Here’s my contribution to this thread for those of us wanting to cross the border into Canada. I recently made the trip to Montreal via my motorcycle and I crossed the border from NY.
For me, waiting for the negative COVID test was the worst part. You are virtually handcuffed until you get the green light to proceed. Took my test midweek and got my negative results 2 days later. I used the ArriveCAN app to answer all the questions and uploaded my documents such as my test results, vaccine card, and passport info. When you get to the part about a quarantine plan you simply put in the address of your hotel as instructed. When your finished you get a code that you use when you cross the border. All of it was pretty simple and straight forward. My only concern about needing my phone for the crossing. I typically erase my phone before traveling for privacy reasons. I couldn’t do that this time because I needed to have the ArriveCAN app ready to go.
Get to the border only to find out the NEXUS lane is closed. This wasn’t that much of a pain in the ass because there was only a couple of cars ahead of me. Pull up to the agent, he asked for my ID, vaccine card, COVID test results, and asked me to show him my ArriveCAN code from my phone. He then asked, but it was more like confirming my quarantine plan. Didn’t get into details about it, just confirmed my hotel address. Then he hands me a box, a COVID test box. This is where it got a little weird because your dealing with a border agent so you don’t want to piss him off by asking to many questions but I also wanted to confirm a few things. He “suggested” I complete the test with 4 days of arriving to Canada. He then went into how difficult it would be for me to do it myself and sending it in etc. Kind of like a salesman, bait and switch tactic. He suggested I follow the signs for the COVID test and I can take care of it right now. It was a suggestion, not an order to do so. To me, that was a little weird and maybe others can elaborate on that. Anyway, I followed the signs and ended up at a test site just a couple of blocks away.
It looked as though the “random” COVID test we were told about is now mandatory. Everyone that was on line to get into Canada was also on the line to take the test.
Met with a lot of testing staff all in their ppe’s, gloves, shields, etc. quite the show. I was instructed that my KN95 mask was unacceptable and was given a cheap cloth mask to wear instead. Really? They also made me sanitize my hands when I took off my mask and again when I put the mask back on. More about the overuse of hand sanitizer later. I was then instructed to take a picture of the gift box I received from the border agent. It opened up on my phones browser. Only problem was that I just crossed an international border and my phone hadn’t picked up a cell signal yet. I was then shown a iPad with the WiFi and user password. Tried that several times to no avail and was asked to put my phone down. I forgot to mention, every time we had to pivot under my interrogation I was asked to use hand sanitizer, like 25 different times for the duration. Wtf? So now my phone is set aside and I’m handed surgical gloves and their iPad. I’m asked to complete the log in. I said I don’t know the password. How do u not know the password you just picked? The iPhone picked a strong password for me and saved it. The tester grabs the iPad and asks me to take my phone out again while still wearing surgical gloves. Took off the gloves and handed them to him. He refused and said I need to throw them out. I thought he meant right away so I got off the bike only to see the fear of death in his eyes. He then screamed for me to get back on my Hog. I complied. He had me input all of the same personal info again, you know the exact same shit filled out on the ArriveCAN app. So we tried it again and it worked. Success! Now it was finally time for the test. New guy, more hand sanitizer after 15 minutes finally opened up the test box. I was told to insert the tip in my nostril for 5 seconds each. I counted to 5 pulled it out and got yelled at. What is it now? The guy had a stop watch. Fuck me. Finished the test, used more sanitizer then I was asked to place it in a clear envelope and I was now handed a sanitizer wipe to clean the outside of the zip lock bag. I was told I would get an email with the results. Fuck you very much. That’s 45 minutes of my life I’ll never get back. I know they were just doing their jobs but you would think that if they are making all Americans stop and take a test they would of had people that spoke more fluent English. The communication breakdown was horrible. Much of my time spent there was sanitizing my hands and having to repeat myself and ask the testers to repeat what they said. It seemed like it was all a big show about nothing.
Made it to my hotel ordered up some SP’s and enjoyed the hell out of my trip! Big difference in Montreal compared to the states was the demand for using hand sanitizer. In the states it’s everywhere but not mandatory to use. In Montreal you’ll get chased down by security if you don’t do it walking into a store. That’s how I learned about the rule.
That’s pretty much it. Going back home was easy and no hassle at the border.
