Canada to the US Customs

[Doug]

I'm going up Colorado, Roberval Quebec, and back to Colorado. I have
the phone number for a central Canadian Customs, but don't have a
central US Customs phone number. Does anyone know what it is? I realize
I call Canadian Flight Service and file a Canadian Flight plan into a
US airport that has Customs. But do I need the phone number of each
specific US Customs Office? Surely there must be a central number?
Thanks,
Doug

[john smith]

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/toolbox/ports/

Doug wrote:
> I'm going up Colorado, Roberval Quebec, and back to Colorado. I have
> the phone number for a central Canadian Customs, but don't have a
> central US Customs phone number. Does anyone know what it is? I realize
> I call Canadian Flight Service and file a Canadian Flight plan into a
> US airport that has Customs. But do I need the phone number of each
> specific US Customs Office? Surely there must be a central number?
> Thanks,
> Doug
>

[Paul Tomblin]

In a previous article, "Doug" > said:
>US airport that has Customs. But do I need the phone number of each
>specific US Customs Office? Surely there must be a central number?

Let me put it this way: If US Customs set up a central number, they'd
make it a 800 number that you couldn't dial from outside the country.

I remember the first time coming back from Canada calling the numbers
listed for my home airport (Rochester NY) in the AOPA airport directory,
and all of them were either unanswered on the weekend or, in the case of
800 numbers, uncallable from Canada. That was a fun hour trying to find a
number that worked and was answered and where the person who answered
could tell me who I was really supposed to call. (Turns out that you're
supposed to call the Peace Bridge customs station in Buffalo NY).

--
Paul Tomblin > http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
'Usenet "belongs" to those who administer the hosts of which it is comprised'
- RFC 1036, draft revision

[gwengler]

Good luck with that one...

Try this one: http://www.faa.gov/ats/aat/ifim/GPF/GPFapttc.html

There is a central number (800)621-3136; however, that's not much of a
help since you are strongly advised to call the officer of the port of
entry where you're planning to land. Here's another central number
that has worked for me in the past to get a local customs number
(407)975-1740. Every time I go to the US I have to go to five or so
numbers until I finally get one that works. Often a good idea is to
call the FBO on the field and ask them for the customs number. Call
ahead at least one workday (9-5) ahead to make sure that the number
works.

Gerd

john smith wrote:
> http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/toolbox/ports/
>
> Doug wrote:
> > I'm going up Colorado, Roberval Quebec, and back to Colorado. I have
> > the phone number for a central Canadian Customs, but don't have a
> > central US Customs phone number. Does anyone know what it is? I realize
> > I call Canadian Flight Service and file a Canadian Flight plan into a
> > US airport that has Customs. But do I need the phone number of each
> > specific US Customs Office? Surely there must be a central number?
> > Thanks,
> > Doug
> >

[Icebound]

"Paul Tomblin" > wrote in message
...
> In a previous article, "Doug" > said:
>>US airport that has Customs. But do I need the phone number of each
>>specific US Customs Office? Surely there must be a central number?
>
> Let me put it this way: If US Customs set up a central number, they'd
> make it a 800 number that you couldn't dial from outside the country.
>

Many forward-looking American organizations/companies actually *do* realize
that we exist, and that Canada-US traffic/trade/whatever is quite extensive,
and they *do* set up 1-800 numbers that work from both countries.

It is peculiar that the Government of the USA would not be one of them.

[john smith]

It was either last year of the year before at AirVenture that I spoke
with the person responsible for posting the telephone numbers to the cbp
website. I explained how difficult was to find the contact telephone
numbers on the previous US Customs website.
It is now easier to find and hopefully kept up-to-date.
I would like to see it as a complete pdf file for download, although the
copy and paste text is easier to compile and format to each individuals
tastes.

Paul Tomblin wrote:
> Let me put it this way: If US Customs set up a central number, they'd
> make it a 800 number that you couldn't dial from outside the country.

