Hi there, I recently travelled to Canada via the US and over the land border at Buffalo due to my eta still pending, I had little choice but to book a last minute flight and do it that way, whilst I was nervous about crossing there was no reason to be and I was waved through in under 30 seconds, however since returning back to the UK last week my ETA has come back as rejected and I am hoping to return to Toronto with my Canadian girlfriend in November this year, would I be right in saying that crossing via Buffalo by car is now a lot more complicated because of the rejected application or will it not flag up?

My other consideration was too apply for a new passport as my current one runs out next year anyway and hopefully then miss any potential bumps in the road so to speak or will my new passport still flag on the system at border control? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm sure your rejection will now be in their immigration system. I would expect the record to show your name and date of birth, so they will almost certainly ask for more information before issuing an ETA in future, or allowing you to cross the land border from the US.

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If you are to punish a man retributively you must injure him. If you are to reform him you must improve him. And men are not improved by injuries. (George Bernard Shaw)

I travelled to the US twice whilst on police bail. They do not have access to the Police National Computer.

However, whilst I've never applied for an ESTA after my conviction, an already existing one was cancelled within hours of my conviction. Their own data will show that it was cancelled. I do not plan to apply for one again, assuming that they now have in their possession all the data they require to refuse one without requiring access to UK police records.

If I have to visit the States (and I have relatives there, so it's not a distant possibility for weddings and funerals) I've already determined I'll go down the visa route and throw myself on the mercy of the embassy staff.