Haha, yeah, I've lived in other middle eastern countries as well. I was actually thinking of doing a soft landing as it will take time to wrap up my work and all
That’s a good idea, once you arrive here at the airport, mention an address of a friend or relative of yours for them to send you the PR card and then ask your friends/relatives to courier you the cards to Dubai.
Use this soft landing to:
-Get your landing paper and SIN# (that you can get at the airport itself once you complete the immigration formalities)
-apply for driving license(if ur arriving in Toronto) G1 (knowledge test) (get a driver history(if u have a license there) from RTA and have it attested by Ministry of Foreign Affairs(Al Manara municipality building there is a kiosk)
- open a bank account(i would recommend TD bank)
- Apply for OHIP (Healthcard) for self and accompanying members
Before you leave Dubai for good, get a 1 or 2 years bank statement from EmiratesNBD as well...