Greyhound - wait time at the border

[et3rn1ty]

Hi we plan to go to seattle by greyhound tomorrow(Sunday) departing at 8 15 am. How long does it take to cross the border usually on sunday morning? the estimate time of arrival provided by greyhound is 11 50. We have to catch a cruise leaving at 4pm at the port (check in starts after 12 until 3pm i believe). Would you recommend taking this greyhound or should I leave earlier? Im afraid I can wait as long as 2 hours just to cross the border and I dont want to miss the cruise
Any advice?

[et3rn1ty]

Im leaving from vancouver by the way

[matdwyer]

Hi we plan to go to seattle by greyhound tomorrow(Sunday) departing at 8 15 am. How long does it take to cross the border usually on sunday morning? the estimate time of arrival provided by greyhound is 11 50. We have to catch a cruise leaving at 4pm at the port (check in starts after 12 until 3pm i believe). Would you recommend taking this greyhound or should I leave earlier? Im afraid I can wait as long as 2 hours just to cross the border and I dont want to miss the cruise
Any advice?

I think it really depends on if you get questionable people on your bus... any bus could take hours or could go through in 20 minutes...

[opendoor]

Hi we plan to go to seattle by greyhound tomorrow(Sunday) departing at 8 15 am. How long does it take to cross the border usually on sunday morning? the estimate time of arrival provided by greyhound is 11 50. We have to catch a cruise leaving at 4pm at the port (check in starts after 12 until 3pm i believe). Would you recommend taking this greyhound or should I leave earlier? Im afraid I can wait as long as 2 hours just to cross the border and I dont want to miss the cruise
Any advice?

I've done it once and the whole bus load basically flew through the border. Each person was only asked 3 or 4 questions by the border guards and there were 6 or 7 of them, so it went pretty quickly. The whole process probably took 10-15 minutes.

However, if you get one questionable person the bus, that can delay things. That said, I think the border guards are somewhat sensitive to the time constraints of a bus. If they're unsure about a person, I'm fairly sure they'd just deny them entry to the country or have them catch the next bus through rather than hold the bus up for hours and waste everyone's time. I know if you're refused entry while on a bus you have to wait and catch the next one back to your point of origin. I assume the same applies if they want to hold a person to do a detailed background check or whatever. They probably hold them until the next bus comes through.

[sillysimms]

I've never crossed the border in a bus from Vancouver, but have done it a couple times in Ontario. Every time other than once, we passed through fairly quickly with the border officials just coming on the bus and checking everyone's documentation and asking a couple questions.

One time however we were held up for 2 hours. There was one person taken off the bus and was off the bus for 2 hours. The bus waited. 2 hours later, the person returned and we proceeded through. Never found out what the problem was, but like others have said, i guess it all depends on who is on the bus and if there are particular problems with anyone on the bus.

To be cautious, I'd take the earliest bus possible. Rather be early than late.