questioning a "frequent" visitor

[NicoleMarlee]

Time your visit with sports events.

 

[Jaxan]

I think it’s a standard question, to ask if we have over 10k in cash, when crossing border into Canada.

 

[Dm36]

Thanks for all the advice. Driving up soon. Is it true border checkpoints ask for vaccination status and want proof?

 

[Like_It_Hot]

Thanks for all the advice. Driving up soon. Is it true border checkpoints ask for vaccination status and want proof?

FAKE NEWS!!!!

 

[IamNY]

Thanks for all the advice. Driving up soon. Is it true border checkpoints ask for vaccination status and want proof?

They used to, not anymore. It’s business as usual at the border.

 

[2fast2slow]

Looking for a little advice please - I’m a US citizen and in 2023 I started flying to Canada for the escort scene. My trips have been 5-10 days each in mar, may, aug, sep and oct. So that’s a total of 5 trips this year (3 times to MTL and 2 to TOR), and the frequency has increased to once per month over the last 3 months.

I’m itching to fly up to Montreal again this week. But the more I go the more i get concerned about Canadian customs questioning upon arrival. To be clear I haven’t actually had problems thus far. I’ve always answered “general tourism” for the reason of visit. Other than being asked where I’ll stay I really haven’t gotten questioned much at all. But now that my trips are getting more frequent and this would be the 4th visit in 4 months... I’m concerned that an agent will basically not buy the “general tourism” and demand to know why I’m flying up so often.

I have US global entry (which makes clearing US customs a breeze when flying back) but I unfortunately don’t have Nexus, so I have to go through the general line with everyone else at Canadian customs.

Questions:

• Generally speaking, does visiting every month for a week at a time enough raise red flags for Canadian customs?
• If I do get grilled by an agent on the reason for the repeated visits, what can I say that’s more effective than “I enjoy being a tourist here”?
• I stay at nice 4-5 star hotels each time and bring a print out of my reservation just in case. I also get a ticket to some venue/show that week and print that out as well. Have never had to show these, but figure it can’t hurt to have. Any other little tips along those lines that may help if I draw a predatory agent?

Cheers

I think you should just move here, you will be happier

 

[MtlGuyNow]

Breezed through both Nexus interviews. It was over year to pass the initial screening to be able to schedule the appointment at the border.

 

[Dave in Phoenix]

Breezed through both Nexus interviews. It was over year to pass the initial screening to be able to schedule the appointment at the border.

I was not so lucky. I was caught in the Covid shutdown. I renewed it about six months before it expired. I had conditional approval but required another interview. I think the renewal interviews are random from a discussion on a travel board. So, every few weeks, I would check for interviews on their site. Once, I checked for every day for about six months on their calendar, and all just said no interviews were available for each date. Later I learned the entire system was shut down so why not just show on the site not to bother vs check for an interview date available. I think it was one year from making the application the interview period expired since there were no interviews. I had to start the process all over again. After another six months, I got a notice, I was approved, this time without an interview.

While not having Nexus mentioned this mess to a customs agent in Toronto (when they had like 3 hour lines backed up). The agent said even he, as a customs agent, was still waiting a year to get approval.