Some waited more than 8 hours to cross.
INTERNATIONAL FALLS, Minn. — U.S. residents eager to head north into Canada wasted little time Monday, Aug.9, with the border open for the first time in 17 months, causing a massive lineup miles long. The line to get from International Falls, Minn., into Fort Frances, Ontario, was several miles long early Monday morning on the first day COVID-19-vaccinated U.S. residents could enter the country for nonessential travel since March 2020. Hundreds of cars and trucks, many pulling boats on trailers, waited for more than eight hours to get into Canada. The Canada Border Services Agency estimated that it could take anywhere from 10 to 40 minutes to clear each vehicle through customs with border officers strictly enforcing vaccination documentation and requirements to have appropriate paperwork and the new ArriveCan app border entry documentation. Tricia Heibel, president of the International Falls Chamber of Commerce, who has an office on the road that leads across the Rainy River and into Fort Frances, said he’s never seen anything like it before.
