If you are denied entry to a country at the airport, can you chose to fly to another destination?

Question

I am Canadian and my wife doesn't have an actual passport but a Document of Identity from Hong Kong. We both currently live in San Francisco and have a TN and TD visa. We would like to visit my family in Montreal for Christmas and tried to apply for a visa for my wife but was rejected because she apparently "doesn't need one" (that was the reason given).

However, we are worried that the Immigration Officer who processed the request mistook my wife's Document of Identity for an actual Hong Kong passport and made a mistake by claiming she doesn't need a visa. I tried calling the Canadian Consulate and they seem really confused about the question and haven't given us a clear answer.

Anyways, we would still like to attempt to travel to Montreal for Christmas and would like to travel to New York instead if my wife is denied entry to Canada at the airport.

If she is denied entry, can she chose to hop on a plane to New York instead of San Francisco?

If she is forced to take a plane to San Francisco, does she have to pay for the ticket?

Answer 1

San Francisco

Montreal

New York

I would swap the order:

San Francisco

New York

Montreal

Take a cross continental flight to New York and fly up to Montreal from there. If you are refused, you are returned to New York and you are done.

Answer 2

If she is refused entry, then the airline is supposed to put her on the next available flight back from whence she came. She doesn't have the luxury to choose as she pleases. Perhaps if there is a New York flight departing sooner than the next next SFO flight, you might get permission to take that (since both are in the country of embarkation).

If you return to SFO, then the airline will likely apply the return portion of your airfare to that trip and call it even. If you manage to get permission to reroute to New York the airline may try to charge you full fare for the "new" route.

Answer 3

Based on @Ari Brodsky's comment: If you get problems they are more likely to occur during departure and not at arrival. Airlines are heavily fined if they carry passengers that are are refused entry, so they go out of their way to check your papers BEFORE you board. It's way more common to be denied boarding than being denied entry.

Answer 4

Normally when you are denied entry due to inadmissibility, you are sent back to your port of embarkation (if you are still eligible) or to your country of citizenship.

For the costs of the return ticket, there are a few areas that govern this. The oldest rule is the Warsaw Convention which stated that the carrier is responsible to transport the passenger back; but it didn't specify if it could charge for this.

It is known that governments often fine airlines that carry passengers that are inadmissible; and each airline has their own policy on how they deal with this.

Normally, what happens is:

1. Return portion of the fare is applied in full and the passenger doesn't pay anything (part of the reason why two way tickets are sometimes required for short term temporary visits).

2. The passenger is removed via the first available flight to their port of embarkation (if admissible) or the country of their citizenship. You are usually detained until your flight, then escorted to the airplane where the border officials hand over your passport to the flight attendants.

3. You usually do not have a choice as to which flight to depart back on (see point #1 for return tickets) and it is entirely up to the airline to charge you extra, or to have to pay the "full fare" for a return to another destination. As your departure record is now part of the removal procedures/paperwork - you may not even have the chance to pick the airline or timing / route. Depends entirely on how serious / friendly is the nature of your deportation.