Niagara Falls Travel Forum

I am a US citizen, I am leaving for Niagra Falls next week. I am bringing my birth certificate and my drivers license. I am worried that once I get over to Canada, if something happens to my paper work, I won't be able to get back into the US. Does this ever happen? I was really excited about my trip but now I am actually feeling scared. Any suggestions?

If something happened to your paperwork, you will still exist.

Therefore you would be able to prove your identity by referring the authorities to your birthdate/place, employer, family etc etc etc. Of course you would be able to get back....Canada won't want to keep you if you don't want to be there! :-)

Why not make photocopies of all your documents? Store them in different places when you travel (case/purse/hotel room/whatever). You could scan them too, then email them to yourself. Then you can access them anywhere there is internet access, should you need to.

Absolutely no need to worry at all, so don't! :-)

Thank you so much, for all of your advice. I feel so much better. I have heard that it is harder to get back into the US than it is to get into Canada. I just wanted to make sure I could get back in. :)

You will be absolutely fine........enjoy your trip!

I realise it's too late for this particular trip, but if you were to get a passport, you could travel anywhere in the world without having to worry about losing your birth certificate!

You can get certified copies of those documents through the county clerk/ recorder's office, or in some cases a notary of the public. You might check to see if these "raised seal" copies will suffice for the border crosiing though. If so, you should have no reason to travel with the original documents. Gary

You can take a look at the folloeng web site: http://travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc/cbpmc_2223.html. Gary

following, lol. Gary

Photocopy those documents twice. Leave a copy somewhere separate to the originals (is in your car or luggage). And leave a copy with someone who can fax them readily if need be.

Cheers
Col & Sue

I was going to suggest the "making 2 copies" idea as well.

Naturally, if you were to lose all of your identification, the first thing to do is contact the US embassy office that is closest to you in Canada. If your documents were stolen, you would contact the RCMP to report this, and they would put you in contact with the consulate office. If your documents were lost, the RCMP would not need to be involved. In this case, you could find the appropriate phone number for the US embassy in the phone book. They would then look after verification of who you are and how to get back home.