After visiting the NFL Hall of Fame earlier in the day, I had about 5 hours to get make it to Arkona, Cananda for tomorrows workshop.
Very long story short (about 2 hours of hassle with border agents) I was turned away and told to return to the US, as apparently teaching Photography to a friend(s), even without ANY pay is illegal. When I was entering the country they asked me what I did for a living, I told them Im a photographer and I teach photography. He then asked if I had my cameras with me and I said “Yes”. Apparently this was all they needed to bring me in for more questioning. The gate-border gaurd who assigned me to go into the main customs building was a true jerk. The guy inside the customs building was also a jerk, just not quite as much as the character in the booth, his poor wife!
Inside, they asked who I was visiting (as I said I was coming to visit Heather and teach her some photography skills) asked for their contact information and then called them to confirm everything I was saying, which they did. Despite the fact that everything I had said was true, the guard said “I cannot allow you to enter, I know this is really lame, but its the law and its my job- I have to do it”.
So there you have it beloved readers- Oh ya, in case you are wondering how much money I was “exporting out of Canada”, I had one Canadian person (the host) register and pay a very minimal amount ($150) to help cover some of my travel expenses. I knew there would be 2 others (Americans) who had registered for different workshops in the US attending this one instead, and possibly 1 other person showing up, but otherwise, to the best of my knowledge I hadnt recieved any money from any Canadians besides the host. The Canadian Agents said “Even if you were teaching for free for that matter, you cannot do this as you are a professional and this is your trade, you would have to have a work visa, even if you arent being paid at all.”
On the way back, the US agents put me through another 40 minutes of questioning and record checking just because “we want to see who you are”. I will say the US agent I was working with was an extremely cool dude, and we started talking about photography gear.
On the way out, he told me: “Be extremely careful about going back to Canada, they have marked you in their records for this incident. If you try to get in again with your cameras, they will BAN you from entering, EVER AGAIN.” I was like “you have to be kidding?” and hes like “No, Im not. If you want to visit Canada, make sure that you dont bring your cameras with you, even one little SLR they see this as one of your tools and if you have it and are entering their borders there is no way for them to tell what your intentions are with it.” What this means is, if I ever want to enter Canada’s borders for the rest of my life with an SLR camera, I will have to apply for a work visa, even if I am not working. Yes…thats right. Please learn from my mistake in terms of discussing what you do for a living with border agents if it involves photography and you have cameras with you. The crazy thing is if I was a Geneticist and had cameras with me, none of this would have happened.
I have learned that life is better when I believe that any problem I encounter is an opportunity to learn and to benefit IF I can look at it creatively. As a teaching point, as soon as I was back, I got to work to solve the problem (what are we going to do about tomorrow’s workshop). Life is a lot like football, sometimes things break down, things happen, and you have an opportunity to demonstrate a little mental toughness, put the mistake behind you and move forward. If you dwell too much on things that go bad, it will paralyze you from making a play on the next down. So, coming over I saw a Holiday Inn Express (which I really LOVE BTW). Pulled in, booked myself in for 2 nights, plus a conference room for tomorrow. Called Heather and asked her and anyone else who was still interested in coming to meet me there at 9. Im still not sure who is coming or who isnt, but if its just a few people, thats all I need. Problem solved, it took about 10 minutes. The show will go on!
When things dont go as planned (which will happen to you as a photographer)- dont focus so much on what went wrong or why when the game is still in play- adapt/adjust/attack the task at hand, solve the problem, move forward. If you are on a shoot and your camera/gear stops working, if you were to freak out too much about it, you wont be able to complete the shoot and miss the opportunity to be a play maker. Dont let these things rattle you. Find a solution. “Analyze” mistakes after the game.
Ultimately, looking back on this now, I am to blame for not doing better research on work visas. Live and learn. Time to crash.
