I just got back from a two-week trip to Ontario and Quebec. Great trip, but the immigration officers at the airport in Toronto gave me quite a grilling. The first one I talked to didn’t seem to like the fact that I said I was a student and was traveling this late in September. I explained that I was a grad student and had finished my coursework. He asked me what my dissertation topic was (!) and then told me to step aside into another room, where there were some other officers.

The Second Immigration Guy asked me exactly the same questions about my student status and where I was going to school (for some reason neither of them asked me if I had a student ID, which would surely have been the simplest way to settle things). Then he launched into a LOT of other questions about my travel plans, where I was staying, who I was going to meet in Canada (not "if" I was going to meet anybody — WHO.) I told him I wasn’t going to meet anybody. Some time later, after more questions, he asked if I was sure I wasn’t going to meet any other Americans. He also asked if I had any money and made me show him my credit and debit cards, and finally asked what I knew about Montreal, my first destination. (By this point, the adrenaline rush had pretty much turned my brain to mush, so I stammered that I didn’t know very much about Montreal, and he didn’t ask any more questions.)

I don’t really see the relevance of most of the questions he asked, but I have a feeling that there was some good old-fashioned sexism at work, and that in his eyes no Respectable Young Lady would be traveling without a companion or clear plans.

So at last he stamped my passport (on the very last page) and wrote something like this at the bottom of the stamp:

V——-030?2002 (The mystery character looks like a C or a lower-case e, but I’m thinking it might be a dyslexic 9 and I had to be out by the 30th of September? At least, that’s the only sense I can make of it. If so, it seems a bit unfair of him not to tell me so; I could easily have not noticed the stamp and innocently decided to extend my stay.)

Well, perhaps I’m paranoid, but I have a very bad feeling about the whole situation, especially since none of the other travelers I met in Canada had been through anything similar. I’m also wondering how future immigration officers will react when they see this stamp — will they assume I MUST be a troublemaker since this guy though so, or will it be a non-issue since I left on time? Has anybody else had an experience like this, either in Canada or elsewhere, and if so how did it affect your future travels?

Also, if anybody happens to know for sure what the passport stamp means, I would certainly like to find out!