Hi all,
Just want to share my experience.
I've tried to flagpole last week in Niagara on the Rainbow Bridge. The attempt was not successful, because I came around 8:40 am and it was already too late because they were processing 10 people per day and, basically, every day (Tuesday to Thursday) at 8:00 am these 10 people were already in the line waiting for the customs office to open.
So I went back to Toronto and decided to go another port of entry - Windsor.
I took a VIA train from Toronto to Windsor and arrived around 10 pm.
The problem with Windsor is that it has no pedestrian sidewalks both on the bridge and in the tunnel. And I have neither car nor driving license. I've tried to ask taxi to drive me outside Canadian border and turn around (since I have no US visa and was not going to enter USA) but driver refused and also scared me a lot. He said my plan was terrible and I would stuck between borders for hours.
As appeared later he was not a reliable source of information - so don't listen taxi drivers even if they are local.
So instead of the Canadian border the driver took me to Windsor bus terminal which is very close to the tunnel itself. From where I took the Tunnel Bus to Detroit (5 CAD fee, cash) to cross the border. Bus driver didn't really care about the purpose of my travel and if I have US visa - it was more like a regular TTC bus then a shuttle bus. It was almost empty - only six people inside.
So, I crossed the Canadian border and arrived to the US border. The bus stopped and all the passengers were told to exit and go to customs office. In the office I told officer that I had no intention to go to USA and I want to come back to Canada because I was just flagpoling. He took my passport and told me to stay in the office.
After that he told bus driver to pick me up on his way back. There is actually a bus stop on the other side of customs office, so the officer was not forcing driver to do something that he doesn't do normally. I guess he told that just in case if there won't be any people on the bus stop and driver may decide to pass through without stopping.
After that the officer started putting data from my passport to their system and asking some weird questions (completely different from the officer on the Rainbow Bridge). He was asking what did I do in Canada, where did I work, what was my Canadian address, which college did I study, what was my height, weight and also if I was a spy or not.
I guess some of these questions he asked just because he was bored. He was quite friendly and relaxed.
He also took my fingerprints and made a photo of me. Again, none of this happened on the Rainbow Bridge, where the whole procedure took like 5 minutes. But here he was really checking if I am a criminal or not. Maybe just because he was bored.
Then he printed some form, put it inside my passport and told me to wait for the bus. When the bus was about to arrive the other officer took my passport with the printed form in it and escorted me to the bus stop. I suppose he was not giving me back my passport because the bus stop was physically in the US and I could theoretically run away to become illegal immigrant.
When the bus arrived the officer gave my passport to the driver (not to me) and told him something. The driver let me in together with all the other people (for some reason he didn't ask to pay fee again) and drove back to Canadian border. At the border the driver give my passport and the form to Canadian officer who told me to exit the bus and wait in the office. After processing all the other passengers he asked me to show my COPR. He was not asking for any other documents and didn't ask weird questions except for my exact address in order to send PR card. Over all he didn't look upset - more like focused on an unusual task which he wanted to finish properly.
As a conclusion, I can say that flagpoling in the Windsor/Detroit tunnel is doable but a little bit scary.
Officers on both sides were a bit surprised of me doing that weird thing but they were not angry at all. I guess because of a very few people doing it.
At the same time the situation may change if too many people will start doing it. First of all, the bus driver will have to take care about passengers' documents what he may not really want to do on a regular basis. Also officers need to escort people to the bus stop what they also may not like to do constantly.
