ID needed to get to Canada

[ryland_moore]

O.K. I've been searching on the Internet and keep getting differing statements regarding what forms of ID you need to get into Canada. I am headed up to Johnstone Straight on Vancouver Island next weekend for some sea kayaking and my girlfriend doesn't have a passport. Can she get by with a driver's license, a birth certificate, and SS card? Or are we screwed?

[Alpinfox]

 

My understanding is you need:

 

Passport OR Driver's License + Birth Certificate OR the new subcutaneous bar code (Brave New World Baby!)

 

You'll get by with just DL, but they will hassle you and probably search your car and shit.

 

Fuckers.

 

CASCADIANS UNITE!

 

[bird]

ryland_moore said:

O.K. I've been searching on the Internet and keep getting differing statements regarding what forms of ID you need to get into Canada. I am headed up to Johnstone Straight on Vancouver Island next weekend for some sea kayaking and my girlfriend doesn't have a passport. Can she get by with a driver's license, a birth certificate, and SS card? Or are we screwed?

 

The birth certificate should do the trick for proof of citizenship. SS card does nothing so you can leave it at home. I did the exact same trip about a month ago with the future Mrs. bird and it was awesome!! Saw shitloads of orcas right next to the kayaks.

[skyclimb]

I have been many times with just a drivers license. The kicker is getting back into the U.S., they always search me big time.

It was funny, I was heading into the u.s., and they pulled me over to the side, and searched my car.(not unusual), but it was taking a long time, and dogs were going through my shit. Turns out after an hour and a half, it was my chalk bag that had them stumped!

ANyways, take a birth certificate, and you will be golden.

[Freeman]

Ryland

 

I've done two trips across the border this month - the recommend id is either your passport or two pieces of id with picture (drivers license and birth certificate work well). All the normal cautions apply about carrying booze, firearms, fresh produce, etc (ie - don't).

 

We find that when going up I5 it is much faster to use the Linden crossing above B'ham instead of Blaine - it is slower road but much faster crossing. Then pick up Trans Canada 1 into Vancouver.

 

We just finished a week in the Broken Group at Barkley Sound - enjoy your trip

[nolanr]

I had no trouble getting into Canada w/ just a drivers license up north of Babb, Montana. However crossing back into the US at Sumas the guy looked at me a little funny since I didn't have a passport or birth certificate. I wouldn't have even thought about needing a passport to go to Canada. What, like it's another country or something?

[Dru]

border guards aren't paid very well. a $100 is usually all you need.

[stinkyclimber]

I failed to bring photo ID and proof of citizenship with me when I headed into the US in June to do Baker. The US border dudes were NOT amused, took a frigging hour to check shit out, then told me that if I did it again, I'd be turned away. Heading back into Canada at the end of the trip, the Canadian border people didn't even ask to see ID.

 

Lesson: you may be OK getting into Canada, but you could get fucked coming back south into the US. The new rule for Canadians is that we have to have both photo ID AND proof of citizenship (i.e. passport, or DL + birth cert/proof of citizenship) to get into the US...a DL doesn't count. Fuckers. I don't know if this also applies to Yanks, but by the sounds of other people in this thread, it is a possibility. Good luck..and remember, you can't bring guns in; pot is fine though.

[Alpinfox]

[Alex]

We cross the border many times a year, and after 9/11 the US Customs started getting hardcore about proof of citizenship. a Drivers license or SS Card is NOT proof.

 

Alot of you who say you've been getting by with just a drivers license might be interested to know that starting in about a month from now, all the border agents, INS, and Customs will be under the Dept of Homeland security. The border agent we talked to (4 days ago) said he did not know if there would be a change in policy (i.e. how much more hardcore they would get re: Passport vs Drivers Licenses) but that he wouldnt doubt it.

 

If you have a passport, you might as well bring it and give them one less excuse to search you and delay you.

 

Alex

[Attitude]

From your Department on Homeland Security:

 

What documents, identification, paperwork does a U.S. citizen need to re-enter the U.S.?

 

A U.S. citizen should have either a valid U.S. passport OR a certified copy of their birth certificate or baptismal record with current photo identification issued by a government agency (state I.D. card, driver's license, military I.D.). (Minors under the age of 14 are not required to show a government-issued ID, State Departments of Motor Vehicles will usually provide a non-drivers license for people 14 and older.)

 

If traveling from outside the Western Hemisphere (the Western Hemisphere is North, Central, and South America), a U.S. citizen MUST present a passport.

 

U.S. citizens returning from an adjacent country (Mexico, Canada), U.S territory (U.S. Virgin Islands), or Caribbean island (excluding Cuba), may use the alternatives to a passport listed above. See 22 CFR 53.2. Due to heightened security it is strongly recommended that US citizens also present their passports even when returning from travel only to Canada or Mexico.

 

If a U.S. citizen does not have a passport or a certified copy of a birth certificate, the following may be accepted as proof of citizenship,

 

- A U.S. state or federal government-issued birth record (note: hospital-issued birth certificates are not acceptable) or baptismal record,

 

- Certificate of Citizenship, or Certificate of Naturalization [note: notarized photocopies or notarized fax copies of such certificates are acceptable, but affidavits of citizenship and voter registrations are not).

