Comment by rdtsc
10 years ago
As a rule answers have to be as general as possible. The more specific information you give them voluntarily, the more they can find something to latch on and make your life miserable.
Leave it up to them to ask more details. I wasn't a speaker at my last conference, but I could have been. But my conversation at the border was something like: "Why are you visiting Canada?" / "To go to a conference" / "Where is the conference?" / "Downtown" / "How long will you stay?" / "3 days" / "Ok, welcome to Canada".
Good answers. If you're ever going to an "unconference", don't say that!
When US CBP asked if I was "presenting, or attending", I did NOT take the opportunity to explain that everyone was expected to participate and present :)
The only problem is that while this is fantastic advice, it just means that the people who are going to be abused in the systems are the ones who haven't gotten the message, or otherwise struggle to implement it.
It's sort of a rule of bureaucracy that those who take an effort to be as accurate as possible will hit invisible edges and be scrutinized - those who don't will just sail smoothly or simply fall through the net.
I know that b/c my lifestyle is sometimes "unusual" while at the same time I have a strong inherent tendency to be very correct and "overly" honest. :D
I had exactly this last week in Vancouver, very swift given how long the queue was (British citizen if that helps).
"Why are you visiting Canada?"
"I"m here for a conference"
"What's the conference about?"
"Computer vision, you know, programming research"
"How long are you staying?"
"A week"
Stamp
There was a point on the outbound journey where they were checking everyone's passports by the scanner (i.e. you'd go through and everyone would set the alarm off, but it seemed to be a passport check rather than anything else), as soon as they saw it was British they lost interest.
> British citizen if that helps
It does, the lineups at Toronto's Pearson Int'l airport are longer for Canadians in my experience.
> As a rule answers have to be as general as possible. The more specific information you give them voluntarily, the more they can find something to latch on and make your life miserable.
This is very good advice, anyone prepping for depositions would have heard it already but it works very well for border personnel too.
"Why are you visiting Canada?"
"On vacation."
Done.
About sixteen years ago (I remember, because it was back before 9/11, when you could go to Canada without a passport) I got bored one weekend and drove up to Vancouver by myself. I got to the border, and answered the standard questions like "who do you know here" and "is this your car". Then the border agent asked me the purpose of my visit, and I said "uhhhh, tourism, ha ha". They let me in about an hour later after the car search and police background check came up clean. I guess the moral of the story is come prepared and try to be convincing, because they can screw you over on a whim.
On the other hand, I've gotten across with no delay at all by saying "I'm picking up a friend at the Vancouver airport" and "I'm going to go buy this drill press off of Craigslist -- see this printout?" Neither of those is illegal, and in neither case can they expect you to have hotel reservations or know any Canadians, etc.
> I guess the moral of the story is come prepared and try to be convincing, because they can screw you over on a whim.
One of my favourite parts about driving to the border is going through scenarios with my passengers, and how to answer each question.
I know someone (US citizen) who did this exact thing for a work trip to Vancouver and was denied because he got himself into a trap trying to explain what he would be doing.
Honesty might get you in trouble, but thats still probably a better place to be than trying to lie your way out
As a rule answers have to be as general as possible.
So, sort of the same strategy used for patent claims?