CBSA Doesn't Care - ArrveCAN Policy

[Chinook Wind]

Of course I will.  You all have been so helpful its the least I can do.

My travel buddy is going to try embarking without filling out the app...will let you all know how that one goes  😉

[stefndoug]

9 hours ago, tert333 said:

We have something similar where we leave Vancouver, stop at Victoria and end up in LA.   I did not think that you needed to do the Arrivecan app for Victoria as you are not leaving Canadian water between Vancouver and Victoria?

 

Do you normally do US customs in San Diego in your case?

 

yup, we normally do US customs in San Diego.  

[cdn_tbird]

IMHO, I get the sense that this is just a case of HAL (and other lines) are taking the easy way out and just forcing everyone to fill it out regardless. It's just easier for their staff if they only have to recite one answer.

 

We just got off the Celebrity (taken hostage) Eclipse, now while this was a close loop itinerary, I do know that on embarkation day staff weren't checking whether we had completed an ArriveCan submission or not. Had we embarked on a Hawaiian itinerary, I doubt they would have checked then either. 

 

While the CBSA agent was definitely rude in hanging up on Fouremco regardless of when they got the call, and I personally don't like the idea of lying to a federal official, I don't think this will cause any extra work for them since nobody actually processes those submissions and even when you arrive the agents aren't actually asking you to show it to them. Heck, @ Canada Place he barely scanned our declaration before he waved us through. Easiest customs encounter ever.

Edited September 5, 2022 by cdn_tbird

[em-sk]

1 hour ago, cdn_tbird said:

IMHO, I get the sense that this is just a case of HAL (and other lines) are taking the easy way out and just forcing everyone to fill it out regardless. It's just easier for their staff if they only have to recite one answer.

 

We just got off the Celebrity (taken hostage) Eclipse, now while this was a close loop itinerary, I do know that on embarkation day staff weren't checking whether we had completed an ArriveCan submission or not. Had we embarked on a Hawaiian itinerary, I doubt they would have checked then either. 

 

While the CBSA agent was definitely rude in hanging up on Fouremco regardless of when they got the call, and I personally don't like the idea of lying to a federal official, I don't think this will cause any extra work for them since nobody actually processes those submissions and even when you arrive the agents aren't actually asking you to show it to them. Heck, @ Canada Place he barely scanned our declaration before he waved us through. Easiest customs encounter ever.

 

The whole point of doing this electronicky is so these things are reviewed by the computer system not a human.  

 

The cruise line (and the airlines) provide a list of everyone coming into the country hours before the ship docks or the flight lands.   If there was an issue that CBSA had with some passengers they would have identified that long before you arrive.  

 

I have been on the pacific costal cruise where you leave LA, it clears CBSA in Victoria and the next day the cruise ends in Vancouver.  They make an announcement on the ship for a few people to come down to one of the venues on the ship.  Everyone else is good to get off the ship with out even seeing a CBSA agent.   

 

 

Edited September 5, 2022 by em-sk

[cdn_tbird]

29 minutes ago, em-sk said:

 

The whole point of doing this electronicky is so these things are reviewed by the computer system not a human.  

 

I understand that these submissions are not reviewed by a CBSA officer. My comment was in regards to Fouremco's comment "I never had the chance to ask about the potential impact on CBSA resources of thousands upon thousands of unnecessary submissions." which I interpreted as manpower. Given the volume of daily travelers entering Canada (assume half the 126k daily travelers in 2020 are inbound), the impact of a relative handful of false submissions to computing resources would be negligible at most.

[em-sk]

5 hours ago, cdn_tbird said:

I understand that these submissions are not reviewed by a CBSA officer. My comment was in regards to Fouremco's comment "I never had the chance to ask about the potential impact on CBSA resources of thousands upon thousands of unnecessary submissions." which I interpreted as manpower. Given the volume of daily travelers entering Canada (assume half the 126k daily travelers in 2020 are inbound), the impact of a relative handful of false submissions to computing resources would be negligible at most.

 

Agreed.

