Hello,
Apologies if this has been asked before. I did a search, but didn't find anything--maybe I'm using the wrong search terms, or maybe my wife was just THAT silly 6 years ago. Anyway, here goes...
*Me: 30 year old white American-born man with USA passport, about 10 short solo tourist trips to Canada without incident.
*My wife: 30 year old Pakistani woman with US Permanent residence ("green card").
*Both: living in Washington, DC, and working for the US federal government. Hoping to spend 36 hours in Niagara Falls, ON. Several stamps in passports show that we're semi-frequent travelers who always come home.
About 6 years ago, my wife did something pretty silly. At that time she was in the US on the "Optional Practical Training" component of her student visa. Basically, she had just finished her Master's degree and was allowed to legally work on her "student visa" for a year even though her studies were finished. While on a business trip to Detroit from Washington, my wife foolishly took the advice of the Canadian coworker she was traveling with. He insisted that she didn't need a visa to visit Windsor ON, so they drove across together. Naturally, she was turned back by the Canadian border official, as she clearly needed a visa. She was kept in the office for about 45 minutes, given a light lecture, and was released with the Canadian coworker who drove her back to Detroit.
She wasn't given any paperwork, and no marks were placed in her passport. (Technically, she is now traveling on a new passport, as the old one has since expired. But the old passport was stapled to the new one by the Pakistani passport office in Lahore.)
She has since gotten a job with the US federal government, who has sponsored her US permanent residency. As such, she normally shouldn't require a visa for Canada, and we want to drive to Niagara Falls ON.
Will her previous "refusal of entry" (I'm not even sure if it technically counts as such) come up at the border? And if the border officer doesn't mention it first, should we volunteer the info, or keep quiet?
Since we're driving, another refusal wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, but we would certainly rather avoid it.
Do you see this being an issue?
Many, many thanks!
Apologies if this has been asked before. I did a search, but didn't find anything--maybe I'm using the wrong search terms, or maybe my wife was just THAT silly 6 years ago. Anyway, here goes...
*Me: 30 year old white American-born man with USA passport, about 10 short solo tourist trips to Canada without incident.
*My wife: 30 year old Pakistani woman with US Permanent residence ("green card").
*Both: living in Washington, DC, and working for the US federal government. Hoping to spend 36 hours in Niagara Falls, ON. Several stamps in passports show that we're semi-frequent travelers who always come home.
About 6 years ago, my wife did something pretty silly. At that time she was in the US on the "Optional Practical Training" component of her student visa. Basically, she had just finished her Master's degree and was allowed to legally work on her "student visa" for a year even though her studies were finished. While on a business trip to Detroit from Washington, my wife foolishly took the advice of the Canadian coworker she was traveling with. He insisted that she didn't need a visa to visit Windsor ON, so they drove across together. Naturally, she was turned back by the Canadian border official, as she clearly needed a visa. She was kept in the office for about 45 minutes, given a light lecture, and was released with the Canadian coworker who drove her back to Detroit.
She wasn't given any paperwork, and no marks were placed in her passport. (Technically, she is now traveling on a new passport, as the old one has since expired. But the old passport was stapled to the new one by the Pakistani passport office in Lahore.)
She has since gotten a job with the US federal government, who has sponsored her US permanent residency. As such, she normally shouldn't require a visa for Canada, and we want to drive to Niagara Falls ON.
Will her previous "refusal of entry" (I'm not even sure if it technically counts as such) come up at the border? And if the border officer doesn't mention it first, should we volunteer the info, or keep quiet?
Since we're driving, another refusal wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, but we would certainly rather avoid it.
Do you see this being an issue?
Many, many thanks!
