Backgrounder

Prescott Port of Entry

Opened in 1960, the Canada Border Services Agency's (CBSA) Prescott port of entry (POE) is located in the town of Prescott, Ontario, a historic fort town on the St. Lawrence River. Prescott is home to a beautiful waterfront and marina, and is located at the junction of two major highways. Along with convenient access to Highway 401, the town is also bordered by Highway 416, known as Veterans Memorial Highway.

It is located directly across from New York State, connected by bridge with Ogdensburg, New York with access to Highway 37. This well-positioned fort town fosters cultural and heritage tourism, and serves as a strategic location for big city business with access to eastern and western Canadian markets and New York State.

Prescott's new and modern POE facility is a 24/7 operation that accommodates high volumes of traffic and is well-equipped to respond to the flow of people and goods entering the country, allowing for efficient processing of tourists and trade. Close to 275,000 vehicles and over 560,000 travellers a year will enter Canada at this facility.

The construction of Prescott's new facility was completed in January of 2012 to maintain a smooth operation for its growing popularity. It is equipped with four Inspection Lanes and two Commercial Inspection Lanes.

The new buildings, both roughly twice as large as the former buildings, and the additional processing lanes in both commercial and traveller streams will enable the CBSA to provide better service to all its stakeholders, especially at peak times.

The facility offers fully bilingual services for commercial vessels, small vessels, commercial trucks, small airplanes, immigration facilitation, car, truck and bus clearances and low value personal goods and courier shipments.

Travellers can now plan their entry to Canada through the Prescott POE by checking border wait times (BWTs).

BWTs for the Prescott POE are also available on Twitter: @CBSA_PCT; #CBSA_PCT.