travelling to Canada
- Thread starter didam
- Start date
TheRealCanadian
Volunteer Moderator
ginnu said:
This is generally the case; it's called Pre-Flight Inspection (or PFI) and is at all of the major Canadian airports. Some smaller places with service to the US (I believe Halifax is one) do not have a PFI and you clear US immigration in the US.
PFI is generally preferrable, since you arrive at a US domestic terminal instead of half-way across the airport at the International one.
pianoplayer
Registered Users (C)
hipka said:
The US only has that program running in Canada and Ireland currently I believe. BTW, this is not something unique to US immigration. On a number of trips to Australia, there were Australian immigration officials at the gate in Los Angeles verifying peoples visas and passports. The bad thing about that was that you did not arrive as a domestic passenger in Sydney ---- you still had to go through immigration/customs onshore also.
The nice thing about the preclearance in Canada and Ireland is that you basically arrive as a domestic passenger.
pianoplayer
Registered Users (C)
Spacy said:
I cannot imagine why it would be. Besides, there is no Canadian pre-check in the US that I know of.
When I flew to Australia, there was no special lanes for everyone --- they cordoned off the gate area in LA, with an additional X-ray machine(even if we had already gone through it at general security) and 2 airline officers initially checked all passenger documents. Then there was a table set up where 2 officers from Australian immigration checked documents and asked basic questions. Now, some people seemed to have been questioned more than others, especially I hate to say people that looked like they were from Arab descent.
I in particular noticed 2 Arab men(US citizens by seeing their passports) questioned about their exact purpose and itinerary in Australia ----- but no special lines.
I have seen this procedure twice now on flights to Sydney. But like I said, I dont know of the Canadians having this in place anywhere in the US.
As far as I know, US and Australia have been the only countries to place immigration officers abroad at boarding gates.
TheRealCanadian
Volunteer Moderator
didam said:
No. The reason for the PFIs is that most Canada/US traffic flows out of a relatively small number of Canadian airports (Toronto, Montreal, Calgary, Vancouver) to dozens of US airports. It's a lot more efficient to use the PFIs than it is to have more international traffic in the US airports.
The airlines like it as well, since they don't have to pay to send back travellers refused entry; they never board the aircraft in the first place. (I believe this is why the Australians have it - it is cheaper for the airlines to fund this than to pay to send back people refused entry.) Additionally, once the plane has disembarked it is already at a domestic terminal and can be seamlessly used for US domestic service on a continuing leg.
PFIs are the result of the unique pattern of air travel between Canada and the US; they do however exist in other locations like Bermuda, the Bahamas, Aruba and Shannon, Ireland. I believe there was talk of adding a PFI in Warsaw in return for Poland being added to the VWP.
If travellers from the U.S and travellers from other destinations land in the same terminal in Canada, then why you should show your american passport when you enter Canada from another country (europe for example) and not your ID or GC, like you do when you arrive from the US?