Looking forward to an awesome workshop tomorrow. 🙂
MA Thank you so much for sharing this with us. I am sad you had to go through this to help us learn. What an experience…
I love how you always seem to get over being frustrated pretty quick, so you can focus on how to solve the issue at hand. I’m one who usually gets over stuff pretty quick, and that actually use to anger somebody I use to date. Life is too short to focus on the negative. Great job solving the problem. So simple, it almost could have been missed 🙂 Great story by the way!
This is halarious – they would probably don’t let a table danver enter the country because her gear is her body and she would have that with her 😉 sorry you had to go through this
Great attitude Michael. I’m really glad the workshop will go on. I think you handled the entire situation with class.
Sorry to hear about you experience with Canadian Customs. It never even dawned on me at our ws that you were going to be crossing the border. I could have at least given you some fore warning. We supposedly have aggrements with them such as NAFTA, among others. But they are much stricter on us than we are on them. If you were going as an attendee you most likely would have been fine.
Michael, sorry that this happened, was looking forward to your Canadian shoot. On the other hand I’m super glad you are all getting together ANYWAY!, YES! Enjoy!
Wow dude, that really sucks! I can’t believe that is going to be on your record for the next forever!!! That’s absolutely nuts…
Thank you for sharing this as I know you were extremely frustrated and disappointed. I would have never thought photo gear or mention of it would cause such a problem but this is good to know.
What dosen’t kill you, makes you more stronger and wiser. =)
That sucks. I was hoping for a portrait session with Terrance & Phillip. You sure they didn’t think that you were trying to bring a cannon across the border? 🙂
Funny how they don’t seem to have much of a problem with the Americans coming over to Windsor to lose a few bucks in their casinos. Just mention the fact that you might make a a few dollars on their soil, and the rules change. We’ll all have to keep this in mind, won’t we?
thats why i went to akron, those border people can be ,,,,,,,,,, well you know,,,,, good luck guys, ,, and gails,,,,,,,
Are you coming to Alberta???
Wow! I’m starting to not like Canadians nearly as much as I dislike the French. (Don’t get me started on French Canadians!)
Oh no! Michael I am really sorry our customs guys gave you a hard time. They can be jerks and powerful ones too. Too bad your file was flagged for future entry.
such are the road blocks of life! You handled it well and turned what could have been a failure into a success! If we could just learn to apply that lesson to everything in our lives!
Michael, thanks so much for sharing. I am going to Kitchener on Labor Day to shoot a friend’s wedding (for free). So glad you posted this info because I probably would have gotten flagged the same way you did and I most likely would have done and said something I shouldn’t and gotten banned right then and there. I’ll be sure to come up with a good story when I go through Port Huron.
Exactly, I think a lot of it has to do with the person asking the questions, if they dont like you they will flag you, but yes, saying you are a photographer and that you have your cameras with you is a red flag.
Thanks for the tip. I am headed up to the Maritimes for vacation and will be more cautious now. I guess it is always better to just say I am a tourist in any country. I heard about some Floridian kids who were going to help repair houses in England and were turned away once they got there for not having proper papers. Unreal!! Tourist, touristm, tourist, I am nothing but a tourist…….. By the way, any news on the T1i DVD? Just picked up the camera and would rather watch than read.
So sorry to hear that they didn’t allow you to cross the border — this really is riduculous! As a Canadian I am very frustrated for you — maybe they should focus on the people that are a little more threatening………….
I must say that us Canadians are really nice people and our country is a really beautiful place to visit – hopefully this has not swayed you from ever returning. However just to note we get them same hassle going the other way and travelling into the US is not always easy either. For future reference to all…..make sure all people travelling in your party have the same story and that it is that you are a tourist, or visiting friends (may need proof of their address, etc.) and make no mention of working in the country while you are here or they send you a packing. I had a friend travel to the US a week or so after her boyfriend did with plans to meet up with him, both happened to be questioned by customs on their way down — their stories for why & how long they were visiting the US varied slightly and they denied her enterance and shipped her back home on the next flight. However, sounds like you were able to remedy the situation — hope you had a great session!