Travelling to US from Canada

martyfarty69

Need a little advice here,

I am travelling to the US to visit my fiancee, but instead of paying over £500 to fly there i'm flying to Canada instead and crossing the border as she lives just over it and its gonna work out about half the price, i know we don't need Visa's or anything to Visit the US on holiday, but does anyone know if i need anything to fly into Canada, but stay in the US, don't want to turn up without some piece of paper or something and be turned away !!!

Hope someone can give me some advice.

alanrowell

http://www.usembassy.org.uk/cons_new/visa/niv/vwp.html - about half way down the page.

Bear in mind that you have to satisfy the same requirements as if you flew in so if you've been arrested or convicted or any offence then you should get a visa

Smiley_Mum

This from the link

visited Toronto in 1994. I crossed the border into the US on two occasions; once with Canadian friends in their RV, and once in a rented light aircraft. I was advised before I left the UK to obtain a US visa, which I did. There appears to be no specific requirement in the details on the US embassy's website, but I believe it saved me a lot of hassle with form-filling when crossing the border "under my own steam" rather than by scheduled transport

Here's the link

http://freespace.virgin.net/john.cletheroe/usa_can/immigr/#visiting_the_usa_from_canada

You may have to contact the relevant embassy to find out for sure. HTH

telly-addict

We drove from Canada into the US and there were surprisingly few formalities, because I think so many Canadians and Americans cross the border each day. I don't even remember having to get out of the car, I'm sure we just drove across. This was pre 9-11 though so it might have changed.

If you are happy you meet the requirements of the visa waiver scheme I wouldn't bother getting a visa. The only formality they can do is to get you to fill in a green visa waiver form, which, if they do, you must make sure that US immigration take the stub out of your passport when you go back into Canada, to show you have left the US.


I remember driving from US to Canada at Niagara we had to go into the office on the Canadian side merely to show passports I think....

martyfarty69

OK Thanks, seems easy enough, i guess sometimes it is good to be a UK citizen, and have a " special " relationship with North America !!!

ultrak3wl

Be careful! Many years ago my wife and I flew to Toronto, Canada. After a few days there we hired a car and drove to Niagara Falls which is the border with America. The US INS immigration said their visa waiver scheme (the thing which means British people don't need a visa) only applied when traveling on an approved airline from an approved point of origin. This would mean for example if you fly on BA from Heathrow direct to USA then you're covered and don't need a visa.

Since we were not entering the US via the approved waiver method we needed to have visas. Anyone not having a visa would charged 50 dollars admin fee on the spot to enter the country. And they would only accept US currency, in cash, which was tricky since having just come from Toronto we had only Canadian money.

Luckily I did have a US visa so they let me into America so I could find a cash machine and get 50 dollars and come back to bail out my wife. They made her fill in a form then actually stapled the banknotes to it.

This would be about 1992 but no way I would chance it as surely things can only have got worse since then not better.

nelly_2

Did it last year on a bus, we had to get off with our luggage, same scenario as flying in, a few questions a bag check if they fancy it and back on the bus, no probs dead easy!

ctm_2

2 years ago we were staying in Niagara Falls on the US side and went over to canada for the day.

Getting out of the US was easy, as was getting into canada (the guy on the canadian side just glanced at our passports and stamped them. I think we were interupting his game of solitare on his computer.

Getting out of canada was a pain though. As we were walking we had to go through a turnstile that you had to pay for, and we didn't have the correct change!! That was all though.

Back in the US we had to stand in line to go through immigration, have our bags checked and explain what we had been doing etc....

Tapeman

After the bombings in London, the security might be a bit tougher, but you should be ok. Crossed into the States from Canada, and back, paid a small fee each way if i remember (about a fiver i think), but no problems.

If you've not booked a flight yet, check out https://www.canadianaffair.com. Some good prices and if you can go with Thomas Cook, extra leg room & leather seats for around an average price of £100 one way (plus taxes of course...!)

Good luck,
Tapeman

Tapeman

Just a further thought, having a return trip into the States via bus etc. showing a return trip will look more better from US and Canadian customs point of view.

Tapeman

balloonist

We did the reverse last summer- flew to JFK and drove to Toronto. Stayed @ Niagara for a couple of days and freely walked over the border at Rainbow bridge several times with not a blink from the Immigration. Found both sides very courteous!