Canada w/o Passport

[ohchaucer 1443]

Hi, all.  Looking for any advice on a conundrum I've gotten myself into.  Long story short, I have a work meeting in Montreal and my passport has expired.  I have to travel Sunday, so even the most aggressive expediting services can't turn around a passport renewal that fast.  My f up, but here I am.  

So, I won't be able to fly, but I'm only 5 hours away so was thinking of driving.  Online, it looks like you can travel to Canada as a US citizen with a birth certificate and valid US drivers license.  But it's vague.  According to US Border Patrol, I can use birth certificate and drivers license to get back into the US, but might have some delay at the border since it's not a passport.  

Pre-Covid used to be easier on all these things.  Has anyone gone back/forth to Canada with non-passport documentation or have any relevant experiences or advice?

[SimonBolivar 10961]

My BIL lives in San Antonio but knocked up a girl in Acuna and he travels back and forth all the time without a passport (because he's an idiot). I would assume that rule is the same for Americans coming back from Canada. I would imagine the only hiccup would be whether Canada lets you in or not and if what you said is true then it should work.

[Baboontyme 2831]

Relatively recent. I don't think you need to provide vax proof any longer. 

https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2022/12/06/canada-drive-passport-detroit-michigan-windsor-tunnel-ambassador-bridge/69663594007/

[next2naus 439]

Are a cheapo or did you get the Passport card and if you do have it, is it valid? It allows for driving over the boarder. 

Spoiler

 

 

[ohchaucer 1443]

1 minute ago, next2naus said:

Are a cheapo or did you get the Passport card and if you do have it, is it valid? It allows for driving over the boarder. 

  Hide contents

 

 

No passport card.  And my regular passport expired in 2021 when I wasn't ever going anywhere so it just slipped my mind.  And then, boom, Canada trip incoming.

[Firemans4Horn 18189]

Watch this movie and take notes. 
 

 

[closetojumping 62918]

I used to cross over into Windsor from Detroit with my birth certificate and driver's license on a regular basis in the years 03-05. I did so without complication or delay, coming and going and this was after 9/11. Haven't done it since, but good luck and I hope this helps.

[Helobious 9477]

You can get back in from Mexico without a passport. But I think you need one to travel around in there if you’re going a certain distance away from border iirc. Gotta be same deal in Canada.

Edited April 19, 2023 by Helobious

[DaysOff 7988]

Jesus Christ, people. You're not getting in another country without a passport, and even if you had one, Canada rejects you if you've ever had a DWI. Eliminates half this site.

[Wulaw Horn 19156]

5 minutes ago, DaysOff said:

Jesus Christ, people. You're not getting in another country without a passport, and even if you had one, Canada rejects you if you've ever had a DWI. Eliminates half this site.

They also don’t like it when they ask you where you are going and you say- eh- pipe down America Jr., we are just driving from one part of our country to another and y’all happen to be in the way. 

[TexasHooch 5152]

I've paddled into Canada through the Boundary Waters many times without a passport-  though I guess unless your meeting is at a random Quetico campsite in Ontario that's probably not applicable.

[next2naus 439]

I used to carry one of these in my backpack/laptop bag along with all my other "IT related" do-dads, cables, etc. Carried for years, all over the USA, MEx, Aruba, etc. Then came that fateful trip to Montreal....the Canadians found it, pulled me aside for a conversation in a small room, relived me of the item and suggested I might be be able to enter Canada again if I traveled with one of these again. 

[Js1 85651]

1 hour ago, next2naus said:

Are a cheapo or did you get the Passport card and if you do have it, is it valid? It allows for driving over the boarder. 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

*border

As someone whose job deals with borders and travel, if I had a dollar for every time someone wrote "boarder" to me in an email, I'd never have to work again. 

Edited April 19, 2023 by Js1

[Jerry Callo 8762]

Get a mule to row you across the St. Lawrence River under the cover of darkness.

[Native Horn 3516]

1 minute ago, Jerry Callo said:

Get a mule to row you across the St. Lawrence River under the cover of darkness.

Just like Boquillas!

[Hermanator 7199]

2 hours ago, SimonBolivar said:

My BIL lives in San Antonio but knocked up a girl in Acuna 

 

[po elvis 2083]

On 4/19/2023 at 12:11 PM, Helobious said:

You can get back in from Mexico without a passport. But I think you need one to travel around in there if you’re going a certain distance away from border iirc. Gotta be same deal in Canada.

You “can” get back in from Mexico without a passport but are supposed to have one. We were down near the border probably 10 or so years ago and decided just to cross the bridge to Mexico and walk right back. Just put like 25 cents in a turnstile to get in with nobody in between here and Mexico to care about you coming in. Before we could get to the first block of cut rate dentists and pharmacists we crossed the street and headed back towards America. Now there was a line. We see they are asking for passports. We look at each other with a WTF look. Tell the guy we didn’t know we needed passports. He asked us our names and where we were born and looked it up in the computer. Told us next time to have a passport. I wouldn’t try again without one.

