US Customs Terminal 1

[grantclaire]

Hi everyone! Its been a long time since we have flown out of Terminal 1 at Pearson and we are flying AC in Dec to Orlando. Do you clear US customs in Toronto? Thanks

 

[*~PrincessBelle~*]

Yup i'm about 99.9% sure but it's been awhile since i've flown out of YYZ...

adding another question to this if you don't mind.....If you have flown out of T1 how did you find the wait at customs early in the am?? At YYC in Calgary it's a gong show early in the morning so wondering if I should allot extra time at YYZ?

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

Last December my family and I flew from Toronto - Orlando on Air Canada and we cleared US Customs in Terminal 1.

As for the wait if they have a lot of agents working the line will keep moving at a normal speed, so it might be deceiving if there are a lot of people waiting in line. Also they have seperate lines for Canadians and Americans so that's something else to remember, although I am not sure if they have that in Calgary.

 

[crashbb]

The US preclearance line at YYZ can be very, very long or very, very short.

I've had trips where there was literally no line (and many open agents), so it basically as long it took to walk to the agent and times where the line reached out the door and behind the ticket counters.

I've almost never seen them actually enforce the US/everyone else thing - they just tell you to take the shortest line (and ignore the signs). This is both when it is super busy and when it is a ghost town. Actually, I don't thing I've EVER seen it enforced (which isn't the same as saying it is never enforced).

How early is "early am"? And what day of the week? There are some patterns (though they do not always hold true).

 

[Bay Hill]

Our flight from YUL to BDL was full, so we flew to YYZ, then to Hartford. We did clear US customs before our flight back to Hartford.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I've almost never seen them actually enforce the US/everyone else thing - they just tell you to take the shortest line (and ignore the signs). This is both when it is super busy and when it is a ghost town. Actually, I don't thing I've EVER seen it enforced (which isn't the same as saying it is never enforced).

Have you ever noticed them not enforcing that rule when trying to clear Canadian Customs at YYZ, because once again they have lines for both Canadians ans Americans.

 

[crashbb]

Have you ever noticed them not enforcing that rule when trying to clear Canadian Customs at YYZ, because once again they have lines for both Canadians ans Americans.

No they don't.

Why in the world would CANADIAN immigration (not CUSTOMS) have a separate line for Americans? It doesn't even make any sense.

The only special lines at Canadian immigrations at YYZ T1 are for crew, special needs, diplomatic passports, and Nexus.

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

No they don't.

Why in the world would CANADIAN immigration (not CUSTOMS) have a separate line for Americans? It doesn't even make any sense.

The only special lines at Canadian immigrations at YYZ T1 are for crew, special needs, diplomatic passports, and Nexus.

Well I have seen seperate lines for Canadians and Americans when clearing Canadian Customs, in both Terminal 1 and Terminal 3.

 

[crashbb]

I might be able to believe that you've seen "Canadian" and "Everyone else" (thought not at YYZ T1). I never seen it at any Canadian airport though.

I find it impossible to believe that you've seen "Canadian" and "American", where would everyone else go? The Brits, Australians, Germans, Kenyans...

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I might be able to believe that you've seen "Canadian" and "Everyone else" (thought not at YYZ T1). I never seen it at any Canadian airport though.

I find it impossible to believe that you've seen "Canadian" and "American", where would everyone else go? The Brits, Australians, Germans, Kenyans...

Well maybe they stopped doing that which is why you have not heard of it, however I am just reporting what I remember seeing.

 

[crashbb]

Well maybe they stopped doing that which is why you have not heard of it, however I am just reporting what I remember seeing.

I've been flying regularly for well over a decade and I've never seen it.

Can you at least acknowledge that having "American" and "Canadian" makes no sense? And leaves a whole lot of people without a line to stand in?

 

[CR Resort Fan 4 Life]

I've been flying regularly for well over a decade and I've never seen it.

Can you at least acknowledge that having "American" and "Canadian" makes no sense? And leaves a whole lot of people without a line to stand in?

Well when I did see it I thought to myself it does make no sense to have it.

 

[bavaria]

I've been flying regularly for well over a decade and I've never seen it.

Can you at least acknowledge that having "American" and "Canadian" makes no sense? And leaves a whole lot of people without a line to stand in?

I have never seen that either, and I have flown from Canada to the US over the past years from almost every Canadian airport which has preclearance, and into almost every one of those cities from the US or from Europe or from Asia.

Flying INTO Canada there are lines for Canadian residents, visitors to Canada, and diplomatic members/flight crew/special needs, and Nexus lines.

