OT: Air Travel US->Canada with PLC & HMI?

[dmroeder]

I've made numerous business trips to Canada in the past year. Best to have a letter of invitation from your customer as well as a copy of the contract or PO saying that the service was purchased or included in the cost of the equipment. Don't take tools and don't say you are going to work because they don't want you taking work from qualified Canadian workers. In my case, I was going for "startup assistance and training" as per the PO for the equipment.

Missed this one, spot on from my experience.

 

[curlyandshemp]

If travel via air to either country is frequent enough, get a Nexus card. This allow you to walk up to an iris scanner, answer a few standard yes/no questions on the custom forms and walk through immigration without having to talk to a customs officer.

 

[curlyandshemp]

I know that Canada is not the same as Mexico.... but I have never carried parts across the border. We once had a service tech detained by Mexican authorities after they found circuit boards for a machine in his trunk. Turned into a big legal mess and took days to straighten out.

I've made numerous business trips to Canada in the past year. Best to have a letter of invitation from your customer as well as a copy of the contract or PO saying that the service was purchased or included in the cost of the equipment. Don't take tools and don't say you are going to work because they don't want you taking work from qualified Canadian workers. In my case, I was going for "startup assistance and training" as per the PO for the equipment.

Replace the word 'Canada' with 'USA' and the same applies on this side of the border.

Bottom line both governments don't care that the best company at the best price is being hired, just that local jobs should be protected with the customer paying the price.

 

[strantor]

I went to Edmonton once with 4 other guys. We were trainees, legitimately going to receive training on a new product that our company (a multinational company with offices & plants in the U.S. and Canada, et. al.) was building - a product that was destined for the states that we would be commissioning and servicing. We had all of our documentation in order; letters of invite from our company office in Edmonton to our company office in Houston, visas arranged by a professional firm. We were explicitly instructed NOT to say we were going there to do any work, but that we were going there for TRAINING ONLY (the truth). We were all on the same flight with the same paperwork and the same story, but somehow only 3 of us made it through. Not sure why, but 2 of them were turned away.

If I were in your shoes (glad I'm not) I would be worried about just getting myself into Canada much less my PLC. No way in hell I'd try to bring it on the plane with me.

 

[dmroeder]

Replace the word 'Canada' with 'USA' and the same applies on this side of the border.

I had no doubts about this! I never thought for one second that this was unique to US to Canada.

 

[ndzied1]

YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary)

Our tech flew into Toronto and took and declared his tools. He said the hardest part of getting through customs was listening to a lecture on the dangers of head lettuce.