Oh how hard it is for us to get into the States
By suspenseful
@suspenseful (40192)
Canada
April 14, 2008 5:49pm CST
As I want to be Snow Bird, I cannot understand how hard it is to visit or stay for an extended period in the States. The forms you have to fill out, not to mention the passport (have it already), but with my husband's minor stroke and the history in his family, when we do go to Florida in the Fall, if he happens to kick the bucket there, that will be all this red tape. And yet people are coming over from Mexico all the time. Now what does the State have to fear from the nice Canadians? After all, most of us are not felons, nor drug dealers. Yet if someone cannot work over there unless an American gives him permission. I blame this on NAFTA. Now even actors like William Shatner would have a hard time going to the States with those rules. And Arizona seems nice compared to Manitoba in the winter.
5 people like this
12 responses
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
15 Apr 08
I would be there with bells on. I love the States. We were there late August and it was beautiful, but with NAFTA, if my husband decided to live in the States, well we would be unable to get permission to stay. I will have to work harder on making him want to be a snow bird. And I will definitely save for that lap top.
@stephcjh (38473)
• United States
15 Apr 08
I don't know why they make it so hard for you to come here. It does not make sense to me either. We have all kinds of people from foreign countries sneaking their way in and the U.S. is giving alot of them the right to be here. The laws are all messed up.
4 people like this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
17 Jun 08
I mean when my father came over, and came to Canada, there was no one on the ship telling him, "if you want to come to Canada, that is it, you are to spend the rest of your life here," and when my mother, I, and my brother joined him, no one had any idea that in the 1990s or whenever there would be this NAFTA that was supposedly to make free trade easier between our two countries, but then set certain rules so that restricted Canadians from moving from Canada to the States, unless they wanted to be snow birds and then they had to spend four months in Canada. In Mexico, they sneak over the border, but we are too honest.
@danishcanadian (28954)
• Canada
15 Apr 08
I know what you are talking about. I know precisely what you are talking about. I am an Ontario resident married to an Ameican who lives and works in Arizona, and it's hard even for ME, albeit a little easier, since I'm married to a local, but it's still hard. I have to fly home in three weeks, and we're still trying to figure out what we are going to do about this situation. Hmmm....
3 people like this
@winterose (39887)
• Canada
15 Apr 08
if you mean to work it is very hard, but call the American embassy in your area and they will give you all the details. If you don't live close to the embassy you can probably find an email address for them as well on the web.
3 people like this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
17 Jun 08
I am a writer, so it would be easy for me to start to write, but what if I wanted to just move there? I am saving my money, and I am retired, but why is it so hard for Canadians to want to live in the States without having to stay four months here to qualify? We went through Omaha and Ohio, and there was a place that even my husband the flat earth enthusiast would have loved, although I would have loved to live in Maine.
Stephen King fan.
@barehugs (8973)
• Canada
15 Apr 08
Snowbirds are Canadians who go to Florida, Wintertexans are Canadians who go to Texas. I'm Canadian from Ontario and I own a Mobile home in Alamo Texas. I love wintering in Texas, and have been going south to the US for 12 years. I've always had a Passport, and have never filled out any Paperwork. In order to keep our Canada Health Care we must be in Canada 6 months out of each year. If you or your husband have health concerns you will Pay more for out of Canada Health Insurance. Check around for the best Insurance deal. Wintering in the South is not difficult, and not expensive if you are a Healthy Senior.
2 people like this
@winterose (39887)
• Canada
18 Jun 08
how would you pay medical insurance?
its in the thousands of dollars in some places for two people,
the usa is not the place for the elderly with no insurance coverage.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
17 Jun 08
My sister-in-law and brother-in-law go to Arizona every Winter and come back in May. We have Blue Cross and when we went to Alaska, we took out travel insurance. So what do they call Canadians who winter in Arizona? Six months out of every year? Well I wonder what if you want to live in the States all the time? No one has considered that.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
15 Jul 08
I am quite healthy and I can pay $47 a month extra, but even if it was just for a visit like a couple of weeks or a month, I would not mind. I would for once like to see the States for more than a weekend or just driving on the Interstate and sleeping in the motels. I am saving my money so if my husband gets better, we can go for a little while. but I guess we are supposed to never leave Canada. It is the rule here. they might as well have put the iron curtain between Canada and the States, now that it is no longer needed in Europe.
Anyway I hope my husband recovers from his mini stroke and I hope the gas prices get lower and he gets confidence to go.
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
17 Jun 08
It is easier for those illegals from Mexico and people from other countries to come in, but if things got bad for us in Canada, religious persecution and remember it first started with words and name calling in the Roman empire first, it might be that we will have to wait at the border while the police and the army gang up on us.
But even if the Canadian government decided that now that they will scrap the Human Rights Commission because a certain minority group always won, as a person living in Canada, if my husband passed and I met a nice guy from the States, I would love to spend the rest of my time there, especially in a place where there is not much snow.
I really hate the winters here!
@mari61960 (4893)
• United States
15 Apr 08
I have no clue why they make it so difficult. You would think they would much rather have a lovely legal Canadian as apposed to the rif-raf that crawls in illegally...lol I hate living in the US, I have been wanting to leave this mind boggling country since I was a kid...I just don't know if another country might be worse... so here I sit...hating it. I know one thing for sure...in my next life I do not want to be planted here.
