Entry attempt to Canada with ETA or VISA from April 2020 to Now

[abdulzeedo]

Hi guys

If you have tried to travel to Canada for urgent and essential purposes and have been either admitted or denied entry, please post here your story.

Please provide the following information:

• Country and Airport of departure
• Airport of Arrival in Canada
• Type of VISA: ETA or others
• Reason for travel
• Decision made at the port of entry in Canada or before boarding the flight

I hope that this will help everyone understand when the border restrictions start easing out a little.

 

[abdulzeedo]

My story is this:

I was travelling to Toronto on my ETA on the 21st of May from Heathrow Airport, London, England to be with my wife (who has severe anxiety disorder) for some time and possibly apply for an inland spousal sponsorship.

At the Heathrow airport, the Air Canada agent called the Canada Border Services Agency on phone and the CBSA officer asked some questions through the Air Canada agent to me:

- Am I planning to live permanently in Canda? I said no.

- Does my wife have any family members with her? I said yes.

- Do I have any form of Canadian citizenship? I said no.

- Why didn't I travel to Canada before? I said because there were restrictions and a full lockdown in the UK.

The enquiry process took about 3-5 minutes and after that, the Air Canada agent put down the phone and said: "Unfortunately, you will not be able to board the flight, because your travel purpose is deemed to be of discretionary nature". According to the Air Canada agent, the reasons for denial were two: the fact that I hadn't travelled to Canada before and that my wife had her family with her.

I was also told to appeal to GAC London, which said that they cannot provide any form of written authorization that can overturn CBSA's decision. Obviously, the Air Canada Agent was trying to stop me from harassing him too much and said the first thing that came to his mind...

PS. I am not asking you guys to verify or confirm that the decision taken is right or not. I am simply sharing my story... And yes, according to the leaked CBSA guidelines document it looks like the decision was taken according to them.

 

[PMM]

Hi

My story is this:

I was travelling to Toronto on my ETA on the 21st of May from Heathrow Airport, London, England to be with my wife (who has severe anxiety disorder) for some time and possibly apply for an inland spousal sponsorship.

At the Heathrow airport, the Air Canada agent called the Canada Border Services Agency on phone and the CBSA officer asked some questions through the Air Canada agent to me:

- Am I planning to live permanently in Canda? I said no.

- Does my wife have any family members with her? I said yes.

- Do I have any form of Canadian citizenship? I said no.

- Why didn't I travel to Canada before? I said because there were restrictions and a full lockdown in the UK.

The enquiry process took about 3-5 minutes and after that, the Air Canada agent put down the phone and said: "Unfortunately, you will not be able to board the flight, because your travel purpose is deemed to be of discretionary nature". According to the Air Canada agent, the reasons for denial were two: the fact that I hadn't travelled to Canada before and that my wife had her family with her.

I was also told to appeal to GAC London, which said that they cannot provide any form of written authorization that can overturn CBSA's decision. Obviously, the Air Canada Agent was trying to stop me from harassing him too much and said the first thing that came to his mind...

1. CBSA made the decision that was end of it. The agent can't do anything further.

 

[abdulzeedo]

Hi




1. CBSA made the decision that was end of it. The agent can't do anything further.

Nobody is trying to say otherwise. I am just saying that his advice to appeal to GAC London was a simple blatant lie. He should have simply said that there is no way to appeal to this decision. Because of his lie, I have spent quite some time chasing IRCC, CBSA and GAC London to understand what could be done now.
Technically, according to the document leaked from CBSA, I am still eligible to travel and this was confirmed with an immigration lawyer too, of course, there is more to my story that for privacy reasons I am not sharing.
The other detail that I didn't share was that the CA agent was relaying my answers to CBSA agent. The way he relayed them has been the problem. He simply re-worded, summarised and changed context and the meaning of most of my words. Sometimes, keeping important details to himself.
As I have said the entire process lasted 3-5 minutes... an appeal would have helped but clearly they don't have a way to do so... well, it's a relatively young country

 

[ryester]

Nobody is trying to say otherwise. I am just saying that his advice to appeal to GAC London was a simple blatant lie. He should have simply said that there is no way to appeal to this decision. Because of his lie, I have spent quite some time chasing IRCC, CBSA and GAC London to understand what could be done now.
Technically, according to the document leaked from CBSA, I am still eligible to travel and this was confirmed with an immigration lawyer too, of course, there is more to my story that for privacy reasons I am not sharing.
The other detail that I didn't share was that the CA agent was relaying my answers to CBSA agent. The way he relayed them has been the problem. He simply re-worded, summarised and changed context and the meaning of most of my words. Sometimes, keeping important details to himself.
As I have said the entire process lasted 3-5 minutes... an appeal would have helped but clearly they don't have a way to do so... well, it's a relatively young country

According to your answers to the questions from CBSA, it is very clear that your travel is not essential. Please refer to CBSA internal memo for details,
https://www.cicnews.com/2020/05/how-cbsa-determines-essential-travel-revealed-in-internal-memo-0514463.html?_ga=2.160211389.1260071821.1591021443-1615084568.1578667520#gs.7grk9p

 

[abdulzeedo]

According to your answers to the questions from CBSA, it is very clear that your travel is not essential. Please refer to CBSA internal memo for details,
https://www.cicnews.com/2020/05/how-cbsa-determines-essential-travel-revealed-in-internal-memo-0514463.html?_ga=2.160211389.1260071821.1591021443-1615084568.1578667520#gs.7grk9p

Lol nevermind...

 

[abdulzeedo]

Hi




1. CBSA made the decision that was end of it. The agent can't do anything further.

Just to clarify, when I asked the CBSA over the phone, they said that we give only an advice on how we see it. The decision is entirely on the airline. In fact, this decision isn’t even recorded anywhere by the CBSA.