Pacific NW/AK/BC Canada to Open to U.S. Visitors on 8/9/21

[dovski]

My gut feeling is this rule may change on a moment's notice. If we get another surge in cases they may shut the border again. I don't think they have the same commitment as the US in allowing easy border movement. Just my feeling.. so be prepared..

The reality is the rules have not been formalized and are quite fluid and open to interpretation. Will take a month or two for things to get stabilized and streamlined.

 

[Jilly]

OK, paging @Lady_Salina . She just arrived home after many months away.

How did the process go?

 

[Lady_Salina]

Went not bad. Many little issues well worth my effort to see my family. More details later when I'm not on route and can type without thumbs. I'm happy they are opening to tourists and do believe unless their is a surge in vaccinated people the border will open as planned like the UK going ahead with its opening even as their numbers rise but deaths and hospitalizations remain down and serious cases remain in the unvaccinated.

 

[Castle Dave]

I live in Penticton and right now we have two wildfires 20 and 60 minutes respectively from my house. Hopefully by September they will be over and the smoke will have cleared. Please come for a visit in the Fall and bring those Yankee $$.
PS Apex was excellent last season - one of the best!

 

[babanff]

How did the process go?

I actually went through the new process 2 weeks ago (arrived back in Canada July 5, ie the very first day of the new relaxed restrictions for PR/citizens). The actual crossing the border was no issue, just took a few minutes... I crossed back in at the ID/BC land border, so might differ from people's experiences at airports. Issues/weird things for me were:
- Finding a molecular test where I could be assured I would get results within 72 hours was more difficult than I thought it would be. I was having to find a test in the Idaho/Eastern WA region, and wasn't quite as easy as I thought. Figuring out if I was taking an acceptable pre-arrival test took more googling that it should have. I ended up getting an IDNow test at Walgreens, but took me awhile to figure out that it was a NAAT test, which is accepted. For PCR tests, I couldn't find anywhere in my region that could guarantee 72-hr results, and I couldn't find anywhere to give me an RT-PCR test.
- At the land crossings, they give you an arrival test that you self-administer when you get home or to your first stop, but you have to self-administer it while on a video chat... so yes, you get on a Microsoft Teams meeting video chat with some random person who watches you put a swab up your nose.... strange to say the least. Then it gets FedEx'd to a testing facility. I think technically you're supposed to be self-isolating until you get those results, but my results took a week to come back, and no one is checking up on you during that time. Reading through new protocols, sounds like this arrival test will go away on Aug 9.
- Despite being exempt from quarantine, you still get notifications from ArriveCan app to do a daily self-assessment... you can ignore the notifications.
- ArriveCan app is literally just something to upload your documentation and answer questions, it doesn't give you any preliminary approval or anything like that... it just kicks out a "receipt" to present at the border when you arrive, but no preliminary clearance. It does ask about quarantine plans even if you are exempt, so will be interesting how that plays out for tourism travel.
- I probably could have uploaded vaccination records written in crayon and they would have been accepted... honestly no way these are getting verified... mine were just straight photos of my paper vaccination copies, one of which had white-out on it because the nurse had put in the wrong name at first. For the record, I have mixed vaccines... 1st shot AstraZeneca, 2nd shot Moderna... no problems... but there are some vaccines that aren't accepted (like sputnik and the like).

Overall it was a fine process... worth the extra effort to not have to quarantine, but definitely needs some refinement to make this work for tourism-related travel. Works very easily when you are returning home, but not sure what it would be like to be a tourist going through the process.

 

[Wannabeskibum]

So to add some color to this, I was going to go back when they launch the policy for vaccinated Canadians returnig to Canada, but here is the catch - lots of requirements and hoops to jump through, plus you do not get to submit any data to the ArriveCAN app until 3 days before you travel at which time it gives you a conditional ruling on whether or not you are exempt, actual decision is made at the border or upon arrival. As such you are required to have a two week quarantine plan just in case you do not qualify. Oh and to be clear they are kind of making up the rules as they go along so lots of uncertainty. As an FYI my brother and his family just returned to Canada for the summer and they went through this process, so not just making this up folks . I think if we give it a month or two and things get a little more formalized and streamlined this will work well. In other words we should be good for ski season, but this summer you will be the test cases and it may be chaotic.

They are certainly making up the rules as they go along. I traveled to Calgary for "essential business" last week after they "allowed" fully vaccinated Americans to come into the country and not quarantine if it was for "essential business". I used the ArriveCAN app as instructed and got the conditional ruling. Answered all the questions regarding "essential travel" on the web site and based on my answers "would probably be admitted but final decision is up to the border affairs agent upon arrival". I was subjected to an "interview" but fortunately they were sympathetic to my cause and they admitted me. That process took 2 hours from the time I landed. Another 2 hours was spent waiting in line for my arrival test - so all told 4 hours. To come back to the US, I took my covid test within 3 days of travel and was checked in, through security, and through US immigration in less than 30 minutes (not many international flights leaving Calgary yet).