Brightest Blessings, Mari
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
18 Jun 08
I have no idea why. I would rather live in the States then in Canada ever since the 1980s and the Trudeau area started and then they did this thing about multiculturalism. I rather like the idea that when someone moves to America they become American, they are not German-Americans, or Indian-Americans, but here they emphasize the culture so much that even if you have been year for most of your life, I am still considered a German-Canadian or an English-Canadian. Oh it depends on what you believe if this will be best or worse. If you are a Christian it will be worse, until we kick out the Human Rights Commission and say that people are equal because they happen to be human beings, not because of this and that.
@Rozie37 (15499)
• Turkmenistan
15 Apr 08
Most of this was caused by the terrorists strikes on 9/11/2001. A friend of mine from the Philipines had met a woman online in the Philipines. He went out there to meet her. After he returned they talked for a while longer and then decided that they wanted to marry.
It took so long for her to get out here, that I started teasing him, saying that he had made her up. He had to get his lawyer to help him get her out here. It was about a year before she finally was able to come out and they got married. I could not believe it took so long and so much hassle. He said, before 9/11 it was a lot easier to come out here.
2 people like this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
18 Jun 08
They have nothing to fear from Canadians. And we have been friends with the States for so long. And here in Canada it is just as bad. A friend of mine who is Dutch and living in Canada, went to Australia to marry his sweetheart, but because he married her there, she has to choose either to go back with him to Australia or stay in Canada and never ever visit Australia. So they make it hard here to even go on family reunions.
So now they have to move to Australia because her family is there.
And if my husband were to die, and I meet an American, well if we married up here, it might be hard for me to emigrate down there to be with him, but if we were married in the States, it would be hard for my friends to travel to where he lives for the ceremony.
@Arkadus (895)
• Canada
15 Apr 08
I haven't had any problems the last few times I crossed into the U.S. Though most of it was only for a couple days until I came back up into Ontario (it's shorter going through the U.S). So maybe that had something to do with it. That and I suppose I've never tried going there via air travel.
1 person likes this
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
17 Jun 08
I have been in the States for a couple of days when I was young, but we had not been down there for at least twenty years. If you go by air, you will have a long lineup at customs and there is all that searching (for the men = I look so innocent. 
) no one has tried that on me. We drove through the States on our way back from P.E.I. and did not have any trouble, but we had to apply for our passports ahead of time, and it was a hassel.
) no one has tried that on me. We drove through the States on our way back from P.E.I. and did not have any trouble, but we had to apply for our passports ahead of time, and it was a hassel.
@yesah65 (157)
• United States
15 Apr 08
I remember the good ole days when we could just show our drivers license and drive back and forth from US to Canada and back again. All this insanity about security was caused by a few idiots that made it rough for the rest of us NORMAL people.
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
18 Jun 08
I think they should have suspicious when the airplane school asked them, "Do you want to learn how to land a plane?" and they said, "No thank you."
It is not just the drivers license, it is that if one of you wanted to move to the States, you would have a hard time if you wanted to live there permanently.
It is not just the drivers license, it is that if one of you wanted to move to the States, you would have a hard time if you wanted to live there permanently.
@nova1945 (1612)
• United States
15 Apr 08
Americans (especially the gov't) are paranoid now. After 9/11 so many rules changed or got tighter that normal travel is difficult for everyone. Even here in the States, we need passports to go anywhere now when we never needed them before. They are still trying to tighten up the border to Mexico because of all the illegal immigrants coming over and collecting welfare and social security benefits that they never paid into. We never had to have a passport to visit Canada or Mexico or Jamaica before all of this terrorist fear. It has been hard on all of us and I don't see any easy solution to the red tape in the near future, sadly.
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
15 Apr 08
I need a passport just to open a bank account.
That is bad and I am not a criminal.
@suspenseful (40192)
• Canada
16 Apr 08
When I was eighteen, I bordered with this family and we were going over to Bellingham, Washington for the sales, and camping there. We also went to Oregon. When I got married, my husband and I drove from Vancouver down to Washington State, and across Montana, North Dakota and Minnesota with no problem. Just had to show his driver's license and they just asked "are you bringing anything back?" Now we had to get a passport, along with an important person to verify that we were who we said we are, but it could not be a relative so my cousin who was a pastor was out. Luckily we had the same dentist since we moved here, or we would be stuck.
@nova1945 (1612)
• United States
15 Apr 08
A passport to open a bank account? That is awful.
I know you're not a criminal and I do wish they would relax the border rules for Canadians. But I'm afraid they aren't going to do it for some time. Canada is beautiful. I was there for a visit when I was a teenager with my folks ang the people were so friendly. Maybe everyone will come to their senses soon...let's hope.
1 person likes this
@Hatley (163772)
• Garden Grove, California
15 Apr 08
suspenseful I can feel for you. we turn a blind eye to allthese illegal mexicans coming in here and give you lawful people a bad time with all that paperwork. I do hope you can get it all cleared up soon so you can get on with your lives. Yes Arizona would be warmer than Manitoba in the winter time. I used to live iN south Dakota which was really cold in the winter. now I am in California.
2 people like this
