Cronks Go Flagpoling

Ship Leaves Southampton

Wed Feb 23rd

The good news is that the ship with our container on-board has departed Southampton. As I write this, it is berthed in Antwerp where we assume it's loading and unloading more containers before heading west to Canada.  Estimated arrival in Vancouver is now March 10th.  We anticipate we will be reunited with our possessions around the end of March.

We have to add secondhand values ('pre-used' in Canada speak) in case we are charged duty once the goods leave customs.  Our shippers have said duty is not payable given we are technically Temporary Residents based on advice from their Canadian agent.  Their Canadian Agent has since suggested it might be so we now don't know what to assume,  but if we have to pay duty, we'd prefer to do so on the basis of second hand value, not the insured replacement cost! 

With that in mind we went 'flagpoling' today.  Some ancient Canadian ritual you might wonder, perhaps akin to the UK's Maypole celebrations, brought to the continent by early settlers.  You would be wrong, it is far more prosaic than that.

Flagpoling is the process whereby those who have had various forms of visas approved, pitch up at the border, cross to USA immigration, are 'refused entry' to America and return to the Canadian inbound border control to have the visa issued or added to the passport.  So turning around the border flagpole.  We wanted to have the i's dotted and t's crossed before we met the border control officer with our shipment of goods.

Flagpoling is very straightforward we were told.  It didn't feel like it....

We booked Jack into kennels for the day, only to learn the day prior that he needed a 'kennel cough' booster, the earliest appointment for which would be two weeks away.  Step in a local neighbour who had to part company with her young spaniel because of ill health.  She was delighted to have Jack for the day, having always had dogs and missed their company... Jack didn't disappoint.

The Port Mann Bridge outbound to the border 

Ferry booked, paperwork assembled; super-visa approval letter, visitor extension application acknowledgement (which we'd sought in case the Super-Visas hadn't come through), copies of Nick's Canadian Citizenship, letter of support, statutory health insurance etc. etc.

We had been advised that as we were not entering the USA we would not need Covid tests or have to complete ArriveCan; Canada's pre-entry notification system.  After Nick suggested we should get Covid tests at the airport on the way down, we double checked with Canada Border Services Agency first thing Wednesday, who confirmed neither were necessary for 'flagpoling' so we bypassed the airport stop-off.  

There was one potential wrinkle in the plan.  Our current status is deemed 'implied' as we have our visitor extension application in awaiting approval - still.  But if you leave the country and return the application is set aside and you have to seek another 6 month visitor stay.  We headed off to the 0840 ferry after a rather sleepless night.  The upside was that it was a stunning morning and the ferry crossing to Horseshoe Bay has to be one of the most picturesque with the backdrop of the snow capped mountains and the archipelago of islands between the Sunshine Coast and mainland.  Oh and breakfast on the boat was a treat!

Peace Arch border crossing (Image from CBC)

Just over an hour after arriving at Horseshoe Bay, we rolled up to Peace Arch, a border crossing we'd used once before on a brief trip down to Seattle.  Our plan to park up on the Canadian side to double check on the process had to be abandoned as there was nowhere to park or ask.  The first stop was the US border control.  "We are flagpoling". A few brief questions later and we were siphoned off to the side to visit US immigration.

"The USA does not recognize flagpoling and rather 'decline entry' we will allow you entry and send you back, that way you don't have a refused entry in your passport".  OK we thought, they 'do this every day', we will go with the flow.  Fifteen minutes later we were back in the car and directed out of the immigration area, not as we expected on one of the internal border zone roads, but the US highway that heads away from the border, albeit only as far as the first roundabout a few hundred yards down the road, back under the roadway and towards the Canadian border control and immigration, again but from the other side.

An engineering marvel

After a twenty minute wait in the queue of traffic, we reached the border kiosk and were unnerved to hear that they did not deal with Super Visa entry at this crossing only Work Visas and Student Permits.  Oh and did we have the paper copies of the Covid Vaccinations (we'd brought the BC electronic variety) and finally,  had we entered the USA?  This easy process is not going so well!  

We had visions of our 'implied stay status" extensions ending, not getting the super visas and ending up marooned at the border like Tom Hanks was marooned in The Terminal, except there are no facilities at the land border!

Grilling complete, we were ushered nervously inside to see an immigration officer where the 'we don't do super visas' refrain was reprised.   Let me have your paperwork and I'll look into it.  An uncomfortable fifteen minutes later, we were told we could have a two year visa passport stamp, but did we have valid health insurance as the paperwork in the folder has expired last October!  Now I didn't assemble the paperwork, but nor did I check it before we left.  So definitely a case of joint liability!  Fortunately we had iPads with access to both Covid vaccination certificates, as well as the current insurance.  We were soon back on the road but without the 'visitor record', the document that enables us to open a bank account and obtain a local driving licence and thereby significantly reduced car insurance cost. We were told though that today's exploits hadn't negated the Visitor Extension approval process in the system and that would provide the Visitor Record when it is issued.  Much relieved after the rollercoaster of the last few hours we headed back home.  Mission accomplished!

Jack in this time had settled in well to his temporary stay; barked at visitors to the door, demonstrated his prowess with a ball, provided a rendition of his singing abilities and generally impressed the dog-sitter who laughed at his musical accomplishments.  After a few minutes rushing around on our return, he went back to bed!  

A chilled Jack on our return home

So we now have the first of five, 2-year Super Visa stays approved and are temporary residents under the Parents and Grandparents Authorized Period of Extended Stay programme.  Mouthful isn't it.  After the relative uncertainty of the last eleven months it feels good to have 'extended' period of certainty ahead of us.  We can now focus on house hunting and permanent residence!

We decided after our 'interesting' day it was time to celebrate with something from Canada!  We remain delighted to be here.