Hello there, this might run a little long but bear with me!
I met a wonderful woman on the internet and decided to stay with her during December in Toronto as she had a medical issue where she required constant care. We had already been dating and the health incident was quite a shock, so upon arriving at customs the first time, I was given until the end of February to stay there. I left the country to visit family at one point, and on return to Canada, had what was probably the most humiliating and disgusting experience of my life.
I was stopped at the customs counter when I presented my passport, and was sent into the main processing center for Immigration (usually the place where they send people who broke laws, or suspicious characters.) I am a 5'11,21 year old, white, middle class male with no criminal record, a job, a large amount of money saved up (at the time,) and had never even been so much as suspended from school.
Upon meeting with the person at the Immigration center inside the airport (a middle-eastern female,) I was asked a serious of unorthodox, and in my opinion, inappropriate questions that still have effected me to this day. The woman essentially told me that being with someone I loved was "an excuse" for me to get into the country, and that I was most likely lying about being employed, or having any money. I didn't have cash on me over 100 CAD(I usually only carry debit and credit for a number of reasons,) which she pointed out as extremely suspicious. When I left the time before this, I asked customs if they needed to see or remove my visa and they said no. The woman also did not believe this at all, and upon hearing my claims, asked me if I understood English, and then demanded that I read all the stipulations and regulations that were printed on the visa out loud, in front of everyone present. I told her I did not wish to do this which made her angry, as she repeatedly reminded me that failure to do as she said would have an impact on whether I was allowed to enter the country or not.
At this point I was literally almost about to burst out crying. The woman further taunted me when I asked her to speak to a supervisor and coerced me away from doing so, as she stated "you cannot talk to a supervisor until after I approve or deny your entry into the country". Obviously I dropped that right there. The lady also made many racist remarks, yelling at me and calling me a liar because I told her that my parents supported my decision to live here without a work visa, and that they would help me with any costs I might need assistance with. She told me that her parents would never approve of such a thing, and used that to base whether I was telling the truth or not.
After all this, I could barely even stand up. I suffer from OCD and Depression and almost passed out during this ordeal. The love of my life was only 30 minutes away, and yet here I was, about ready to be sent back on a plane, or even worse. Eventually the woman taunted me some more, and then, finally, extended my visa.
When all this was said and done, I had realized that I wanted to stay longer than this and decided to apply to add time to my visa, as her lease wasn't over until the end of may. I did so through the CIC website, and over the course of almost a month, never got a response. I started to read about what would happen if I stayed over the length of time my Visa would allow (even though by applying for the extension I supposedly covered until I heard back from CIC). and decided that even though I had already been there over my allowed stay, that I would leave the country.
At this point I want to return and be with my girlfriend for a short visit (2-3 weeks,) but am not sure if I would be able to enter Canada again even though from what I know, I followed instructions and did what I was supposed to do. On the CIC website it said that I was allowed to stay until I heard about my Visa-extension, but not only have I never gotten an answer, upon return to the US, the customs officer there threw my Visa in the garbage, after ripping it out of my passport. I checked the status of the application on CIC's website today after finding a number written in my passport and there is nothing there at all.
Without record of my Visa extension, and without the physical visa itself, would I be allowed to even visit Canada at all? Losing the love of my life over a clerical error would absolutely devastate me, and as of now, I am left without answers.
Thank you very much for your time.
I met a wonderful woman on the internet and decided to stay with her during December in Toronto as she had a medical issue where she required constant care. We had already been dating and the health incident was quite a shock, so upon arriving at customs the first time, I was given until the end of February to stay there. I left the country to visit family at one point, and on return to Canada, had what was probably the most humiliating and disgusting experience of my life.
I was stopped at the customs counter when I presented my passport, and was sent into the main processing center for Immigration (usually the place where they send people who broke laws, or suspicious characters.) I am a 5'11,21 year old, white, middle class male with no criminal record, a job, a large amount of money saved up (at the time,) and had never even been so much as suspended from school.
Upon meeting with the person at the Immigration center inside the airport (a middle-eastern female,) I was asked a serious of unorthodox, and in my opinion, inappropriate questions that still have effected me to this day. The woman essentially told me that being with someone I loved was "an excuse" for me to get into the country, and that I was most likely lying about being employed, or having any money. I didn't have cash on me over 100 CAD(I usually only carry debit and credit for a number of reasons,) which she pointed out as extremely suspicious. When I left the time before this, I asked customs if they needed to see or remove my visa and they said no. The woman also did not believe this at all, and upon hearing my claims, asked me if I understood English, and then demanded that I read all the stipulations and regulations that were printed on the visa out loud, in front of everyone present. I told her I did not wish to do this which made her angry, as she repeatedly reminded me that failure to do as she said would have an impact on whether I was allowed to enter the country or not.
At this point I was literally almost about to burst out crying. The woman further taunted me when I asked her to speak to a supervisor and coerced me away from doing so, as she stated "you cannot talk to a supervisor until after I approve or deny your entry into the country". Obviously I dropped that right there. The lady also made many racist remarks, yelling at me and calling me a liar because I told her that my parents supported my decision to live here without a work visa, and that they would help me with any costs I might need assistance with. She told me that her parents would never approve of such a thing, and used that to base whether I was telling the truth or not.
After all this, I could barely even stand up. I suffer from OCD and Depression and almost passed out during this ordeal. The love of my life was only 30 minutes away, and yet here I was, about ready to be sent back on a plane, or even worse. Eventually the woman taunted me some more, and then, finally, extended my visa.
When all this was said and done, I had realized that I wanted to stay longer than this and decided to apply to add time to my visa, as her lease wasn't over until the end of may. I did so through the CIC website, and over the course of almost a month, never got a response. I started to read about what would happen if I stayed over the length of time my Visa would allow (even though by applying for the extension I supposedly covered until I heard back from CIC). and decided that even though I had already been there over my allowed stay, that I would leave the country.
At this point I want to return and be with my girlfriend for a short visit (2-3 weeks,) but am not sure if I would be able to enter Canada again even though from what I know, I followed instructions and did what I was supposed to do. On the CIC website it said that I was allowed to stay until I heard about my Visa-extension, but not only have I never gotten an answer, upon return to the US, the customs officer there threw my Visa in the garbage, after ripping it out of my passport. I checked the status of the application on CIC's website today after finding a number written in my passport and there is nothing there at all.
Without record of my Visa extension, and without the physical visa itself, would I be allowed to even visit Canada at all? Losing the love of my life over a clerical error would absolutely devastate me, and as of now, I am left without answers.
Thank you very much for your time.
Sometimes they are just being too careful and if anything seems out of the ordinary they prefer to send you over there rather than deal with it at the custom's officer booth. And I certainly haven't heard of any customs officer ripping pages out of people's passports! 