Osoyoos, British Colombia, Canada to Oroville, Washington, USA | Customs and Immigration

Going into the US, very easy and fast, friendly officer, haven’t gone back into Canada yet

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Very easy border crossing. The border guards were unusually friendly and polite.

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Love this place

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This is a guest post from Sjoerd Bakker from a July 2014 crossing.

OSOYOOS  , British   Columbia and Osoyoos ,Washington

This full time  24/7 border crossing  is an important  tourist and commercial traffic  route  where BC Highway 97   joins almost  seamlessly into US  Highway 97. BC 3 , the Crow's Nest  Highway  running east to west across BC  also passes through Osoyoos.

Osoyoos   BC  is an interesting  sort of town , a  lakeside tourist resort at the southern extreme of the Canadian Okanagan Valley. The Okanagan is a highly developed and thickly populated valley. It has its own climate  in a rain shadow of  west side mountains, summers are warmer and drier than the other parts of BC, making it a favourite tourist and retirement area. Intensive farming   using irrigation  stretches   far northward past the big cities of Penticton and  Kelowna  to Kamloops.

Fruit orchards and vineyards   cover the hillsides  if pumps can bring water , giving at times an impression  of being in California or the Mediterranean region.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9lUHfceMYQ2R2g1dW9jcXZUZHVHaGl5QmI5cHp4bi0zTVJB/edit?usp=sharing

Remnants of the original arid- climate vegetation type , sagebrush , antelope brush, cactus and rare grass varieties , are found only in uphill  isolated pockets , sadly.

On the US  side   border area development is less intense as it is considered to be merely an outlier of the much more developed  Columbia River  basin apple growing  district  to the south which dominates  the  American market.

The border crossing of Osoyoos is  simple and   easy to negotiate from either direction. The border terminal is  a collaborative effort  with the US and Canadian  customs offices  designed for easy flow of traffic  in  a  kink in the road.

Simply drive the highway and  follow the few direction signs into the proper lanes to the interrogating duty officer  at the country you wish to enter. Lineups are rare but may occur  briefly during vacation weekends.

Duty free shops are only for people LEAVING the country going into the USA. Canada Customs entry as you come from the USA side, simple drive through setup:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9lUHfceMYQ2aVJEazREY2tTWlVLWXg0U3dhZF9UWEtaQ1hz/edit?usp=sharing

Canada Customs terminal Canadian side showing exit.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9lUHfceMYQ2dHhtVG1WOVhMNURQUkJaaFN4WU9POXZZMUs0/edit?usp=sharing

Warning Sign:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9lUHfceMYQ2a2tfMmZkTUhjTVVpaGppWTJNTHQ1WmFHNGM4/edit?usp=sharing

Just in case you thought you might simply wander south through the waterside path:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9lUHfceMYQ2bkJocmdUbHRwMGd6RWlWWDUxTTVycmpMMzVV/edit?usp=sharing

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