 

You have people who are on flights that get cancelled, miss their connections somewhere overseas or travel plans change before they get to Canada for some reason to add to the mix.  I don't think they they are going to allocate human resources to investigate any of that.  

 

There is always going to be some Arrive CAN submissions, where the passport is never scanned into Canada.  They probably let those submissions expire and you need to re-submit.

 

 

 

 

 

[Chinook Wind]

I had promised to report back about HAL enforcing the completion of ArriveCan at embarkation at the Quebec City pier.

 

We arrived very late so I'm not sure that everyone had the same experience but here's mine:

We were one of four couples arriving at the pier very late (11:30 pm).  Our arrival caused quite the flap as there were only port security guards at the gangway.  Eventually an Agent from Guest Services escorted us to Guest Services where she proceeded to check everyone in.

She did not want to even look at the ArriveCan QR code and actually never really looked closely at the antigen test results. Check in went smoothly and professionally although they used a photo of me taken on my last cruise in June.

 

In fact, the only official who was interested my ArriveCan QR code was the WestJet agent who checked me into my flight at Logan airport -- and that was a brand new code, appropriately completed because I was going to be entering Canada. 😉

 

So all that excitement for nothing.

[lx200gps]

2 hours ago, Chinook Wind said:

I had promised to report back about HAL enforcing the completion of ArriveCan at embarkation at the Quebec City pier.

 

We arrived very late so I'm not sure that everyone had the same experience but here's mine:

We were one of four couples arriving at the pier very late (11:30 pm).  Our arrival caused quite the flap as there were only port security guards at the gangway.  Eventually an Agent from Guest Services escorted us to Guest Services where she proceeded to check everyone in.

She did not want to even look at the ArriveCan QR code and actually never really looked closely at the antigen test results. Check in went smoothly and professionally although they used a photo of me taken on my last cruise in June.

 

In fact, the only official who was interested my ArriveCan QR code was the WestJet agent who checked me into my flight at Logan airport -- and that was a brand new code, appropriately completed because I was going to be entering Canada. 😉

 

So all that excitement for nothing.

We just boarded a Princess ship in Brooklyn for a Canada/New England run. Required docs were Passport, vaccination proof, negative test result and ArriveCan receipt. Other than checking our passports to verify our IDs, they were not interested in ANY of our other documents. We had already uploaded our two COVID items onto Princess's app so I could understand them not needing to see them in person, but I was surprised that there was no mention at all of ArriveCan.  At least for us.  There was a very loud and abrasive woman giving the staff hell over the fact she understood that ArriveCan had to be done three days before entry to Canada, not 3 days before embarkation, meaning she arrived at the ship without an ArriveCan receipt.

[Ex-Airbalancer]

Arrived back to Person from Boston after a Arctic TA on Sunday 

Customs was super easy , since we filled out the App, the officer said everything they need was on the app

Person was super easy to get though, driving across Toronto was another story 🙄😁

 

[lots-of-km2]

On 9/2/2022 at 5:40 PM, Fouremco said:

When I asked why CBSA doesn't care, especially as HAL is getting passengers to falsify submissions with fictitious arrival information, she said it wasn't falsified and hung up on me. I never had the chance to ask about the potential impact on CBSA resources of thousands upon thousands of unnecessary submissions.

 

Is your Member of Parliament half decent, with a responsive constituency office?  It would be worth letting them know what you've been told, and worth asking them to give heads up to the Public Safety minister responsible for the CBSA. 

Edited September 24, 2022 by lots-of-km2

[Fouremco]

15 hours ago, lots-of-km2 said:

 

Is your Member of Parliament half decent, with a responsive constituency office?  It would be worth letting them know what you've been told, and worth asking them to give heads up to the Public Safety minister responsible for the CBSA. 

Given the broad criticism of ArriveCAN on many fronts over the past number of months, and the official announcement expected tomorrow on a decision to end pandemic border measures and to make the use of the ArriveCAN app optional, I'm not sure that writing to my MP would result in any changes not already contemplated by cabinet.