16/09/2020
Canadian Customs: Getting through Canadian Customs was pretty tough. There are a lot of rules and regulations at the moment, rightfully so. The first priority for Canadian Customs is to protect Canadian citizens, they were lenient with US citizens until people started taking advantage.
We had to prove that our travels south were a necessity. This means we needed:
🍁Passports (obvi)
🍁Proof that we had housing (ie. mortgage documents, rental agreement, etc)
🍁Proof that we had jobs, an interview that required us to be in person, or medical necessity (we needed multiple emails documenting these plus special confirmation emails)
🍁Proof that we would not interact with Canadians (the van was essential for this. We might not have been allowed to drive through without her)
🍁We were interviewed for over an hour, assigned a specific route to drive, given 3 days (they were super nice and extended it to 4 because we have an old ass van), given certificates with temporary I.D. numbers, tags for our cars to indicate to others that we were passing through
🍁Canadian officials called us multiple times a day for every day that we were in Canada to see where we were and where we had stopped/stayed etc. If we were caught/reported even 5 miles from the designated route, we would be given a hefty fine.
🍁We had to return all documentation given to us upon entering Canada to the Canadian Customs officials upon leaving Canada by a specific date and time.
I understand that this is a lot and to some it might seem excessive but it’s all boiling down to protecting their citizens and making sure that we are taking their safety seriously. Too many US citizens have taken advantage and caused unnecessary harm do to their negligence. Col and I had a lot of hoops to jump through just to get to the lower 48, which all took a lot of time and energy. Yes it was a pain in the ass but we understand.