Hopefully it gets easier in August as I will probably need to go back in October.

 

[scott43]

We have everyone in the vaccination kick right now. #sorted

 

[dovski]

They are certainly making up the rules as they go along. I traveled to Calgary for "essential business" last week after they "allowed" fully vaccinated Americans to come into the country and not quarantine if it was for "essential business". I used the ArriveCAN app as instructed and got the conditional ruling. Answered all the questions regarding "essential travel" on the web site and based on my answers "would probably be admitted but final decision is up to the border affairs agent upon arrival". I was subjected to an "interview" but fortunately they were sympathetic to my cause and they admitted me. That process took 2 hours from the time I landed. Another 2 hours was spent waiting in line for my arrival test - so all told 4 hours. To come back to the US, I took my covid test within 3 days of travel and was checked in, through security, and through US immigration in less than 30 minutes (not many international flights leaving Calgary yet).

Hopefully it gets easier in August as I will probably need to go back in October.

So my brother and his wife actually work for the Canadian government who brought them home for the summer. They were told one thing at the airport and now get daily calls saying they are not being compliant with arrival protocols (which they are complying with). I think you have the rules as they have been published which are confusing, lots of individual interpretation of the rules by border officials which only slows and further confuses the process, coupled with the fact that they are learning as they go and changing things on a daily basis. Like any new process it will take a couple months of trial and error to improve it and operationalize it. In the meantime there is some risk to travelers using the program that they may not get their quarantine waived upon arrival though I think that risk is minimal as everyone is aligned with the right intention. That said we are likely going to wait until things stabilize to give it a try as two weeks in a quarantine hotel for a family of 5 does not sound like a lot of fun.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

it will take a bit of time to work out the bugs, primarily over front line officers having both the resources and manpower to ensure any admitted are fully vaccinated and turning away those who aren't
I'd expect some significant lines. To compound it the union representing the officers has already stated there may be some job action over the potential exposures they will encounter.

As to safety visiting
BC has now passed 80% with first shot and the % of fully vaccinated is rapidly catching up now that supplies are no longer an issue.
Masks while not mandatory are still being used. A high number of business will not even allow entry without one. So it' rare to see anyone enter indoor facilities without putting one on first.
It's considered the polite and responsible thing to do.

But I wouldn't rush to visit anywhere in BC right now
The provincial government just announced there is a state of emergency over the escalating fire situation,
Several interior regions have evacuation warnings in place and the number of available rooms could dwindle rapidly.
Overall air quality in the interior is nasty and getting worse.
Vancouver and the coast has been fine so far but we are only a wind shift away from the same.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

US government just announced they are still closed until at least Aug 21.
another month for the weeds to cover the cabin and more barnacles on a boat.

 

[Lady_Salina]

They are certainly making up the rules as they go along. I traveled to Calgary for "essential business" last week after they "allowed" fully vaccinated Americans to come into the country and not quarantine if it was for "essential business". I used the ArriveCAN app as instructed and got the conditional ruling. Answered all the questions regarding "essential travel" on the web site and based on my answers "would probably be admitted but final decision is up to the border affairs agent upon arrival". I was subjected to an "interview" but fortunately they were sympathetic to my cause and they admitted me. That process took 2 hours from the time I landed. Another 2 hours was spent waiting in line for my arrival test - so all told 4 hours. To come back to the US, I took my covid test within 3 days of travel and was checked in, through security, and through US immigration in less than 30 minutes (not many international flights leaving Calgary yet).

Hopefully it gets easier in August as I will probably need to go back in October.

They kind of are making the rules as they go along, the border guard makes the final decision. My husband is essential services and has gone to Canada a couple times on emergency service work for Ford. This past week when I went along and used arrive can and upload my tests and such his said he didn't need one and he had not needed one in past. Well the border crossing in Buffalo decided a month ago if you are essential services for emergency only and not a cross border worker coming and going daily to weekly you need a test. No idea why the person that travels less needs the test but the person more risky and travelling weekly doesn.t need the test but that is what they decided at the Buffalo border. They fellow that works with him and crosses for essential services occasionally does not need the test ever but was crossing in Detroit and/or Sarnia so they probably don't have that policy. My husband had to go get a test at the airport, pay 225.00 for the test with results in a half hour and return to cross the border where they gave him another test in case he caught covid on the 40 minute trip back from the airport and went positive i guess. He was over for a couple days then went to Detroit ford and decided he didn't want to chance needing another test so didn't come back across and I left early to pick him up there. The US border guards were super nice and asked if I had been given a difficult time getting across as they had heard many stories. I actually wasn't given a difficult time accept that my husband had issues and if we had gotten him a PCR test for free at CVS who do the tests and I usually get my results the next morning my previously done test would have expired and I'd have needed another if it didn't come early so we did pay for the fast test at the airport. I will be heading back on the 9th when they open it further so I can bring my grand children down to my place. They've missed last summer and most of this one now when they are used to coming to my place for most of the summer.

