Help me out if you can here folks....

Anyone know if a Canadian Landed immigrant needs anything special to cross the border driving these days? One of my friend's husbands came from England when he was five, but is just a landed immigrant here...not a citizen. They recent went shopping over the border (as they have many times before) and the guard ranted on about how they needed some special tag or paper or permission to present when they crossed ?? He evntually let them over after reaming them out for a bit with some sort of card or tag which they were supposed to hand in when they crossed back in....but they forgot

So if you have a clue, let me know. She's frantic that they won't get over the border for the wedding in November and we didn't know what to look for on the Border site.

Thanks a bunch

Hi Udella,

Permanent residents who received their Canadian perm. residency prior to June 2002 were issued an IM 1000 form, basically it was a legal paper sized form that proved their permanent residency and was stapled in to their passports.

As of December 31st, 2003 all Canadian PR's need to have the Canadian Permanent Residency Card (a small plastic card - looks like a drivers license) to travel across the border on a commercial bus, train etc etc. I don't know if your friend has applied for this or not, however they should apply as soon as possible.

They can apply for the forms here: Application for Canadian PR Card
The card currently costs $50 and is good for 5 years (previously the IM 1000 had no expiry date).

Even though they probably weren't on a commercial transport and even though he was probably just sent through with a provincial drivers license etc before, technically you have to prove your Canadian citizenship (or in his case PR) when you cross the border by land.

What he was probably given was an I-94 Arrival/Departure record. It is really important to turn it in, they do keep a record and when he tries to cross the border next time he will probably be grilled about it and they may not let him in (this happened to my Husband once, not pleasant - luckily he had a stamp in his passport from another country that superseded the I-94 date).

He can mail it back, information on this can be found here: Forgot to turn in your I-94 or I-94W?

He might want to make a photo copy and send it express post with signature, to ensure no hassle in the future.

Excellent...thanks Trail!

Hopefully this will work out for her....I need all the bride type guests I can get!!!!!!!

If he has a UK passport he can also enter under the VWP as a UK citizen.

A British Landed Immigrant would enter the US under VWP like any other British citizen.

Good point misa. The PR card was the only thing I could think of that they might have been asking for.

Permanent residents (aka landed immigrants) of Canada must have a nonimmigrant visa unless the permanent resident is a national of a country that participates in the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), meets the VWP requirements, and is seeking to enter the U.S. for 90 days or less under that program.

travel.state.gov