 

Neither of the above will be accepted unless accompanied by a government issued ID. Laminated Birth Certificates are not acceptable because it makes it impossible to determine if the seal is raised (an attribute of a certified copy).

 

 

http://help.customs.gov/cgi-bin/customs.cfg/php/enduser/std_alp.php

[erik]

Attitude said:

From your Department on Homeland Security:

 

What documents, identification, paperwork does a U.S. citizen need to re-enter the U.S.?

 

baptismal record

 

what if you are not christain?

 

 

[Attitude]

erik said:

Attitude said:

From your Department on Homeland Security:

 

What documents, identification, paperwork does a U.S. citizen need to re-enter the U.S.?

 

baptismal record

 

what if you are not christain?

 

You're going to HELL!

[Uncle_Tricky]

The last two times I've crossed coming back into the US, I wasn't asked to show ANY form of ID. Guess I got that innocent look down cold.

 

The only time in the many dozens of times I've crossed I've been searched was returning from Nelson, BC at that podunk crossing north of Spokane. We'd combusted the last of our contra a half hour earlier and were riding in my gf's hippie bus.

 

At the lonely crossing, there was an old veteran, and a young awkward guy who was clearly a nervous rookie. It was quite fascinating to watch how they conducted the search. I stayed in the driver's seat, and while the wily old veteran make innocent small talk with me about the weather and other inane subjects, the young guy poked around in the back.

 

The whole time the veteran was making small talk with me, I could see under his aw-shucks smile and manner that he was watching me intently to see if I was nervous or distracted or wanting to look back over my shoulder at the other guy who was searching the bus. One guy searching, the other just making casual conversation while watching me like a hawk. I can't remember the specifics, but there were also couple verbal traps he laid for me as well--the cleverness of which I didn't fully appreciate til afterwards. Later I understood the idea was to make me tell a lie--even a white lie--to get some sort of body language baseline from which he could judge other more significant deceptions.

 

Anyway, while I chatted with the veteran, my gf helped the rookie by moving stuff around, etc. When she opened the back door of the bus, which was packed with crap, out fell a big green ribbed battery powered dildo, which landed literally on the foot of the rookie. As he bent down to pick it up, an avalanche of my gf's lingerie, bras and panties cascaded down on him.

 

The veteran looked back just in time to see the rookie straightening up with a big green battery powered dildo in one hand, and several bras and panties clinging like colorful starfish to his head and shoulders.

 

He looked so ridiculous that all of us--except him--started laughing at him. The search ended shortly thereafter and we were on our way back into the usa. Several miles down the road, we found that one particular roadside historical marker that we'd passed on our way into Canuckland and pulled a sucessful Fargo, uncaching buried treasures from the snow.

[Cpt.Caveman]

Can she get by with a driver's license, a birth certificate, and SS card? Or are we screwed?

 

Ok it may be useless now if you are there or on the return but I have used a license and birth certificate for about 8 years now. Never had a problem yet.

 

Whether they ask for it or not is another question. If you go without ID then expect to be turned around if you are unlucky. Yes I have had times when I was not asked much at all or evern for ID going both ways.. But then other times it was different. Maybe we should bomb canada and make roads into the Icefields and also log the shit out of the place so we can have trails.

 

 

[mattp]

Freeman said:

All the normal cautions apply about carrying booze, ... etc (ie - don't).

 

Huh? You gonna go on a kayak trip without any booze??????

 

Actually, I would say that a stop at Duty Free is damn near mandatory -- not only for the booze but because it can be a major time-saver. If you are crossing when there is a line-up for the border, take the truck customs exit and hit the shoulder lane to drive past everybody waiting in line and pull into the store, make your deal, and then come back out and jump in line right before the booths.

[lummox]

Uncle_Tricky said:

out fell a big green ribbed battery powered dildo

battery powered huh? as opposed to what? gasoline internal combustion two stroke?

[Uncle_Tricky]

Hey Lummox, yo mama's so stupid, she thinks sexual battery is something in a dildo!

Well, I guess that my monthly quota of spray!

 

Oh, hey Lummox, have you ever checked out the band by the same name?

Those guys

I think Natural Born Swillers is their best work thus far.

An excerpt from the cover:

 

Punk isn't dead... it just smells bad. The artists formerly known as Cretin are continuing research in the field of 'Human Reaction to Hostile Stimuli'. They have discovered that the two best ways to provoke a reaction out of Human Beings are... to say something that people think they can identify with, or identify with something that they can't say outloud, or even think about. The CD release titled 'Natural Born Swillers' applies these concepts in fashion that some may feel is socially unacceptable, but if you find that you indentify with earlier works of 'the artists formerly known as Cretin' such as, the Dayglo Abortions 'Feed Us A Fetus' or 'Here Today Guano Tomorrow', then 'Natural Born Swillers' by Lummox should provide you with enough hostile stimuli to make you want to fuck your dog and eat it too!

Edited August 25, 2003 by Uncle_Tricky