UK cruisers- Vancouver to Alaska

[Wanderlust.]

Hello! We leave for our first HA trip and our first trip to Alaska next week. So excited! Quick question- 3 out of the 4 in my party have a UK passport. Do we need to go the U.S. Border to get th green Visa card before the trip, or can they do that at the port? We were planning to go to the border just to be on the safe side, but I though someone on here might know

Thanks!

[Lizzie68]

Unless things have changed drastically in the last two or three years, you will get your visa when you check in at with the US Customs and Immigration at Canada Place. You will go to separate line from those with US or Canadian passports, answer a few question, fingerprints etc. And off you go. You will be directed by the staff at the terminal, as they check passports as you go through.

[RAYSAN11]

I am British with a UK passport and I live in Bermuda. To visit US I have to get an ESTA which is travel authorizeation for the States. It is very quick to get online and lasts a year. You can print out the ESTA but the information is attached to the U.S. Databases. I would have thought it would be better for you. Check with your travel agent.

Edited July 28, 2015 by RAYSAN11
typo

[Wanderlust.]

ESTA is already done. When we want to go to the states for a day, my partner has to go in and get a little green Visa card which lasts for three months and fingerprints (on top of his ESTA). We just want to make sure the process at the cruise terminal is easy... If having that card would expedite things, we'll do it... But if they give it at the terminal, there's no point wasting our guests' time driving to the border.

[visagrunt]

You will save precisely no time by going to the border to get a green I-94.

 

The immigration queues are segregated by passport type, and processing for non-US/Canadian nationals is the same whether on a visa waiver, or with a visa inserted into the passport.

[Wanderlust.]

Thank you!

[Lizzie68]

Sounds like he process has not.changed and.is still as I posted above. It just takes a couple.of minutes at the cruise terminal.

[chengkp75]

Yes, US CBP and Canadian CBSA have an agreement to clear non-US cruisers to Alaska at embarkation in Vancouver. Saves them time and money over doing this at first US port in Alaska.

[martincath]

Also, if you went to the border to get an I-94W you have to be entering the US to get it - and then when you come back into Canada you MUST hand it back over again as they are single-use only so it's utterly pointless (I have personal experience of a CBP b*ll*cking for attempting multiple use of the little green card, you don't want to have it happen to you...)