Recent Experiences With Customs

[hellooothere]

Hi Everyone,
After making the decision to get passports for the kids and with our travel date being Dec.6th, what are my chances of getting them back in time for our trip? When they say 10 days (in person drop off) I am assuming it is 10 business days so I hopefully haven't left it too late.
We are crossing the border in Blaine then driving down to Seatac for our flight to Orlando.
We have always crossed the border with just the kids birth certificates and never needed more but I would hate to be turned back. I have heard the rules have started to tighten up so I don't want to take any changes. My husband and I didn't get them because after shelling out the $140 for the four kids.....,plus we both have valid drivers licences and he has his government id card as well.
Has anyone had any recent border and or customs experience where passports were asked for?

Thanks for info

 

[Disneyof3]

In laws just left Nov.1 and drove down through Windsor. They live in Florida for the winter months. They both don't have passports and they had no problems crossing the border. The only problem in which I'm surprised my MIL did is bring apples from Canada with no stickers on them and the border took them away. She's been going to Florida every year for 12 years, you'd think she would know.


No worries as long as you all were born in Canada.


Have fun in the sun.

 

[faithinkarma]

I live in NY and my kids live in Ontario. They come down to visit me all the time. They have never had any problems crossing the border at all. And, being in their twenties, they are probably more suspect than a family. I would not worry about it.

 

[hellooothere]

Thanks for the replies. Yes we are all Canadian born so that is good news!
Thanks again

 

[Alannah]

We took the kids in a few weeks ago to Hfx and we all got passports. 5 in all. The guy at the desk said they'd be mailed out Nov 5th. One came in the mail Fri Oct 29 and the rest on Mon Nov 1st. I was really surprised as it had only been just over a week. Based on my experience I don't think you'll have any trouble getting them on time. I think it's good that you went ahead and got them for the kids as I also have heard that there can be some problems travelling with kids. I also debated getting them because of the cost, but didn't want to take any chances.

 

[hellooothere]

I am glad too! Imagine getting stuck at the border while your room at Disneyworld awaits your arrival! Yikes!
Plus it was kind of cute trying to get the girls to "not smile" for the pictures!

And then there was the incident at the Photo store when a women discreetly nursing in the corner (baby couldn't have been more than a month old) was verbally assaulted by a woman who was there with her kids and didn't think she should be subjected to such filth.....but that is definitely another story!!

 

[Alannah]

And in this day and age, quite shocking!

Yes, it's interesting getting the pictures done and no one allowed to smile. The exact opposite of what they're taught when we take their pictures. The guy at the passport office explained it is because they are hoping to one day be able to correlate the passport pictures with computer generated composites.

 

[MamaLema]

We drove from Toronto and showed only birth certificates for our 3 boys. Never had any problem on either side and we saved money not buying passports for 3 kids.

Just my 2 cents but I really don't think its neccessary as long as they were born in Canada.

 

[MaryannF]

Yes, it's interesting getting the pictures done and no one allowed to smile. The exact opposite of what they're taught when we take their pictures. The guy at the passport office explained it is because they are hoping to one day be able to correlate the passport pictures with computer generated composites.

And here I thought that they didn't want you to smile so that your picture would look like you look when you arrive at Customs & Immigration. I'm usually so nervous about flying, or having the right ID papers, or worrying if I turned the iron off at home, that I'm sure I have that "deer in the headlights" look when they start looking at my ID and asking questions.

 

[hellooothere]

That is so true! Deer in the highlights look describes how all my kids look in the photos!

I was really tempted to save the money but the thought of having to go home just outweighed the expense.

My mom had wanted my daughter to go to England with her last year on the spur of the moment but she didn't have a passport so now she will.....