you definitely need the visa to go thru' USA if you are holding the HK passport.. even you have maple leaf card, you need to get US visa no matter you are going there by land, sea or plane...
yes we applied the US visa before we left HK... it is much easier to get the approval especially you show your maple leaf card to them, no other financial supporting required...
even for the transit - as I heard from the radio, if you don't have the visa. then you will need to have the escort secruity to tag along where you are going, even you go to bathroom..
guess it is the "after the 911 impact event"
Chiuyuen,
Maple leave card is a new ID for permanent resident which is not apply for Canadian citizen. We have to give it back once we sworn at Canadian citizen.
As far as I know, even transit you need to have visa. 楓葉card is not a valid document to travel overseas as it is only useful when you back to Canada. Going to US via land has to have visa or having citizen card which is not equal to 楓葉card.