The officer showed me to a room where I filled out the application, familiar to me due to the help I had received at the Anti-draft league. The form had three places for me to sign. One need only sign in one place to be considered for immigrant status. The other places were to be signed once I was assured that I had been accepted for immigrant status. To sign in all three places and not be accepted meant one could never again use this method for gaining Canadian immigrant status. This had been emphasized in the training I had received in Toronto.
The immigration officer returned to the room, sat down and reviewed the form. He asked me to sign the form in all three places. I explained to him that I wanted to be considered without signing in all three places. I told him I knew the process and the consequences if I signed in all of the places and was subsequently rejected for immigration. The man was furious with me. After I was taken to his superior I requested that I my application be withdrawn. It seemed to me that I had no choice.
The Canadian Immigration officer gave me a slip of paper to give to U. S. Customs on the other side of the bridge. The paper briefly stated that I had attempted to immigrate to Canada. With no transportation back to U. S. Customs, I was transported by the Canadian officer the short distance through no man’s land back to the U. S Customs office.
Monday morning we again looked for jobs in the newspaper and then set out for our appointment. The first thing N. Wall did was play some music, “Light my Fire” by the Doors. Sitting at her kitchen table she asked about our interests and what type of job we would look for in Toronto.
My interview was first and I told her briefly my general interests and work history. The jobs I had had; janitor, bookstore clerk, factory work, two years of college. John had some experience as a Linotype operator, besides his other semi-skilled jobs. N. Wall told us she had a place for me to apply, I called the number and set up the interview for the next day. My other task was to pick up a letter verifying for immigration that I had a job. The letter was from a church not far from the YMCA.
The next afternoon after talking to N. Wall again, I was on a bus on my way to Hamilton, Ontario. From there some folks would take me to the border into the United States and then back to Sarnia, Ontario. Sarnia was where I was going to apply for Landed Immigrant status.
Plans changed later however, the people in Sarnia who were to help me to the border were not home. Buffalo would be my point of departure. I traveled through New York state, to Buffalo opposite Kingston, Ontario. This is where I was going to apply for immigrant status. Once in Buffalo I discovered there were no busses to Kingston, Ontario. I telephone N. Wall and got more advise. N. Wall suggested that I try Peace Bridge at Buffalo rather than try to get to Kingston, Ontario. N. warned me that Peace Bridge was NOT friendly territory for immigrants. N. advised that if anything went wrong I should just withdraw my application for immigrant status.
I was on the next bus to Peace Bridge after I explained to the driver that I would be getting off the bus at Canadian immigration. It was 9:30 pm when I approached the immigration officer. I told him that I would like to apply for landed immigrant status. The immigration officer was in his fifty’s, grey hair, a hat covered his bald spot. He was not friendly to me.
Peace Bridge - New York
