Dealing with crossing the border

Posted on: Wed, 2021/05/12 - 01:23 By: kevin.klop

Right now I'm in an interesting situation. I live in Canada, own a boat that's registered in Canada, but it's moored in the United States.

I have 30 days from the time of purchase to deal with the things that the insurance company wants done, which means working on it every day possible (supplies permitting). Because of the whole COVID situation, I didn't think that commuting to the boat was going to be possible. However, I didn't actually know, so yesterday I walked up to the border to actually ask.

First up were the U.S. border folks. I was able to walk into their building, properly masked and keeping my distance from them, and ask my question. They were helpful, kind, and helped me out. Then I had to go talk to the Canadian people. Realizing that meant I had to move to the "Canadian" side of the guard booths, I asked if there would be a problem coming back and they said, basically, "Nope. We've met you and know who you are. Just don't actually enter into Canada. Tell them, specifically, that you're not seeking entrance." Ok, I can do that.

I walk past the U.S. customs booths and over to the Canadian ones. Technically, I stepped foot out of the U.S. and into Canada since I had to step over the border, but I was in this world no-man's land of being on the Canadian side of the U.S. customs booths, but on the U.S. side of the Canadian custom's booths. It wasn't, actually, a comfortable place to be. I had been specifically told by the U.S people to talk to the person in the Canadian custom's booth - don't bypass them and go into the building. The Canadians don't like that.

I told the border person at the booth that I was not seeking entrance into Canada at this time, but that I had some questions about procedures for when I do. Could I go inside to ask?

The eventual answer I got back from the person at the booth was that in order to go into the building, I had to enter Canada first. To summarize, In order to ask a question about the procedure to enter Canada, I had to enter Canada first. I.e. I had to guess at whether this was the right thing to do, do it, and THEN find out if I had guessed right. Kind of crazy, yes?

Oh, and I found the U.S. border guards a LOT more helpful and nice than the Canadian ones. Strange, eh?