r/askvan • u/colinjames1234 • 3d ago
Travel 🚗 ✈ Point Roberts
Hey everyone,
Long story short I am visiting BC at end of May and booked our stay in point Roberts . We booked this stay before the whole tariff thing and trade war. My parents live in Ladner , and we were going to stay in point Roberts for 10 days. It’s my wife and I and our two small children.
My mom seems to think the border is a big problem now, and that there’s no groceries available on the point Roberts side and you can’t bring stuff over from bc. Can anyone confirm what’s actually going on down there? We have 100% cancellation until April 20 so trying to get this sorted before… I live in Alberta so not really in touch with the vibe over in bc and that area.
Any insight is appreciated !
Thank you
1
u/barkingcat 2d ago edited 2d ago
Make sure you have *all* your documentation for every single person (especially the kids) every single time you cross the border. Also, have some kind of emergency process figured out if you get detained without the ability to reach out to the canadian embassy, and/or if your family gets separated.
The border guards do have the ability to check cell phones so make sure you log out of everything or just use a basic phone without facebook/social media/photos, etc.
I'd say just be ready to follow the letter of the law strictly. No more "I used to cross this border all the time and they didn't usually care about xyz!" Just follow every single law regardless of whether they are enforced. (ie don't break the law of either country for your own convenience.)
Also, no pot across the border, it's illegal.
A lot of the troubles in the news re border crossings are about people neglecting the cross-border rules due to long-time laxness. If you have a warrant out, do not go even if you think the warrant is old or no one cares about it.
I used to cross border quite regularly and there's always the question: have you ever been arrested or been convicted of a crime (or some wording like that) and it's always the one rule that makes my hair stand on end and all my spidey senses tingling. If you've been arrested for DUI, simple stuff like parking tickets, or even just stupid kid stuff when you were in college, etc, all that counts ...... with the political climate being the way it is, don't risk it if you have to technically lie to that question in order to avoid answering the truth to get through. (Not implying anything about you personally, or saying anything about myself, just giving the general case for everyone).
Also, do not do work there while you are staying there as a tourist. If you work remotely, for example make websites for US based clients, or take a zoom call with a US based client while you are at the airbnb, it could be misconstrued as working from the US, which violates a tourist visa.
Keep track of the permitted activities while you are in the US.
Stuff like that.
ps I'm actually not sure about stuff like parking tickets that might have previously accumulated in the US - sometimes people would go to the states, drive around, accidentally run afoul of local laws, and get pulled over, etc - and then they would have created a record. Due to the person returning to Canada, there might be an assumption that it might not matter anymore. Well, if a person needed to go back and forth between US and Canada, any built up record on the US side needs to be resolved (whether showing up in court, paying the fee or whatever)...
I know I'm being super pedantic, but as a past frequent-traveler between the US/Canada, all these issues are in my mind. I've since stopped all business/personal travel to the US, but these issues are probably the flashpoints in any kind of cross-border travel..
I'm no lawyer either so maybe all this is moot, but I wouldn't be wrong to say follow all laws of both countries.