Customs in Vancouver Question

[redblack]

Just a question a friend is comming home from a first time trip to Hong Kong, will fly back through Vancouver and are a little scared about possibly being searched and anyother problems that might arise going through customs. Apparently there they have heard some horror stories about customs dumping out all your stuff, having missed flight.....etc. Does anyone have any advice? Any experiences to share?

[Gurpy]

I think that's all BS.....one of my sisters lives in Vancouver and flies internationally a fair bit, and she hasn't had any problems. The other one works for customs in Calgary and hasn't told us any stories of things like that.

[TDA]

Came just back from a trip in Taiwan... sailed right through, customs didn't even look at me. Customs guy asked why I was in taiwan for, what I brought back, and what do I do in Calgary. Answer those questions quickly, assertively and clearly and you'll do fine.

Even if you get searched, if you have nothing illegal or over exemption limit you'll be fine.

[big mooe]

Yea I got searched they opened my suitcase up and searched it when I was coming from Abu Dhabi

[GQBalla]

i have heard people missing their flights because they are being held up by customs with searches and questioning and that jazz

but my parents just got back from hong kong and they got searched but it wasn't as bad as people say it was

[Stratus_Power]

if you friend is young and alone then he'll probably get stopped and searched, Happened to me 2 years ago, coming back by myself from HK, when I was at the custom where they ask what you bought with the amount you claimed, the guy asked me if I have a laptop with me , I said yes i do.. and he asked me to show him..

He then asked me where I bought this laptop, and i asid in London drugs back in calgary ( my final destination) about a year ago. he took a few sec looking at the Laptop and said " i dont believe you, where did you get it?", and I said " back in calgary, London drugs, on heritage drive " haha...
then he gave me this dirty look and said " I will give you one last chance, where did you get it, Hong kong? taiwan?", then after i said its from calgary, he wrote something on my little custom thing.. and I got sent to "the Room" haha

but it wasnt too bad, there was a long line up, ~ 10 ppl, most of them brown (not to be racist, but thats wat happened) and 2 asian including myself and this other guy that should be in his early 20s if not younger.. so i waited over an hour.. finally got to me... the guy asks me the exact same question and i give them the exact same reply.. then he turned on my laptop, went into My Document, picked some random doc file , looked at its created date, which is earlier than my calgary departure date, and finally let me go, the whole process took about 10-15 mins, very nice guy. but either way I ended up missing my flight to calgary and have to wait another 2 hours..

I came back last year by myself again, and this time I was carrying alot more electronics, including new cellphone, new MP3 player, PDA, camera, laptop... but what i did differently was I over claimed my purchases. You know how you are supppose to have up to $750 CAD of stuff ( purchased or gift from HK or where), and anything more would be taxed for duty.. so I said I have $950 CAD worth. He asked what I have and I just said " a new cell phone, a MP3 player and a bunch of cloths).. and 30 sec later he let me through without any problem, I just have to pay $14 for duty.


did the same thing again last Xmas ( but came back w/ the family), over claimed, they let us through right away without any question ( we claimed $1200, they asked waht they are, my mom jsut said, an electronic dictionary and stuff, and they let us through! haha)

so thats my experience with vancouver custom.

[ronaldo]

i just passed through there on the way back from the states with a group of about 20 ppl and noone had any problems whatsovever

[FiveFreshFish]

If you're worried about missing a connecting flight, be sure you have at least 2 hours in transit.

One time flying business class, our luggage was tagged priority but instead they were the last bags to show up. That fuck up allowed most of economy class to get ahead of us in the immigration line (where they check your passport) and then I had to go through customs inspection. The scheduled 90 minutes between flights was BARELY enough as we just made it on the plane to Calgary and they shut the door a minute after we took our seats.

To prevent what happened to Stratus_Power, you can bring your laptop, camera, watch, etc. to Canada Customs in Calgary or Vancouver BEFORE you leave the country to get an official card that proves you had the stuff before leaving. The little green card describes the items and serial numbers, which you can use again on another trip; there's no need to do it every time you leave the country unless you take something new each time. The Customs office is open 24 hours.

