Question - Canadian hoping to travel home for Christmas.

[r_swift 0]

9 hours ago, wildling99 said:

The last two times I have flown out of Pearson with my EAD/AP, they held me in secondary. No questions, nothing like that, but literally held me until my plane was DEPARTING in 5 minutes. I've gotten to the point where I just don't stress - let it happen. They'll let you out with a couple minutes to spare and Air Canada will force you to run to your gate. Air Canada's agent said it's a common practice just to hold people up until the last possible second. People were getting super mad at the CBP agents, who would just yell back at them, and then other people were angry with the airline agents. No one can help, so just sit there and let them take their time.

 

My bags had already been pulled from the flight in both instances, but just as a heads up. Deep breaths.

 

Hi, thanks for your input! I'm actually leaving this Thursday and am a little nervous. 

 

Why would they hold everyone so close to their flight? I feel like that is a bit unfair and unorganized. That's going to drive me crazy! I'm one of those people who stresses about being late for anything. 

 

I actually made sure to chose an overlay of 3 hours and 40 minutes so I would have plenty of time to go through customs and inspections. I've never been through customs at an airport before, I usually travel by car.

 

When you said they pulled your luggage, do you mean they took it off of the flight, incase you wouldn't make it? How do they get it back on the flight in time? I'll be worried my luggage will get lost.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm still pretty nervous and I really don't want to sit there and think I'm missing my flight. But I guess it helps to be prepared in any way I can!

 

Sorry for all the questions!

[wildling99 14]

On 12/11/2018 at 9:03 PM, r_swift said:

 

Hi, thanks for your input! I'm actually leaving this Thursday and am a little nervous. 

 

Why would they hold everyone so close to their flight? I feel like that is a bit unfair and unorganized. That's going to drive me crazy! I'm one of those people who stresses about being late for anything. 

 

I actually made sure to chose an overlay of 3 hours and 40 minutes so I would have plenty of time to go through customs and inspections. I've never been through customs at an airport before, I usually travel by car.

 

When you said they pulled your luggage, do you mean they took it off of the flight, incase you wouldn't make it? How do they get it back on the flight in time? I'll be worried my luggage will get lost.

 

Thanks for sharing your experience. I'm still pretty nervous and I really don't want to sit there and think I'm missing my flight. But I guess it helps to be prepared in any way I can!

 

Sorry for all the questions!

No prob! I'm happy to elaborate. I know it can be stressful! So, why would they hold you so close to your flight time? Just because they can, really. It takes them two minutes to type in your information and double check that you're allowed into the US on parole, but instead they'll put your card and passport in a little yellow folder and literally just let it sit there. I know, it sounds insane but the less you worry about it, the better.

 

My advice would be to just let it be. If they pull you into secondary, just sit there, don't use your phone (you're not allowed to) and wait it out. There's really nothing you can do other than wait. If you're flying Air Canada, you'll be in Terminal One. You'll check in, drop your bags, go through security and then because you have an EAD/AP, you won't be able to use the automated customs machines. They'll generally have someone stationed to ask if you're a visitor or have a visa/green card, so for this purpose you're in the visa/green card line. Last time I waited about an hour in the line, and then probably another 1.5 hours in secondary. There will be an airline agent who will be in secondary kind of tracking who is in there and what flights they're on. I'd recommend just being polite and not asking questions. They WILL rebook you if you miss your flight, but they don't have any additional information on when the CBP agents are going to let you through. Likewise, the CBP agents don't care when your flight is, so I'd also not bother them about it. I literally watched those agents yell at people who were consistently asking. 

 

The airline pulls your bags off the flight because realistically you aren't supposed to have unaccompanied goods traveling to the US without you. My bags didn't get back on the plane in time, but they arrived the next day and Air Canada delivered them to my house.

 

FIVE minutes before my flight was departing, the agents called my name and just said "You can go." They hand you your EAD/AP card, passport and ticket, and the airline agent will basically just tell you to run to the gate. I've come to realize this is just kind of par for the course. Hopefully you're lucky and it doesn't happen to you, but both times I've traveled back into the US with my EAD/AP, this has happened to me.

 

Hope this helps! Good luck and deep breaths!