JBM
07-02-2008, 12:22 PM
By popular demand...
When last we left our intrepid hero (yours truly), I went to bed Friday night, secure in the knowledge I had the documentation I needed to get me across the Canadian border on Saturday morning and show up at work Monday.
I learned my lesson the day before and got something to eat immediately before passing through the toll booth on the Port Huron (US) side of the bridge. Fortunately, there was a lot less traffic that morning, in part because I beat the rush, and it was grey and overcast...not exactly fun-at-the-lake day.
It took a lot less time to reach the Canadian customs gate, and as the previous day, I was handed the yellow slip and directed to the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) building for the car inspection and to go to their immigration office.
By now, I was feeling really good about how smoothly things were going...light traffic, got my paperwork. But the chill hit once again.
There she was. The school marm masquerading as an armed CBSA agent. The first words out of her mouth were, do you have the documents for a work permit?
I replied I didn't have those, at which point she looked like she was going to give me the bum's rush straight back to the USA (her glance almost said "What part of 'no' didn't you understand yesterday?"), but I told her I had documents and a legal opinion that said I didn't need one.
That quieted her for a few moments, but after looking over the documernts referencing NAFTA and post-sales support, she reiterated that I would still need a work permit because my job description was not covered under that provision, and again gave me papers refusing me entry.
This was most definitely NOT what I wanted to hear. Again, I headed back to the States, but seeing a longer line on the bridge (all those Canadians taking advantage of the stronger Loonie to buy American), I went to the duty-free store to check out Coffee Lodge.
An aside: Coffee Lodge is a small chain of two free-standing coffee shops in Sarnia, another at the food court of the Lambton Mall on the east side of Sarnia, and the fourth at the duty-free shop. All their coffee is fair-trade, and I highly recommend you try their Mapled Mocha Java and French Caramel roasted-in-flavored coffees. Here's hoping they expand throughout western Ontario.
After going back to US Customs and clearing out of the joint US-Canadian computer system (to verify I actually went back to Canada), my first step was to go back to the Holiday Inn Express. They were nice enough to allow me to use the lobby to send urgent E-mails to all parties and call my contacts. Clearly, it would require a new strategy.
In the meantime, I took advantage of the opportunity to go north of Port Huron to see where I used to live. The gloomy weather was appropriate. I saw some things that brought back a lot of great memories, such as Lakeport State Park, and some really bad ones (our house was burned down in the course of moving when I was younger, and although it was ruled arson, nobody was ever arrested). I was amazed at how the two-lane road didn't look as wide as it had seemed as a kid, the hill across the road not as big. Everything is relative, for when you are 36" tall, everything looks big.
Back in Port Huron, I stopped at a Big Boy restaurant that had WiFi so I could see if anyone had any further bright ideas. The hostess was kind enough to locate me in a booth with a power outlet and away from others. I made a reservation for one more night at the HIX in Port Huron and called the Drawbridge Inn in Sarnia to cancel the Saturday night reservation. Since I tied up the booth for 60 to 90 minutes, I left a significant tip to cover the time I "hogged" the booth.
The best advice I received was from a GE Canada rep. Apparently, someone suggested I try going to Detroit and crossing at the Ambassador Bridge to Windsor, Ontario. He recommended against that, because while Windsor is apparently a lot less strict than Sarnia's CBSA office, the fact that I was turned away twice in two days was a red flag. Any further crossing attempts without having all the Ts crossed and the Is dotted might result in my being banned from the country for at least a year.
What to do now, besides wait in Michigan? That'll wait for Part 3.
When last we left our intrepid hero (yours truly), I went to bed Friday night, secure in the knowledge I had the documentation I needed to get me across the Canadian border on Saturday morning and show up at work Monday.
I learned my lesson the day before and got something to eat immediately before passing through the toll booth on the Port Huron (US) side of the bridge. Fortunately, there was a lot less traffic that morning, in part because I beat the rush, and it was grey and overcast...not exactly fun-at-the-lake day.
It took a lot less time to reach the Canadian customs gate, and as the previous day, I was handed the yellow slip and directed to the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) building for the car inspection and to go to their immigration office.
By now, I was feeling really good about how smoothly things were going...light traffic, got my paperwork. But the chill hit once again.
There she was. The school marm masquerading as an armed CBSA agent. The first words out of her mouth were, do you have the documents for a work permit?
I replied I didn't have those, at which point she looked like she was going to give me the bum's rush straight back to the USA (her glance almost said "What part of 'no' didn't you understand yesterday?"), but I told her I had documents and a legal opinion that said I didn't need one.
That quieted her for a few moments, but after looking over the documernts referencing NAFTA and post-sales support, she reiterated that I would still need a work permit because my job description was not covered under that provision, and again gave me papers refusing me entry.
This was most definitely NOT what I wanted to hear. Again, I headed back to the States, but seeing a longer line on the bridge (all those Canadians taking advantage of the stronger Loonie to buy American), I went to the duty-free store to check out Coffee Lodge.
An aside: Coffee Lodge is a small chain of two free-standing coffee shops in Sarnia, another at the food court of the Lambton Mall on the east side of Sarnia, and the fourth at the duty-free shop. All their coffee is fair-trade, and I highly recommend you try their Mapled Mocha Java and French Caramel roasted-in-flavored coffees. Here's hoping they expand throughout western Ontario.
After going back to US Customs and clearing out of the joint US-Canadian computer system (to verify I actually went back to Canada), my first step was to go back to the Holiday Inn Express. They were nice enough to allow me to use the lobby to send urgent E-mails to all parties and call my contacts. Clearly, it would require a new strategy.
In the meantime, I took advantage of the opportunity to go north of Port Huron to see where I used to live. The gloomy weather was appropriate. I saw some things that brought back a lot of great memories, such as Lakeport State Park, and some really bad ones (our house was burned down in the course of moving when I was younger, and although it was ruled arson, nobody was ever arrested). I was amazed at how the two-lane road didn't look as wide as it had seemed as a kid, the hill across the road not as big. Everything is relative, for when you are 36" tall, everything looks big.
Back in Port Huron, I stopped at a Big Boy restaurant that had WiFi so I could see if anyone had any further bright ideas. The hostess was kind enough to locate me in a booth with a power outlet and away from others. I made a reservation for one more night at the HIX in Port Huron and called the Drawbridge Inn in Sarnia to cancel the Saturday night reservation. Since I tied up the booth for 60 to 90 minutes, I left a significant tip to cover the time I "hogged" the booth.
The best advice I received was from a GE Canada rep. Apparently, someone suggested I try going to Detroit and crossing at the Ambassador Bridge to Windsor, Ontario. He recommended against that, because while Windsor is apparently a lot less strict than Sarnia's CBSA office, the fact that I was turned away twice in two days was a red flag. Any further crossing attempts without having all the Ts crossed and the Is dotted might result in my being banned from the country for at least a year.
What to do now, besides wait in Michigan? That'll wait for Part 3.