Thought I would share this experience. To maintain the anonymity of myself and the CBSA officers I want to keep the port of entry and date confidential.
I landed by road from US to Canada. This is my first experience landing by road. It was a long 12 hour drive just by me, hunger, broken buggy GPS all clubbed together.
I exported the car and it took me 1.5 hours to find the CBP office. After crossing the bridge to Canada, there were many lanes. I chose the wrong lane meant for fast track nexus I think. Officer gave me a pink slip written some note pointing out my mistake.
The problem became worsened, when I followed a few cars directly into Canada. I was following my GPS as well. I figured I went past immigration and customs. Then took an immediate turn made a few turns back and ended up back into the many lane situation. This time they caught me lost and guided me to an officer.
To my shock I was told by the officer I could get arrested for doing this. He trusts me and he might leave me with just a fine of $1000! They took my passports.Probably did some quick checks on me. They checked each and every moving box and bag in my car for a few hours. Is this usual?
On top of everything, I was told this border crossing could be in my record for 7 years and I could be investigated about this anytime in the next 7 years when I enter the border
I was almost asking the officer that I might need an attorney to fix it.After the car goods checking was over, the officer started a friendly conversation and told he will talk to his superior and get the fine and 7 years record waived.
I went into customs and immigration. The lady officer was super cool. She checked with her supervisor and he said we are waiving off any remarks that I crossed the border by mistake without doing immigration and customs.
Again, this was totally unintentional on my part. I recall I saw two trucks waiting in the immigration line and I followed the cars( going directly to Canada) thinking I was right. This has been bugging me a bit last few days though I was told thrice by three different officers, nothing will reflect in your record. Please advise some course of action
