Canadian Customs
Went over to Vancouver to work for a month since someone at our company needed a heart operation. Got to VA airport and wasn't looking forward to dealing with the customs (since they have questionable senses of humour).

Hello sir where are you flying from?
England
And why are you here sir?
To work
*raises eyebrow* I see...may i see your permit sir
Muh?
Your coming to work sir?
Well yeah...
So wheres your permit?
Ummmmm.... O_o
What company do you work for?..

Anyway the tooing and froing went on a while and eventually we established I actually DO need one but my company just hadn't TOLD me or supplied me with one...

Anyway all went well then i saw a BIG ARSE red X drawn on my form. I knew then things were NOT going so well. Didnt look like i was going to be let off so easily.

Proceed to immigration point C sir.

I end up standing in a line with a couple of other guys...both english...and some freaky hispanic person saying he had come to work and had no permit.

The thing which stood me aside from this guy was the fact I had a solid company whos head office was here, i had a stamp from the LAST time i came to work in Canada and had business cards and stuff.

This guy had well...nothing...he had come LOOKING for work...with no address or permit.

He got let go in 15 mins. I had to stand and convince the immigration for 1 hour. One freaking hour of talking after a 12 hour flight and total 24 hours awake of travelling.

Suffice to say i got my permit and my company paid.

Fun..

Don't mess with Canadian immigration unless you want endless beaucracy in return.
(Hoppkins, Fri 3 Mar 2006, 17:01, Reply)