Generally entering INTO a country there may be lines for residents and non-residents, but even then not all lines are open/staffed during low demand periods. Yesterday at FRA for instance the 'others' lines were not staffed so everyone just moved into the 'EU/ER/CH residents' line with us.

 

[crashbb]

Flying INTO Canada there are lines for Canadian residents, visitors to Canada, and diplomatic members/flight crew/special needs, and Nexus lines.

Generally entering INTO a country there may be lines for residents and non-residents, but even then not all lines are open/staffed during low demand periods. Yesterday at FRA for instance the 'others' lines were not staffed so everyone just moved into the 'EU/ER/CH residents' line with us.

T1 at YYZ doesn't have lines for residents vs. non-residents (though, since the screens are digital, it is possible that they sometimes turn some of the lines into specific resident/non-resident). So, I suppose I should say that I've never seen T1 at YYZ to have separate lines (for that matter, I never saw separate lines when AC flew into/out of T2 either).

My recent trips through YVR, YYC, and YUL also had no resident vs. non-resident lines. Again, YMMV.

As a kid, I used to get very annoyed since I never got to the "special" line up. I didn't qualify for it in the US or Europe, and Canada (at least the airports/terminals I went through) never had one. I felt very hard done by.

 

[bavaria]

As a kid, I used to get very annoyed since I never got to the "special" line up. I didn't qualify for it in the US or Europe, and Canada (at least the airports/terminals I went through) never had one. I felt very hard done by.

Well, I suppose that I felt 'unspecial' because all the non EU/CH ppl were in our special line yesterday, clogging things up. AND I was asked some very bizarre questions. They never ask me questions when I am an EU passport holder in my own country - darned unspecial people were messing things up I think!

 

[crashbb]

Well, I suppose that I felt 'unspecial' because all the non EU/CH ppl were in our special line yesterday, clogging things up. AND I was asked some very bizarre questions. They never ask me questions when I am an EU passport holder in my own country - darned unspecial people were messing things up I think!

We dirty, smelly foreigners messed it all up

For those who don't read the transportation board, "dirty, smelly foreigner" is a term of endearment. Or, at least, a term often used and not meant to insult Bavaria (or those in "her" line).

 

[bavaria]

We dirty, smelly foreigners messed it all up

For those who don't read the transportation board, "dirty, smelly foreigner" is a term of endearment. Or, at least, a term often used and not meant to insult Bavaria (or those in "her" line).

Er, isn't this the 'Canadian' board, located in the 'Global Neighbours' section? Doesn't that by default make the vast majority of people reading what you posted 'dirty smelly foreigners' by default too?!

 

[crashbb]

Er, isn't this the 'Canadian' board, located in the 'Global Neighbours' section? Doesn't that by default make the vast majority of people reading what you posted 'dirty smelly foreigners' by default too?!

Actually, the proportion of "dirty smelly foreigners" in this instance (an European airport) is probably smaller in this section of the board than the other sections. At a European airport, Americans are "dirty smelly foreigners". Only EU/ER/CH people are not.

Totally off topic (well, more off topic), European is one of those annoying words that doesn't follow the "use an before a vowel" rule and it is confusing me.

 

[bavaria]

Biting tongue, biting tongue, biting tongue....

By the way, Mr Puma Tracksuit showed up in Zürich this week - remember him? Same tracksuit, and we still refuse to lay claim to him, even if his outfit came from us originally. (His passport proved once again that he definitely doesn't belong to us, or to you either)

I did enjoy the interaction I had yesterday as I was very unGerman and confronted a line jumper. When he told me snidely that he didn't understand a word that I said since he only spoke English, and that he didn't have to listen to me as a result, I was more than happy to share with him how I felt in English as well as German. So were the FRAport worker and the LH agent.

Wait, what was this thread about again? Blinding jetlag is causing me to be a little confused!

 

[*~PrincessBelle~*]

The US preclearance line at YYZ can be very, very long or very, very short.

I've had trips where there was literally no line (and many open agents), so it basically as long it took to walk to the agent and times where the line reached out the door and behind the ticket counters.

I've almost never seen them actually enforce the US/everyone else thing - they just tell you to take the shortest line (and ignore the signs). This is both when it is super busy and when it is a ghost town. Actually, I don't thing I've EVER seen it enforced (which isn't the same as saying it is never enforced).

How early is "early am"? And what day of the week? There are some patterns (though they do not always hold true).

Im heading out on a Saturday morning, 6:30 am flight on AirCanada out of T1 ...just worried is going to be busy...just want to make sure I give myself lots of time..should be at YYZ by 4:30 am