@Michelle

I just got word form a client who went on Sunday, but just called me today, Rainbow Bridge would not take his waiver application.

So that is 2 clients, one on Sunday, one on Tuesday, saying they are not taking waiver right now because of government shutdown.

All, I spoke to Raymond, MT POE about my client from yesterday, this seems to be another matter. There were inexperienced Officers working and so my client will go back :(.

The good news, is that the Officer I spoke to confirmed that they are accepting the I-192 applications, although they have very limited staff to do this, and to call ahead instead of assuming that experienced personal will be there to assist people.

The Officer did advise that Head Office is down to "skeleton" staffing, and processing of I-192 is going to be delayed up to 2-3 months longer then normal. So I will be advising clients that it may take up to 15 months for a regular waiver at this time.

So, I recommend to anyone, start your waiver now, as the backlog will only get worse as time goes by.

@John Rogers, I sent a few clients to Regway, MT POE last week, and a that time they were still accepting waiver applications. However, yesterday, I sent a client to the same place, and the officers"refused" to accept his application, telling him that his convictions did not warrant applying for a Waiver. Although, he has been previously denied. I am thinking they may have done this "just because they did not want to do the work". I am going to phone down today to see if they are still accepting applications. I will update this site ASAP and please keep us updated of any news you hear. I am getting worried!!!

@Ken Scott, any updates or changes with your clients?

i will post this here for now.

I had a client yesterday at 3:30 go to the Rainbow Bridge (Niagara Falls Ontario) to hand in his waiver. They let him in and he sat for 45 minutes, just to be told that they would not take his waiver because of the government shutdown.

A couple of things:

1.) First incident like this I have heard about
2.) He is going to try another border closer to his home (Sarnia) today
3.) They let him in to the building, which means the border guy thought they WERE still taking waivers, it was the 'inside guy' who told him no
4.) The client did not have the time to wait an hour and go back in (my suggestion)

Anyone else heard/seen any incident like this? It happened on Tuesday January 16th, 2019.

Hey SJNB, did you ever figure this out? I'm in SJ too and am wondering what my best move is.

Here you go:

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/admission-forms/form-i-192-form-i-212-and-form-i-824-designated-ports-entry

Halifax Robert L. Stanfield International Airport
1 Bell Boulevard (Level 2)
Enfield, Nova Scotia, Canada B2T 1K2
(902) 873-7780 (as Tim mentioned above)

Calais Port of Entry
3 Customs Street
Calais, ME 04619
Phone: (207) 904-3001

Houlton Port of Entry
27 Customs Loop
Houlton, ME 04730
Phone: (207) 532-2131 x 0
Fax: (207) 532-4153

To be sure that you get the best selection of appointments, I would probably go with the Houlton, Maine port of entry since they would accommodate the most traffic as it is the start of Interstate 95. But you never know on the other 2, and they don't list their hours for waiver processing as they do for the ports in the Buffalo Field Office area.

Halifax only does 2 per week I believe and are booked
quite far ahead ( 6 months!)...I think you can get done at border anytime...

I'd phone Halifax pre-clearance (902-873-7780) and ask if they have a wicket to process US Entry Waivers. They probably do it there, as they do it at most other pre-clearance locations.