As a frequent traveller to the United States through Montreal’s Pierre-Elliott Trudeau Airport, I always thought it unusual that U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents were there to check my passport even before I left Canadian soil.
The subject of airport pre-clearance came up again recently as I was writing Canadian airport guides for Kayak.com which inspired me to learn more about the history of how these stations came to be and which Canadian cities have them.
The earlest incarnation of preclearance began in 1894, when the U.S. government was worried about undocumented immigrants flowing over its northern border (sound familiar?). They entered into an agreement with Canadian steamship and railroad operators to place U.S. immigration inspectors at Canada’s four largest seaports: Montreal, Quebec City, Halifax and Saint John.
It became more officially formalized in 1903, the year of the first heavier-than-air flight by the Wright Brothers, when it was known as “pre-inspection” but was first used with ships and not airplanes, specifically ferries from Victoria, British Columbia to the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Then, as now, the idea was to streamline border formalities so that passengers could just walk off their boats, and these days planes, when they arrive in America.
The idea to build them in airports and staff them with U.S. border personnel was first implemented in 1952 in Malton Airport, which is now Toronto Pearson International Airport, and Calgary International Airport. Border pre-clearance stations can now be found at Vancouver International Airport, Montréal–Trudeau International Airport, Ottawa Macdonald–Cartier International Airport, Edmonton International Airport, Halifax Stanfield International Airport and Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport.
Soon there will be an additional pre-clearance station at Toronto’s Billy Bishop Airport, the home base of Porter Airlines which has made a strong expansion push into the U.S. Other additional spots under consideration are Québec City Jean Lesage International Airport, and Montreal Central Station which provides frequent passenger train service to the U.S.
One of the things that CBP is promoting these days is for passengers to pre-load their customs and immigration declarations on their Mobile Passport Control smartphone app when they get to the airport. During rush hours, the lineup at Montreal’s CBP station can get quite long and people who use the app can get into a special, usually shorter, line than those people who aren’t using it. I remember when they first started doing this that the app line was as quick as being a Nexus card holder, but these days, more people seem to be using it so the time advantage isn’t as good as it used to be.
What I didn’t realize is that it’s not just Canadians who have the pleasure of clearing American customs and immigration before leaving their own country. There also are CBP pre-clearance stations in Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Ireland and Abu Dhabi.