[Brian Burger]

On Fri, 17 Jun 2005, Icebound wrote:

>
> "Paul Tomblin" > wrote in message
> ...
> > In a previous article, "Doug" > said:
> >>US airport that has Customs. But do I need the phone number of each
> >>specific US Customs Office? Surely there must be a central number?
> >
> > Let me put it this way: If US Customs set up a central number, they'd
> > make it a 800 number that you couldn't dial from outside the country.
> >
>
> Many forward-looking American organizations/companies actually *do* realize
> that we exist, and that Canada-US traffic/trade/whatever is quite extensive,
> and they *do* set up 1-800 numbers that work from both countries.
>
> It is peculiar that the Government of the USA would not be one of them.

Before we get all haughty, consider that Canada Custom's CANPASS number (a
1-800-#) does not work from celphones in the US.

It works fine from celphones in Canada, and from landlines in either
country, but not from a Canadian celphone on ROAM in the US.

Now, this is probably a celphone thing rather than a Canada Customs thing,
but still it's damned irritating.

But trying to hunt down US Customs phone numbers is even more
irritating...

[Paul Tomblin]

In a previous article, Brian Burger > said:
>Before we get all haughty, consider that Canada Custom's CANPASS number (a
>1-800-#) does not work from celphones in the US.

Maybe if you dialed the right number, you'd be able to get through. (It's
1-888-CANPASS, not 1-800-CANPASS).

>It works fine from celphones in Canada, and from landlines in either
>country, but not from a Canadian celphone on ROAM in the US.

It also works fine from US cellphones in the US and Canada.

--
Paul Tomblin > http://xcski.com/blogs/pt/
Quando omni flunkus moritati (when all else fails play dead)

[Andrew Sarangan]

It worked fine for me from cellphones, both ROAM as well as network.



Brian Burger > wrote in
ia.tc.ca:

> On Fri, 17 Jun 2005, Icebound wrote:
>
>>
>> "Paul Tomblin" > wrote in message
>> ...
>> > In a previous article, "Doug" > said:
>> >>US airport that has Customs. But do I need the phone number of each
>> >>specific US Customs Office? Surely there must be a central number?
>> >
>> > Let me put it this way: If US Customs set up a central number,
>> > they'd make it a 800 number that you couldn't dial from outside the
>> > country.
>> >
>>
>> Many forward-looking American organizations/companies actually *do*
>> realize that we exist, and that Canada-US traffic/trade/whatever is
>> quite extensive, and they *do* set up 1-800 numbers that work from
>> both countries.
>>
>> It is peculiar that the Government of the USA would not be one of
>> them.
>
> Before we get all haughty, consider that Canada Custom's CANPASS
> number (a 1-800-#) does not work from celphones in the US.
>
> It works fine from celphones in Canada, and from landlines in either
> country, but not from a Canadian celphone on ROAM in the US.
>
> Now, this is probably a celphone thing rather than a Canada Customs
> thing, but still it's damned irritating.
>
> But trying to hunt down US Customs phone numbers is even more
> irritating...

[Brian Burger]

On Sat, 18 Jun 2005, Andrew Sarangan wrote:

>
> It worked fine for me from cellphones, both ROAM as well as network.

Interesting; I know it's not just my cellphone, so the trouble might be
with whoever runs the cel networks in the northern Washington/Puget Sound
area, and/or one of the Canadian cel companies.

It might also have been fixed; the last time I tried Canpass from a cel
(and it didn't work) was over a year ago. These days I just track down a
landline.

And Paul, I do know it's 1-888-etc, I just posted it as 800 because that's
still the generic term for all the toll-free codes...

Brian.

[aaronw]

On Fri, 17 Jun 2005 11:17:46 +0000 (UTC),
(Paul Tomblin) wrote:

>In a previous article, "Doug" > said:
>>US airport that has Customs. But do I need the phone number of each
>>specific US Customs Office? Surely there must be a central number?
>
>Let me put it this way: If US Customs set up a central number, they'd
>make it a 800 number that you couldn't dial from outside the country.
>

I would throw a link here to
http://puck.nether.net/netops/800nums.html , and in fact I will, but
it looks like someone decided in their infinite wisdom to discontinue
the support of this...

aw