I am not sure you need to book appointment in Saskatchewan or Manitoba. I think they have less traffic
Landing in Kitchener-Waterloo local CIC office
- Thread starter vsoftco
- Start date
Did anyone used Kitchener office for inland Landing? I called CIC on Tuesday for appointment and he said the same usual thing that Kitchener office takes about 4 weeks.
I am thinking to wait for a week before I plan to go for border crossing. I called on October 31st for the appointment request so may be if don't get any news till 10th of this month, I will go for border crossing too.
Make sure to look for information about flagpole in this forum. I went to Niagara bridge and they were accepting just a limited number of people by day to flagpole. I had to go to Sarnia the next weekend because Niagara was too busy.
If I decide to go for flagpole, I will choose Sarnia as well. Could you tell me more about your experience at Sarnia border. How long it took and what documents they asked for?
Please, take a look at this thread. I put my landing experience there, and also it could be useful to other people in the same situation.
https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/rainbow-bridge-pr-landing-failed.501556/
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Hi Guys,
I know the question was asked 3/4 years ago, but thought I'll give my experience from Mar-2020 as it could help someone else who's reading the blog.
I received by COPR by mail in the middle of Feb 2020 and was contemplating whether to do a flagpoling or request for an appointment at the local IRCC office. As soon as I got my COPR, I called the IRCC helpdesk and requested for an appointment. They mentioned that the appointment will be at Kitchener IRCC office as that was where my residence wall. This call was not for booking an appointment, but a request for an appointment instead. Based on this request, someone from IRCC was supposed to email me by 4 weeks about the actual appointment date. I could have done this through a web form instead.
I waited for few days after that and was reading the online forums and it looked like this takes long time, 4 weeks to respond and maybe a couple of months after that for the actual interview/landing at the local IRCC office. So I started thinking about flagpoling at the Rainbow bridge as my wife was needing the PR soon for her studies. Again, based on inputs from different people and online forums, it looked like the customs at the flagpoling locations process only a certain number of people every day and ask others to return again if they reach the target for the day, so that was not covincing. More importantly there was no clarity on whether the flagpoling at the US border would count as an entry denied or not. People say it doesn't count as entry denied, but I didnt want to take the risk as it looked like the customs officeres at the US border get your passsport and enter something into their system. Many people say that isn't a big deal.
Any way, by this time, it was about a week since I requested for an appointment by phone to IRCC and hadn't got any response. My wife's college applications were on hold as we were waiting for the PR and waiting anymore wasn't an option. So I put in an other request to IRCC, this time using their web form and explained our situation. Basically, it was a letter stating that getting a PR soon was very improtant for us for the college applications and it would help to enroll as a domestic student due to the high international fees without a PR.
IRCC replied the next day (within 24 hours) with an appointment 1 week from that day. I thought that was pretty impressive and pleasently surprised. We went to the Kitchener IRCC office on the appointment day, the wait time was probably 10 mins as there were two people ahead of us. The IRCC officer was super friendly and we did our landing in 15 minutes. Only our passports and the COPR documents were asked for us. But make sure to take all other important documents with you as Work Permits, address proof, employment documents, financial proof, etc just in case, even if they don't ask. After that, they provided a new COPR document which is signed and dated by the immigation officer. We were told to wait for 4 weeks before we get the PR card by mail, but the new COPR is as good as the PR card for everything except travel outside the country. I think even travel is possible, but it's safer with the PR card.
Immediately after the interview, we went to the Service Ontario and Service Canada nearby to renew or OHIP and SIN number and went to the bank afterwards to update the new SIN number. Over all it was a fruitful day. Thanks to IRCC.
Without the request for expedition, it could have taken months, but I'm glad they expedited it.
I wanted to share this so it could help someone in the future if they are in a hurry. But please refrain from doing a false expeition request. If everyone started requesting expedited process, I fear they might blanket stop such processing requests. Other than that, above is the manner in which I got the PR. Hope it helps. All the best to everyone.
I know the question was asked 3/4 years ago, but thought I'll give my experience from Mar-2020 as it could help someone else who's reading the blog.
I received by COPR by mail in the middle of Feb 2020 and was contemplating whether to do a flagpoling or request for an appointment at the local IRCC office. As soon as I got my COPR, I called the IRCC helpdesk and requested for an appointment. They mentioned that the appointment will be at Kitchener IRCC office as that was where my residence wall. This call was not for booking an appointment, but a request for an appointment instead. Based on this request, someone from IRCC was supposed to email me by 4 weeks about the actual appointment date. I could have done this through a web form instead.
I waited for few days after that and was reading the online forums and it looked like this takes long time, 4 weeks to respond and maybe a couple of months after that for the actual interview/landing at the local IRCC office. So I started thinking about flagpoling at the Rainbow bridge as my wife was needing the PR soon for her studies. Again, based on inputs from different people and online forums, it looked like the customs at the flagpoling locations process only a certain number of people every day and ask others to return again if they reach the target for the day, so that was not covincing. More importantly there was no clarity on whether the flagpoling at the US border would count as an entry denied or not. People say it doesn't count as entry denied, but I didnt want to take the risk as it looked like the customs officeres at the US border get your passsport and enter something into their system. Many people say that isn't a big deal.
Any way, by this time, it was about a week since I requested for an appointment by phone to IRCC and hadn't got any response. My wife's college applications were on hold as we were waiting for the PR and waiting anymore wasn't an option. So I put in an other request to IRCC, this time using their web form and explained our situation. Basically, it was a letter stating that getting a PR soon was very improtant for us for the college applications and it would help to enroll as a domestic student due to the high international fees without a PR.
IRCC replied the next day (within 24 hours) with an appointment 1 week from that day. I thought that was pretty impressive and pleasently surprised. We went to the Kitchener IRCC office on the appointment day, the wait time was probably 10 mins as there were two people ahead of us. The IRCC officer was super friendly and we did our landing in 15 minutes. Only our passports and the COPR documents were asked for us. But make sure to take all other important documents with you as Work Permits, address proof, employment documents, financial proof, etc just in case, even if they don't ask. After that, they provided a new COPR document which is signed and dated by the immigation officer. We were told to wait for 4 weeks before we get the PR card by mail, but the new COPR is as good as the PR card for everything except travel outside the country. I think even travel is possible, but it's safer with the PR card.
Immediately after the interview, we went to the Service Ontario and Service Canada nearby to renew or OHIP and SIN number and went to the bank afterwards to update the new SIN number. Over all it was a fruitful day. Thanks to IRCC.
Without the request for expedition, it could have taken months, but I'm glad they expedited it.
I wanted to share this so it could help someone in the future if they are in a hurry. But please refrain from doing a false expeition request. If everyone started requesting expedited process, I fear they might blanket stop such processing requests. Other than that, above is the manner in which I got the PR. Hope it helps. All the best to everyone.