Discussion: Crossing the border

I know numberof US Orienteering friends are coming north on the Labor/Labour Day Weekend to participate in the Eastern Canadian Orienteeering Championships.
Things aren't quite 'business as usual' at the border. I suggest you check out and comply with these ArriveCAN rules. The rules and procedures are not very onerous and compliance can actually speed your entry into Canada. The key is to be vqaccinated and boosted against Covid 19 and have proof of vaccination with you. I stress: have your proof of vaccination with you.

And do the ArriveCAN before you get to the border.

https://www.canada.ca/en/border-services-agency/se...

Crossed over a couple weeks ago into NB. Greg and Carol tipped us off about ArriveCAN the night before. Got it worked out after some confusion. Actual crossing 2 minutes with the vaccinations scanned and authorization lined up. Just scanned our passports at the border and we were good to enter.

I don't yet see a requirement to be boosted, which makes the whole system more of a let's pretend we're doing something than one that actually protects health. Someone who got their second dose more than a year ago (as would be the case for many Americans) has pretty much lost the protections from their initial vaccinations unless they got at least one booster.

Although I wonder how many people got the initial shot(s) but then lost interest before booster time came around. (I know of at least one, a college friend who debated for a long time and finally got the J&J shot, but last I heard from him he was dead set against the idea of a booster. I don't talk with him much because I'm not interested in his other conspiracy theories.) Maybe the hassle of asking for proof of a booster just isn't worth the effort for the small number of exceptions. But yeah, one booster? I've had two, and the third one is coming up soon.

Ooh your post almost had a darker ending than I was expecting...

but last I heard from him he was dead

@jjcote: the data suggests more than half of those who were initially fully vaccinated never got a booster (67% fully vaccinated, 33% at least one booster, only about 6.5% a second booster, although that calculation isn't quite appropriate because most are not yet eligible). The gap could be less if some boosters are misclassified as first doses.

https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccinat...

*Edited to add: actually, the booster rate is just slightly higher than that as a percentage of those eligible since children from 6 months to 5 years are not eligible for any boosters yet.

In Ontario every time someone gets a booster, they get a new PDF listing all of their Covid shots so, regardless of the number of boosters (I've also had two), it remains a single PDF. Even doses obtained elsewhere can be submitted for inclusion on the Ontario PDF (many Ontarians got shots in the US before they were able to get them in Canada; my son did that in NY to get his second Pfizer dose three weeks after his first dose instead of waiting longer in Ontario). In completing ArriveCAN, I uploaded the PDF - and in multiple entries, I've never been asked to show proof of vaccination - I understand the whole intended purpose of ArriveCAN is for the vaccine and other Covid information to be available to the border agent so they don't have to ask (however, whether this works overall in practice is questionable when the agents' union says the agents spend some 30% of their time helping people complete ArriveCAN).

On my last crossing, I still got asked whether I had any symptoms, which makes sense because they can develop after completing ArriveCAN. I did wake up with a mild sore throat the following morning, and slept longer than usual that night and the next two nights. My sore throat vanished by early afternoon with no other symptoms (I've never had a cold just disappear like that) , which combined with sleeping longer, leads me to believe I picked up Covid (lots of potential eating indoors in restaurants over 10 days) even though both times I tested myself, I tested negative. If so, thanks to the vaccines, Covid would probably have been the most minor illness I've ever had.

@feet: Thanks for the info.

In Massachusetts, you get a paper card with some info scribbled on it by a teenager working at the pharmacy (well, now that the rush is over, it's filled in by the person who administers the shot). Although there is a QR code that one can download that seems to have a record of all sorts of vaccinations, not just COVID. But for ArriveCAN, I just uploaded a picture of the paper card. I don't know what other states do, I don't know if it's consistent.

In Connecticut we just get a paper card, and because it didn't seem to have room for the second booster, I have a second paper card with just the second booster on it.

Back in the spring NYC was requiring proof of vaccination to get into restaurants, etc. They had an app that you could load a picture of your drivers license and your vax card in, which I did, and they were checking them pretty regularly until things loosened up in the summer.

You can load your vax status into Apple wallet and let them keep track. Call it up on your phone or watch.

@Charlie: you can perhaps get a fancy official-looking CT vaccine card complete with QR code via https://ctwiz.dph.ct.gov/ctwiz_public/Application/...
though whether your data is actually there seems a bit random.

Having to specify the border crossing time -- to minute precision -- is a bit of a craps shoot, and I hope there is some flexibility in this piece of info.

Having to choose the land/road crossing is less of an issue, but if I'm seeing an hour wait -- eg, because a LOT of people have never heard of ArrriveCan -- I would not want it to be a problem to go to a different, nearby crossing with, say, a 10-min wait...

There is flexibility on the time. If you read the FAQ's it says give your best estimate. I went through Canada to Michigan this summer and was a couple of hours early and they didn't bat an eyelid

I hope you all have registered with ArriveCan by now. If you haven't there is still time but there is also apparently a little one-time escape clause you may be able to use, Check it out for yourself by reading the ArriveCan rules (link above) but apparently in there the customs agent is allowed to give you a one-time exemption on the registration and allow you through -so long as you can show proof of vaccination and can declare you are and have been recently free of symptoms.
But don't take my word for it. Check it out in the ArriveCan rules.

I put the approximate time when I think I'll arrive. A potentially bigger deal which I hadn't thought to check was that the border crossing I had in mind closes at 8 PM, so I'll need to go to a different one (figured that out before finishing the registration).

A few weeks ago I put down that I planned to cross at Detroit and I crossed instead at Port Huron. It was no problem.

I've also resubmitted after changing my plans as to the border crossing I would use. It's just a matter of going back to the app and recompleting the crossing, countries visited, and Covid symptom questions. In the case of my Detroit/Port Huron switch, I didn't have an opportunity to recomplete.

Crossing was a snap!

I used a local one about 3 mi east of the major one at I-87 / A15 -- which is also the one I selected in ArriveCan, as it was on the fastest route to Sutton. I arrived less than an hour before my estimated time (3pm).
Just one car ahead of me -- with QC plates.