Old DUIs could keep Taylor Swift fans from Eras Tour in Canada

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Amid Facebook-group discussions about friendship-bracelet-making, outfits, and places to eat in Vancouver during the final shows of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour this weekend, Megan Flaspohler noticed some new and urgent kinds of posts in recent days.

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She said one fan mentioned that they had a felony conviction and asked whether they would have a problem entering Canada from the United States. Then, Flaspohler said, several others said they had been cited for driving under the influence — often not a felony. Would that keep them out of Canada?

“Literally in the last two days it’s been like, ‘Wait, wait, wait, wait, I didn’t know this was a problem,’” said Flaspohler, a Texas resident who has tickets for the tour’s two closing shows, on Saturday and Sunday. “It’s just kind of exploded in this group.”

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For people with criminal convictions or drunken-driving records, it’s long been a problem. Canadian law says people who commit a crime involving impaired driving may not be allowed to enter the country, regardless of where the crime happened. Canada’s drunken-driving rules became stricter in 2018.

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Foreign travellers who have committed offenses since then can visit only if they apply for and are granted criminal rehabilitation or a temporary resident permit (with a fee of around $170). For earlier offenses, the rules vary depending on the person’s record.

Marisa Feil, a Montreal-based attorney who works on post-DUI travel to Canada, said she’s helped dozens of Swifties get approval to cross the border for last month’s Toronto and this weekend’s Vancouver concerts, starting when concert dates were announced last year.

Feil said it can take up to 18 months to process a criminal rehabilitation, in her experience. She says temporary resident permits usually can take three to six months. But travellers can also bring an application to the border and hope an agent will grant them permission in real time – the only option left for some people trying to make it to the three shows that start Friday.

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“Bring a properly prepared TRP application to the border, smile, be kind and hope for the best!” Feil advised in an email.

Feil has made a series of TikToks aimed at helping American Swifties with DUIs or other criminal records — to the chagrin of some commenters. She said she has worked with performers, athletes, business travellers and others who need to enter the country despite their records.

“Thanks for getting morally bankrupt individuals into our country so they can see our limited tour dates!” one person wrote, including an eyeroll emoji. “Doing the lord’s work.”

The sheer number of Americans travelling to the Vancouver shows has been a sore point even for famously polite Canadians, Feil said.

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“These Americans are coming and they’re taking our tickets,” she said Canadians have complained. “Then when they found out that all these Americans have DUIs, they’re like, ‘What on Earth is happening?’”

For Swift fans, the three concerts in Vancouver represent the final chance to experience the tour that kicked off in early 2023, crossed 10 eras of her career and spanned five continents. A batch of cheap tickets went on sale early last week for seats behind the stage, giving more fans the opportunity to attend the shows with little notice.

That led to an uptick of questions on social media about passport requirements, travel arrangements – and DUI records, said Flaspohler, whose tweet about the topic has been viewed more than 2 million times.

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“They just bought, and they’re kind of thinking about the repercussions,” she said. “People really, truly did not think it through when buying these tickets.”

Flaspohler, a former teacher who is getting her master’s degree in school counselling, said some people posted that they were going to sell their tickets, but others said they would bring paperwork to the border and try to get through.

Melissa Rivett, 39, said she was already aware of the border rules as a resident of Washington state. She is attending Friday’s and Sunday’s shows and said she’s seen the DUI conversation pop up, both in a Facebook group she moderates and the one Flaspohler referenced.

She said the issue has been more prevalent in recent days but had also come up much earlier.

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“A few people posted before that, and I think they posted in a good enough time frame that they were able to contact the Border Patrol and figure out what they needed to do on their end,” she said. But some have been coming to the realization that they or friends who they planned to travel with might not be able to go.

Rivett, who works in project administration and event security, said some of the responses to people’s questions have been mean-spirited. But others have been helpful but honest.

“Why do we want to be mean right before the biggest concert of the last two years?” she said. “I think it’s just kind of a reality check for so many people.”

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