 

[Big J]

Having the Epic Veterans passes (that include Whistler) it would be nice to have the option of flying to ski Whistler as we used to drive to it. Going there would depend on the rules involved. We also moved to Virginia from the Seattle area. We will check out ski areas within driving of our new house.

 

[surfandski]

I was worried they were going to require vaccines when we booked our trips in June. I guess my son and I are going to have to cancel our 2 Canada trips for Jan and March. I figured my son was still quite a few years away from needing a fake id.

 

[Jilly]

And now, to add another problem....CSBA agents are talking strike action.....

 

[Lady_Salina]

I was worried they were going to require vaccines when we booked our trips in June. I guess my son and I are going to have to cancel our 2 Canada trips for Jan and March. I figured my son was still quite a few years away from needing a fake id.

Just an FYI, children under 12 travelling with a fully vaccinated parent will be allowed in with the negative covid test. Everyone needs the negative covid test whether vaccinated or not. Now any of these guidelines could change depending on developments between now and then

 

[scott43]

And now, to add another problem....CSBA agents are talking strike action.....

Apparently they've reached a tentative agreement..

 

[DanoT]

I was worried they were going to require vaccines when we booked our trips in June. I guess my son and I are going to have to cancel our 2 Canada trips for Jan and March. I figured my son was still quite a few years away from needing a fake id.

I am in Canada and am planning an extended trip to Aspen in Feb. I expect tourist border crossing to be sorted by then. However I expect being fully vaccinated will likely be mandatory for more than just border crossings.

 

[James]

From the Cnn article-
———————-
Question: What will entry requirements be?

Answer: Fully vaccinated travelers must submit Covid-19 information electronically into ArriveCAN, the official Canadian government app you use to provide mandatory travel information when entering Canada. It must be entered within 72 hours before arrival. Travelers without a smartphone can submit the information at Canada.ca/ArriveCAN and print the receipt.
Travelers must also meet pre-entry testing requirements.
All travelers 5 or older must show proof of a negative result from a Covid-19 molecular test taken within 72 hours before their arrival in Canada or show proof of a positive Covid-19 molecular test taken between 14 and 180 days, as of August 9, before their arrival.
————————
You also need a “quarantine plan” in case you have to quarantine due to people with you or something else.

It’s fairly complicated sounding. Wonder what the reality will be.

Canada reopens to US tourists: Your guide to crossing the border

On Monday, August 9, Canada reopened its borders to leisure travelers from the US. Read CNN Travel's Q&A guide to find out all the essential information before you visit.

www.cnn.com

 

[Jilly]

I know most of my cottage neighbours are heading up.

NOTE : if you're driving and plan on eastern Ontario...Prescott bridge is closed. So it's Ivy Lea (1000 island) or Cornwall for crossing.

 

[surfandski]

Just an FYI, children under 12 travelling with a fully vaccinated parent will be allowed in with the negative covid test. Everyone needs the negative covid test whether vaccinated or not. Now any of these guidelines could change depending on developments between now and then

Thanks! Unfortunately my son is 13. We aren't anti-vaxers but we have a close relative who went from being a 100% normal kid who had a severe reaction to his pre-kindergarten vaccines and is now in a wheelchair, can no longer speak and requires 24 hr professional care. Super low probability of that but there is zero reason for our kids to get it when they already have antibodies. It would be nice if we could show proof of anti bodies rather than a vaccine card since we now know that vaccinated people are still contracting and passing the virus. I do think the vaccine is very important for people like my mom with severely compromised health. Hopefully all countries will rethink the restrictions as more honest data surfaces over the next few months. We have a lot of ties to the medical field and there is just so much data that has been suppressed.

Since our highly anticipated Powder Highway trips don't look promising, I think I will pay the extra $150 to add Aspen and J Hole to our Ikon to add some vert and variety to our routine CO, UT and Tahoe trips. In retrospect, I wish we had tried out the Epic pass this year just to mix it up but we went Ikon again, mostly to do a couple powder road trips with my son. I'd like to say maybe next year but I think Covid is here to stay and will eventually be treated more like the Flu, rather than Ebola, as our bodies adapt to multiple episodes of the virus. I guess my kids and I were lucky but all but my wife say we'd take covid over the flu any day.