kafkaesque said:
I really feel obligated to reiterate that. I was personally warned when driving across the border once to be sure I was just visiting and not living on an ongoing basis illegally. When I say warned, I mean they dismantled all my suitcases and tore apart my car making sure I wasn't bringing anything that looked like "moving".
Unless you are granted a status of legal residency (temporary or permanent) by the Canadian government, as a US citizen you do NOT have the right to live in Canada. You have the right to visit, without intention of staying, up to 6 months. This is why they ask at the border for a return plan, where you work in the US, etc.
Of course this doesn't mean that they don't realize if you are visiting while waiting for your PR to come through that you plan on staying someday. They're not stupid- but it also means if they get the idea you are moving for realsies, they can turn you back and ban your entry. Please don't risk it. Tell them you're visiting (which you are if you can't work or go to school, open a bank account, have health insurance, etc, let's be honest) and don't try to play "semantics". You play at that and you will regret it.
I have to agree 100% with kafkaesque here, and I wish that I had found this thread a long time ago b/c it would have saved me so much headach at the border. I have now crossed from US to Canada about 8 times since last fall, while waiting for my PR papers, and I have been harrassed (what I felt as harassing untill I got used to it) every time with crazu questions, which unknowingly I felt I did not even have to be asked since I am legally allowed to enter for any reason I feel like.
This is my experience at the border:
Going with a train, they only ask when you're returning to the US, where you live, what you do for a living, do you rent, own, etc. I discovered that it's very important to say you are coming for no more than 2 weeks b/c qutherwise they get suspicious and start asking ALL kinds of other crazy questions, mainly having ot do with how come you can be vacationing for so long, how will you support yourself during that time. And they are VERY serious about that part, so yes bank statements and pay stubs have been asked of me, although I did not have them on my of course.
On time, a few day after our wedding in the US, (we were SO lucky, we didn't know it at the time), we crossed with my husband's car, my mother and me, AND A UHAUL TRAILER with all my belongings. I was sure we are going to have some issues, but they just let us in no problem. And ew had not even filed for my papers at the time... now looking back, that was very very strange
One time, thiniking that we have absolutly nothing to worry about, we were at the borer 5 hours while they dismanteled our entire car ( I only had regular amounts of luggage then), but they went through EVERYTHING, called my firends in the US who own the house where my "permanent address" is (freaked the hell out of them), ask them all sorts of questions. They separated my husband and I in different intergoation rooms with metal chairs bolted to the concrete floor..... FREAKIGN OUT! for 5 hours, and then let us go through....
So, conclusion
You are visiting for no more than 2 weeks, you have very convincing reasons to return, and a clean and clear explanation of how you wil suport yourself during that time. Even the fact that I now show them my "in progress" documents does not impress them in the slightest.
