Some landing notes:
We almost had trouble about the car!
At the booth you drive by, we were told we'd have to import the car then but could change the plates later. I said that's not what we had read but she was firm about what she said. I stayed polite and calm (uh, outwardly, inside I was freaking out that I was wrong) and said we'd talk to the people inside at customs, where we were already going to go. She was very nice though and we joked about not carrying cash when she asked how much we were bringing, because I wasn't sure if it was the checking if we needed to declare having over $10k or if it was a check on our settlement funds (in which case "uhh, $50ish?" would have been a problem!). Once we were inside and were called up, we brought the car issue up and the woman there looked at us like we'd said something crazy lol and was like "no, you can't import the car and then use it in the US, you'll just do that when you make the actual move." So that was a relief. I wanted to ask about the next time we go up in January but by the time I had a chance the woman from the booth was right there taking an indoor shift! So, uh, we'll wing that.
Otherwise the landing itself was fine. Do account for it taking a while. They took our papers back and made copies and I don't know what else but we were probably there for at least 45 minutes. Luckily the others waiting were very nice and one gave us tips about Toronto and another offered to let our daughter pet her dog. There was also a TV playing a soccer match. We had some discussion with the border officer helping us about if we should stamp the B4s then or when we moved, and we asked to just stamp them then because I'd heard later could be a problem. She did think we might have a problem if we didn't have an address to give for our PR card but another officer by her said it was no problem to give an address later (like I'd read) and they'd rather wait on a permanent address than use a friend or relative's address (or an airbnb address, like I was thinking I might be stuck giving and then changing after asking a Canadian friend for theirs!). We don't even need the PR cards anytime soon so we have no problem waiting. From what I've read, we'll have to reapply
for the cards and pay a small fee if we wait over 180 days to give an address but we should have something by then, or if not I'll use a friend's address.
Once out of there, we realized our TravelPass option with Verizon wasn't working. I called them with what signal could get from the US to Windsor and we worked it out. In short you have to activate roaming, change the network options to include GSM, then restart the phone and a few minutes after the restart, it should start picking up Canadian networks. We had activated roaming and tried different network options before but hadn't thought to try restarting after (and then waiting, it takes a good 2 minutes after to work).
The next morning we opened our bank account, but we couldn't put money in just yet and since we hadn't gotten SINs yet and didn't have a Canadian address, we couldn't start the credit card or activate overdraft protection (we had planned to get SINs before the bank appointment but we all slept in). We have two years to apply for the credit card with the newcomer's package so no big deal, we'll go back when we're ready and should get it without a problem. We'll also pick up checks next time we're around. They're ordered and will be held at the bank as long as needed. We got temporary web and phone banking pass codes and tried setting up a transfer from TD US to TD Canada once back at the airbnb and the sites kept sending me in circles. I finally called the help line for cross-border banking (call using the TD app, you probably can't get the TD Canada app at least on a US phone btw but each lets you skip waiting). They were SO helpful. It turns out you can only set up transfers online for Canada to the US - the other way you have to call in. The first call takes some time to set up, but future calls should only be about 6 minutes each I was told. Don't forget to turn off paper statements on your TD US account! We transferred all but $101 to stay above our min balance requirement and the man helping me reminded me because he's seen other customers get maintenance fees after doing what we did and ending up just under the min after the $1/month paper statement fee.
Getting SINs was simple. We presented our passports and COPRs, waited about 10 minutes (after being 9th in line, go Service Canada!), and were called back. We had to fill out forms with parents' names so that was all confirmed and we got printouts with the numbers at the end. We needed Canadian addresses but were told they don't send anything so the airbnb one was fine. Okie dokie. US phone numbers were okay though so we just used those.
So far in general everyone's been unbelievably nice, and we're loving Toronto. The subway was very clean and nice. Between how much time we (don't) have and not having an easy way to put down a deposit, I doubt we'll leave here with a lease so we'll probably do a longer trip later in January to hopefully finalize something.
