PCS to Alaska driving through Canada

[BB Family 299]

Hello everyone. I hope everyone is practicing "Social Distancing" and staying safe from the COVID-19 lol. Im trying to get more information on what we will need to cross the border into canada when we PCS to Alaska. We will be driving. My wife is a permanent resident with a philippine passport. Im sure for myself, i can travel with orders and ID card, and i plan on getting Official Passports for all the children. I dont report until early 2021 so i have plenty of time to get everything in order once i know exactly what i need to get done. Im already tracking the command sponsorship process and already on the housing list. Ill appreciate any travel tips regarding driving through canada and alaska as well. Thanks everyone. 

[Just Paul 4,591]

39 minutes ago, BB Family said:

My wife is a permanent resident with a philippine passport.

She can go online and get a ETA for Canada.  I think Mary's is good for 3 years.

[Nitas_man 3,100]

Made that trip.  Crossed in Tok to Canada, took the Al-Can (it’s mostly unpaved) and crossed to the US in Washington State.

My recollection?  It is the epitome of social distancing.  We hardly saw anyone.  Advice:  If you see a gas station, gas up.  There aren’t many.

 

Hard to get lost.  Only one road LOL

 

Note:  you prolly ain’t gonna be taking that road early 2021.  I’d suggest a backup plan to take the marine highway.  I did it in August and wouldn’t suggest that route anytime before May.  You have problems on that road with snow in the mountains the only way to get attention is with smoke signals.  Know what I mean?  No cell service, no services at all for long distances.

Edited March 30, 2020 by Nitas_man

[TearsOfBabylon 1,680]

On 3/30/2020 at 10:28 AM, BB Family said:

Hello everyone. I hope everyone is practicing "Social Distancing" and staying safe from the COVID-19 lol. Im trying to get more information on what we will need to cross the border into canada when we PCS to Alaska. We will be driving. My wife is a permanent resident with a philippine passport. Im sure for myself, i can travel with orders and ID card, and i plan on getting Official Passports for all the children. I dont report until early 2021 so i have plenty of time to get everything in order once i know exactly what i need to get done. Im already tracking the command sponsorship process and already on the housing list. Ill appreciate any travel tips regarding driving through canada and alaska as well. Thanks everyone. 

Hey!
Late but still: 
Our pcs to AK was in December 2019 and I'm the green card holder. We've been driving as well (the last leg from Haines, where we got off the ferry) and needed the orders (of course), green card and DoD ID. They did look at my passport but didn't stamp it or anything.
My husband had his passport card, mil ID and orders.

We did not have any issues!

It's a while until then but have a safe trip up here!

[Skyman 289]

I'm retired AF and in August I was planning to bring the wife back to the US and since it would be long term I would buy a vehicle. I was seriously looking at flying directly to Anchorage for maybe a month, buying the vehicle, and driving down.  My wife is on a B-2 so if we were unable to get her a Canadian transit visa (which seemed iffy), I could get her a cheap 1 way to our friend's place in Portland and Iwould drive alone. At the time I think USC and LPRs were ok to transit by filing a plan and no tourism stops. Several USCs were found in Banff doing tourist things and fined heavily, over $10k each I believe.  Then I saw Alaska was requiring testing and 2 week quarantine on arrival so we scrapped that plan and flew to Portland where we bought our van instead.  

I don't think I would try that drive in the winter.

If you want info on the drive I would research a huge amount of info available on RV sites (such as IRV2) as that is (or was) a common route for vacationers.  They would also have good info current restrictions transiting Canada by road.  

When I was researching, I also found that the marine route was closed but may be open now.

I think Alaska is still considered overseas.  Why not ship the car and fly? I think the military will still ship a car free.  Maybe you can get the port set to Seattle, frive there and ship the car and fly up?  I think it's about $100 per seat from the left coast on Alaska Airlines.  No idea where your car is now or if you have one but you might consider flying there and buying a nice 4x4. Little to no sales tax. Use USAA or NFCu car buying service and cheap financing.

Edited April 5, 2021 by Skyman