[Spankytoes 1743]

Would be shocked if you could do it. They always ask me for a passport when I drive to Montreal.

[Helobious 9477]

31 minutes ago, po elvis said:

You “can” get back in from Mexico without a passport but are supposed to have one. We were down near the border probably 10 or so years ago and decided just to cross the bridge to Mexico and walk right back. Just put like 25 cents in a turnstile to get in with nobody in between here and Mexico to care about you coming in. Before we could get to the first block of cut rate dentists and pharmacists we crossed the street and headed back towards America. Now there was a line. We see they are asking for passports. We look at each other with a WTF look. Tell the guy we didn’t know we needed passports. He asked us our names and where we were born and looked it up in the computer. Told us next time to have a passport. I wouldn’t try again without one.

There’s two lines to get back in, one without passports and one with passports. The passport one just moves quicker. Source: I walk into Mexico often, haven’t been in a few months though. I have nothing against border patrol but the ones specifically working the border pedestrian crossings are typically miserable piece of shit human beings and will usually do/say anything to make you feel stupid or sad.

[Gil Bang 26069]

On 4/19/2023 at 11:32 AM, Jerry Callo said:

Get a mule to row you across the St. Lawrence River under the cover of darkness.

I'd get a mute instead, so you know they won't tell anybody

[SimonBolivar 10961]

15 minutes ago, Gil Bang said:

I'd get a mute instead, so you know they won't tell anybody

Preferably an illiterate mute.

[RDCanecutter 26512]

Friend of mine was barred from Canada for some felonies, so she just went to Vermont and hopped a train in.

Also, Sunday has come and gone. Tell the tale, OP.

[SimonBolivar 10961]

5 minutes ago, RDCanecutter said:

Friend of mine was barred from Canada for some felonies, so she just went to Vermont and hopped a train in.

Also, Sunday has come and gone. Tell the tale, OP.

He's in some syrupy version of a Northern Quebec Gulag

Edited April 25, 2023 by SimonBolivar

[FartingMonk 3608]

We used to travel into Canada with license and birth certificate only.  But that was 07-08.  I don't think they allow that anymore

[RollLeft 5045]

So did the escort not show up?  Are you in jail?

[squib 1127]

On 4/19/2023 at 1:54 PM, Hermanator said:

 

Canadian counterpoint. 

 

[6th Street 6509]

Not sure where you live, but you can try going to the passport office in person.

[HornOnTheBayou 8957]

7 hours ago, SimonBolivar said:

He's in some syrupy version of a Northern Quebec Gulag

Probably getting waterboarded with Molson. 

[SimonBolivar 10961]

33 minutes ago, HornOnTheBayou said:

Probably getting waterboarded with Molson. 

"tuez-moi!"

[Captain Ron 12935]

On 4/25/2023 at 9:39 PM, 6th Street said:

Not sure where you live, but you can try going to the passport office in person.

This was going to be my answer. I’ve gotten my passport turned around in 1 day going in person to the local passport office (I’m in Boston) and paying the expedited fee. Boston isn't a printing location, so I am at the mercy of how often they get packets from the NYC printing location, so sometimes it can take 2 days (found out when trying to get my sister’s passport done). 

5 hours by car to Montreal? Sounds like Boston to me (from experience).

 Wonder what ended up happening to OP? Probably being slowly dissolved in a tank of maple syrup.  

[Armybrat 40942]

Moose out front got him.

[Napoleon 8709]

On 4/25/2023 at 6:41 PM, RollLeft said:

So did the escort not show up?  Are you in jail?

@ohchaucer to the white phone.

(…and “No!”, we don’t just want you to have an abortion.)

 

On 4/25/2023 at 2:49 PM, FartingMonk said:

We used to travel into Canada with license and birth certificate only.  But that was 07-08.  I don't think they allow that anymore

We traveled to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls with only a station wagon.

But that was in the last millennium.

[IDIOTsavant 8508]

On 4/19/2023 at 12:26 PM, Wulaw Horn said:

They also don’t like it when they ask you where you are going and you say- eh- pipe down America Jr., we are just driving from one part of our country to another and y’all happen to be in the way. 

Jesus, that trip to Fayetteville went further off the rails than I thought.

[thrillhammer 684]

i fly into canada often.  would never consider it without a passport.  everything changed in 2001.  covid changed canada-us relations/border crossings but not in regards to passports.

[Captain Ron 12935]

We never got @ohchaucer’s follow up on this. My wife had more than 4 days notice (almost 2 weeks), but was able to get per passport turned around in just over an hour in Portsmouth, NH day of a trip to Toronto.