Keep any receipts and have an itemized list for declaring stuff and paying GST and/or duty if you're over the $750 limit. Makes it go much smoother.

[abyss]

Vancouver customs was fine for me and Minh, we just came back through Taiwan from Vietnam on Saturday. We had an hour to make our connecting flight to Calgary. We got through customs in record time, went to check in and it turned out they had cancelled our flight and booked us on one that left a half hour earlier. It was boarding as we were checking our luggage, we had to run through the impossibly busy Vancouver airport from the international terminal to the domestic terminal. We JUST made our flight. But just answer the questions truthfully and quickly and you won't have any problems getting through customs. Don't be all hardcore or give attitude, that's just asking to be strip searched.

[Weapon_R]

It's very true - you are asked a few questions, and depending on how you answer them, you may be sent to a little room to get searched. Questions include "what did you purchase on your trip" and "where did you visit". The vast majority of them will be Indian, Asian, and Middle Eastern individuals in the room.

[girlRACER]

The custom horror stories are TRUE!! When I was 14 they interrogated me for 3 hours for carrying over the maximum allowance. That was when I first started travelling internationally so I didn't know anything about claims.

Now I'm blacklisted. I get interrogated every time and my bags searched every third time or so. If I claim higher expense and choose to pay the tax they still check my bags. I've been searched for drugs because they somehow thought I was part of some crazy network to bring drugs from Thailand. Even after all these searches coming up with nothing they still insist that I'm some drug dealer b/c they can't seem to get it out of their head that I travel to Asia frequently for VACATION.

Those fuckers at customs are completely useless if they think a Grad Student in RELIGION who has never had a criminal record or broken the law is going to traffic and smuggle drugs into Canada especially if they've been searching my luggage for over a decade and come up with nothing. :rolleyes: I hope they all die a miserable death.

[AsianCaucasian]

just came back from hk myself with a massively packed luggage bag and i didnt get checked.

[jaysas_63]

Originally posted by girlRACER
The custom horror stories are TRUE!! When I was 14 they interrogated me for 3 hours for carrying over the maximum allowance. That was when I first started travelling internationally so I didn't know anything about claims.

Now I'm blacklisted. I get interrogated every time and my bags searched every third time or so. If I claim higher expense and choose to pay the tax they still check my bags. I've been searched for drugs because they somehow thought I was part of some crazy network to bring drugs from Thailand. Even after all these searches coming up with nothing they still insist that I'm some drug dealer b/c they can't seem to get it out of their head that I travel to Asia frequently for VACATION.

Those fuckers at customs are completely useless if they think a Grad Student in RELIGION who has never had a criminal record or broken the law is going to traffic and smuggle drugs into Canada especially if they've been searching my luggage for over a decade and come up with nothing. :rolleyes: I hope they all die a miserable death.


:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: ....that was quite the vent:thumbsup: ......i have to agree i hate customs...u give a gorllia a little power, and they will abuse it to no end...

[GTS Jeff]

Haha I just don't declare anything. Rip off all the stickers and throw away the receipts before you get in the airport.

Never had a problem.

[natejj]

Its hit and miss. You cant gaurantee anything.

[n1zm0]

im in malaysia, i stopped over in hong kong, its all bs, you should be ok just declare if you have smokes or booze with yo, u should be fine. just as long as you dont go thru the states, thats why didnt, theyu are paranoid pieces of crap and treat you like ass. just play by the rules. im bringing back a bov, trubo timer and hks boost guage by bag, send my coilovers back by cargo.

lol .. GAB shocks with RS-R springs for 300 cdn :dunno:

[DelSoln]

I've never had a problem coming back from Hong Kong either. I think it's pretty random or maybe the way you answer customs' questions.

[kiwi]

I always thought that customs are generally more harsh to people that are travelling alone, but that's not always the case. Most of the time they go easy on families with kids & stuff, but a family friend told us a story about how customs were checking the kid's bags, thinking that the parents would hide stuff in their little toys & stuff! hee hee

I've also heard of customs officers coming up to you & casually asking for the time... their motive is to see if you're wearing a brand new Rolex on your arm or something...

I've also heard of people hiding their brand new diamond rings in their cream/lotion bottles! bahahahaha :nut: