I flew down with family during the holiday from Ottawa to St Petersburg, Florida and stayed through January 1st.
Although it was Christmas break, customs and border protection seemed to be lightly staffed as we were the last flight of the day heading to the US. As with all other times – when travelling with my wife and children – we were not passed on to secondary screening. Once the border officer had taken my digital fingerprints and mug shot we were sent on our way. Quite painless. Total time through customs was less than 5 minutes.
Of note, Ottawa pre clearance has not yet implemented the automated passport control systems which have been popping up in other parts of Canada.
Glad you had a positive experience. Traveling internationally with a criminal record is never easy, but it's particularly hard to enter the United States from Canada with a criminal record due to the fact that the two countries share their criminal record databases.
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