Question about immigration process on Alaska Cruise

We will be doing a cruise/tour in Alaska in May starting in Fairbanks. We will end cruise in Vancouver, Canada and head directly to airport. Our flight starts in Vancouver with connection in Salt Lake City, Utah and then on to Atlanta. I have not done a cruise ending in another country in 4 years, so sorry in advance if this question is dumb or has been answered numerous times. What I want to know-I assume that once we leave ship in Vancouver, that we go through immigration process to leave port and then once we get to airport that we go through it again? Is this right or do we go through immigration on our connection into Salt Lake City, since this will be our entry back into U.S.? Thanks for any input anyone can give me!

You will got thru Canadian border services leaving the ship, and then thru US border services at the Vancouver airport

Chrysalis is correct!

Most Canadian airports have U.S. pre-clearance facilities so you clear Immigration and Customs before boarding your flight to the U.S. (Vancouver, being a major airport, is one of them). A select few airports in other countries have pre-clearance as well. When you arrive at your first U.S. airport, it’s just like a domestic arrival. A few Canadian airports, such as Victoria, do not have pre-clearance and when flying from those, you clear at your first U.S. airport like most international flights.

And yes, you’ll go through Canadian Immigration and Customs when you get off the ship.

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Thank you so much for the helpful answers!

When we disembarked Star Princess in Vancouver in August, they were piloting a new program to expedite the process. Sign up in advance and you’re escorted directly from ship to airport without the Canadian immigration stop. We were bussed to a back door at the airport and escorted directly to airline check in counter. You can only use the service if you’re going to leave immediately after your cruise (spend no time in Canada). Eliminated a step and got us to the airport in record time.

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When we disembarked Star Princess in Vancouver in August, they were piloting a new program to expedite the process. Sign up in advance and you’re escorted directly from ship to airport without the Canadian immigration stop. We were bussed to a back door at the airport and escorted directly to airline check in counter. You can only use the service if you’re going to leave immediately after your cruise (spend no time in Canada). Eliminated a step and got us to the airport in record time.

 

 

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Very interesting. They used to do this years ago and then stopped it. I hadn't realized it had started up again.

When we disembarked Star Princess in Vancouver in August, they were piloting a new program to expedite the process. Sign up in advance and you’re escorted directly from ship to airport without the Canadian immigration stop. We were bussed to a back door at the airport and escorted directly to airline check in counter. You can only use the service if you’re going to leave immediately after your cruise (spend no time in Canada). Eliminated a step and got us to the airport in record time.

This isn't new, but is extraordinarily random in whether it a) happens at all; and b) has restrictions of cruiseline/airline/both. When available it's known as US Direct - sometimes YVR and/or Canada Place will make an announcement about it for the upcoming season; sometimes they don't announce it and it never happens; sometimes they don't announce it but it is available. Sometimes you can even get it all the way to Seatac!

In short, it's utterly undependable so you should never factor it in to your plans - but if it is available and you're heading right to the airport it's totally worthwhile paying for the cruiseline transfer - otherwise run screaming from cruise buses due to the outrageous markup that's applied compared to the independent shuttles (double or more), cabs (same cost per person as an entire cab to yourself), and even limos (3+ people it's cheaper by limo than by cruise bus) to get to YVR...

Very interesting. They used to do this years ago and then stopped it. I hadn't realized it had started up again.

The US started it sometime around 9/11 when they strengthened immigration from Canada. In 2002 we went on a vacation to Ireland. We were surprised to have a US Immigration officer talk to us in the Dublin airport as we waited for our flight to Chicago. Worked well however since we were able to get off the plane in Chicago just like on a domestic flight.

The US started it sometime around 9/11 when they strengthened immigration from Canada. In 2002 we went on a vacation to Ireland. We were surprised to have a US Immigration officer talk to us in the Dublin airport as we waited for our flight to Chicago. Worked well however since we were able to get off the plane in Chicago just like on a domestic flight.

Dublin and Shannon Ireland have been US pre-clearance airports for years (just like most Canadian airports). But that’s completely independent of any cruise program that let’s passengers skip entering Canada and then re-entering the US.

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The US started it sometime around 9/11 when they strengthened immigration from Canada. In 2002 we went on a vacation to Ireland. We were surprised to have a US Immigration officer talk to us in the Dublin airport as we waited for our flight to Chicago. Worked well however since we were able to get off the plane in Chicago just like on a domestic flight.

I wasn’t talking about pre clearance at the airport. I was referring to US direct at the Port. I thought they’d stopped it years ago.