TN Visa Terminal 1 @ Pearson Airport in Toronto

[nan3goon]

Hi, I am about to apply TN visa at Toronto airport on the date of my departure (which is sometime next week). I just got all my documentations done.

I will have two big baggage with me and I will be on Air Canada flight in terminal 1 (heading to San Francisco).

1. In my experience, at terminal 1 (especially Air Canada), we get a boarding pass first and get my baggage tagged, go through the US gate, drop off the checked-in baggage then meet US officer. Now my question is that what if my TN visa gets denied after I drop off my baggage, how will I be able to get my baggage back?

2. Is the office where I do my TN application at terminal 1 opened 24 hours? Does anyone know their hours of operation? How many hours before my flight OR what time/which day is the best to get my TN processed?

Thanks so much in advance.

[TotallyKiller]

Hi, I am about to apply TN visa at Toronto airport on the date of my departure (which is sometime next week). I just got all my documentations done.

I will have two big baggage with me and I will be on Air Canada flight in terminal 1 (heading to San Francisco).

1. In my experience, at terminal 1 (especially Air Canada), we get a boarding pass first and get my baggage tagged, go through the US gate, drop off the checked-in baggage then meet US officer. Now my question is that what if my TN visa gets denied after I drop off my baggage, how will I be able to get my baggage back?

2. Is the office where I do my TN application at terminal 1 opened 24 hours? Does anyone know their hours of operation? How many hours before my flight OR what time/which day is the best to get my TN processed?

Thanks so much in advance.

1. You should get your bags tagged so that they are held until you are confirmed to have passed through customs. It's against airport policy to allow your bags to travel without you anyway. They should be suggesting this, but you will have to mention to them that you have to be processed prior to getting on the flight. You should not be allowed to actually proceed through beyond US customs until you have you TN visa.

2. The office is not open 24/7. Last time I was there it opened at 5 or 6am, which is when you want to be there. Especially if you are flying out on a Monday. I found that when I arrived at 6, I was through before 7. When I arrived at 8, it took almost to 10 and beyond and only gets worse.

Make sure you are there early, have all the documentation (including your letter stating your official title, and that your education/experience matches their definition of that title), and the exact cash in USD.

[chris35]

1. You should get your bags tagged so that they are held until you are confirmed to have passed through customs. It's against airport policy to allow your bags to travel without you anyway. They should be suggesting this, but you will have to mention to them that you have to be processed prior to getting on the flight. You should not be allowed to actually proceed through beyond US customs until you have you TN visa.

2. The office is not open 24/7. Last time I was there it opened at 5 or 6am, which is when you want to be there. Especially if you are flying out on a Monday. I found that when I arrived at 6, I was through before 7. When I arrived at 8, it took almost to 10 and beyond and only gets worse.

Make sure you are there early, have all the documentation (including your letter stating your official title, and that your education/experience matches their definition of that title), and the exact cash in USD.

The last time i went through the office was closing at 5, it was friday, she looked at my job description and gave me my card and stamp, 5min or less, my lucky day, the pricks at my local customs denied me entry with the same paperwork, it is sometimes all on who you get and if they are having a good day.

[Abel4Life]

If you go on a Saturday or Sunday evening it is CRITICAL that you go at least 3 hours early (based on my own experiences). If you miss your flight the US guards are not responsible (even though they are).

[TotallyKiller]

The last time i went through the office was closing at 5, it was friday, she looked at my job description and gave me my card and stamp, 5min or less, my lucky day, the pricks at my local customs denied me entry with the same paperwork, it is sometimes all on who you get and if they are having a good day.

Lucky you. The job titles at customs are matched specifically with a list of required education/experience (including what schools they find acceptable). When I was with Deloitte they changed my title one day to "system analyst" from "management consultant" even though the work was the same. Because my degree wasn't specifically in CompSci, they rejected it based on the required criteria. The guy had me get my letter title changed by the firm and faxed to him and he processed it right away. Might have taken a while, but he was really good about it.

The main thing I see when I'm there, that makes me laugh, are the people who are anything other than really, really polite to the officers. They have no requirement to process you quickly, in order, politely, or at all. The last time I was there a woman kept telling everyone how she was going to miss her flight, and how stupid this all was... the whole time the rest of us who have done it before sat quietly with all our documents at the ready. One officer finally yelled back to ask when her flight was departing and then told her her processing time would be 10 minutes after that. Stifling the laughter was very hard at that point. Some people just don't get it.

[Abel4Life]

Lucky you. The job titles at customs are matched specifically with a list of required education/experience (including what schools they find acceptable). When I was with Deloitte they changed my title one day to "system analyst" from "management consultant" even though the work was the same. Because my degree wasn't specifically in CompSci, they rejected it based on the required criteria. The guy had me get my letter title changed by the firm and faxed to him and he processed it right away. Might have taken a while, but he was really good about it.

The main thing I see when I'm there, that makes me laugh, are the people who are anything other than really, really polite to the officers. They have no requirement to process you quickly, in order, politely, or at all. The last time I was there a woman kept telling everyone how she was going to miss her flight, and how stupid this all was... the whole time the rest of us who have done it before sat quietly with all our documents at the ready. One officer finally yelled back to ask when her flight was departing and then told her her processing time would be 10 minutes after that. Stifling the laughter was very hard at that point. Some people just don't get it.

I agree regardin overreaction and patience issues. But you cannot back the border officers. Last time I was there it was only about 10 of us total with the odd person adding on. There were 5-7 officers in total. I would say they were processing at a rate of 2 per 30-45 mins bewtween ALL OF THEM.

Long story short, even though my actual visa interview was 5-10 minutes, my wait time was 2.5 hours and I had to take a hotel to catch a morning flight. There were a few other couples that also got the screwjob and they were just looking for the visitors I-94.

These employees just like to go slow, chit chat, smoke breaks and internet browsing.