Travel Restrictions - Outland - just got approved and CoPR, when can I come?

[Western Mountain Man]

Of course. The 14 day will be no problem. The hotel quarantine looks like it will cost in the range of $2,000 from what I've read so far. Anyone recently gone through this and can confirm?

Can read some of the experiences and opinions on this thread.
Choose your quarantine hotel wisely. Cheaper is not the best !

https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/any-new-information-on-the-latest-announced-travel-restrictions-please-post-here.719971/

 

[armoured]

No need to have your marriage booklets translated and they are not required for travel to Canada. Bring them with you and show your friends if you like.
Immigration will not ask to see them upon entry. You have passport and COPR

No opinion on this but I would note may be useful to have in Canada and possibly easier to do before arriving.

 

[Western Mountain Man]

No opinion on this but I would note may be useful to have in Canada and possibly easier to do before arriving.

Sure, bring them with you if you like.
They are not recognized in Canada and not required for travel. Most officials wouldn't even know what they are.

 

[gtd1986]

thanks for the replies!

 

[lhr93]

Hi, we are almost in the same situation as you. My husband already received PPR, we are just waiting for the COPR to arrive now.
Question: The Canadian gov site says you must prove you intend to stay longer than 15 days.
Anyone know how in the world to "prove" this?

 

[armoured]

Hi, we are almost in the same situation as you. My husband already received PPR, we are just waiting for the COPR to arrive now.
Question: The Canadian gov site says you must prove you intend to stay longer than 15 days.
Anyone know how in the world to "prove" this?

If you're arriving with a quarantine plan as required, have a place to stay, and no return ticket in the interim period, you should be okay.

 

[gtd1986]

Can read some of the experiences and opinions on this thread.
Choose your quarantine hotel wisely. Cheaper is not the best !

https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/any-new-information-on-the-latest-announced-travel-restrictions-please-post-here.719971/

So my local MP constituent representative has been helping us out along the way (truly believe he helped us get from app submitted to CoPR in exactly 9 months to the day, while others s don't seem to have moved nearly as quickly).

Anyways, this person called me today to check in and see if we've booked tickets yet (we haven't). As we were talking, I was asking about the 3 day hotel quarantine situation and the high costs. He mentioned to me that it might be worth trying to avoid it altogether if possible. He was speaking off the record, and mentioned that he has had constituents pick up their spouse directly from the airport, and have a real solid quarantine plan in place as well as claim that there was no vacancies at the hotels available.
Of course, he also urged that I have a plan B ready (have a reservation for an approved hotel on stand-by) in case immigration is showing no signs of budging. But he recommended we try it out not only because it's over-priced, but because of the risk my wife would be putting herself in by going to these hotels where people seem to be getting infected at an alarmingly high rate.
Also, i do have a home of my own and i'm taking the 14 days off work to quarantine with my wife, and our quarantine plan is pretty solid. My MP rep even recommended I have my own negative test to bring to the airport.

What do you guys think about this? is it too risky?

 

[Western Mountain Man]

So my local MP constituent representative has been helping us out along the way (truly believe he helped us get from app submitted to CoPR in exactly 9 months to the day, while others s don't seem to have moved nearly as quickly).

Anyways, this person called me today to check in and see if we've booked tickets yet (we haven't). As we were talking, I was asking about the 3 day hotel quarantine situation and the high costs. He mentioned to me that it might be worth trying to avoid it altogether if possible. He was speaking off the record, and mentioned that he has had constituents pick up their spouse directly from the airport, and have a real solid quarantine plan in place as well as claim that there was no vacancies at the hotels available.
Of course, he also urged that I have a plan B ready (have a reservation for an approved hotel on stand-by) in case immigration is showing no signs of budging. But he recommended we try it out not only because it's over-priced, but because of the risk my wife would be putting herself in by going to these hotels where people seem to be getting infected at an alarmingly high rate.
Also, i do have a home of my own and i'm taking the 14 days off work to quarantine with my wife, and our quarantine plan is pretty solid. My MP rep even recommended I have my own negative test to bring to the airport.

What do you guys think about this? is it too risky?

That depends if you like to take risks.

The 3-day 'resort' hotels are taking advantage of the situation because they can. My concern is always about covid risks and know they have been higher recently due to the variants from specific areas. Flights from the hot-spot regions have been cancelled and that will lower the risks after some time.

Regarding your question, I wouldn't take a chance avoiding the hotel quarantine and receiving the $3k fine from YVR or YYZ that could cause problems in in the future. The quarantine hotels are expensive and non refundable and you will need the 6 digit hotel verification code to show border services through the ArriveCan app upon arrival otherwise you will get the fine. There are many quarantine hotels available and you should reserve at least 2-3 weeks in advance..... Haven't seen any periods where they have all been booked up but as summer gets closer surely that's possible.

I personally think it's much safer to quarantine at a single family home and follow the guidelines but the government thinks otherwise due to previous bad behaviors, multi-family dwellings, etc. There are a few cases where travelers have been infected in the hotels but difficult to prove and would be an uphill battle if you decided to take that on. From my experience some of the hotels are really not good so you need to choose wisely or the risks go up.
I have said before " cheaper is not better " even though you may only have to stay 1-2 nights in the hotel until your negative test result comes back.

You also require a negative PCR test prior to boarding the plane so don't gamble with a fake one. Border services are waiting.
My advice is to book the ' rip-off ' hotel first then book the flight and don't try to get around the system at YVR or YYZ.

The only other option is to not travel and stay safe until things get better.

 

[armoured]

The quarantine hotels are expensive and non refundable and you will need the 6 digit hotel verification code to show border services through the ArriveCan app upon arrival otherwise you will get the fine.

I'd add that in principle, one needs the hotel booking (paid in advance, non-refundable) to board the flight to Canada.

Enforcement of this seems spotty by airlines - news reports are wildly inconsistent - but it's a false economy to think the reservation is going to be sufficient and then not be allowed to board.

 

[Western Mountain Man]

Hmm...... I wonder why the government won 't release the data on why so many travelers are allowed to skip the quarantine hotels.
Maybe they are special?

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/almost-a-third-of-international-air-travellers-allowed-to-skip-quarantine-hotel-but-government-wont-say-why

 

[YVR123]

Hmm...... I wonder why the government won 't release the data on why so many travelers are allowed to skip the quarantine hotels.
Maybe they are special?

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/almost-a-third-of-international-air-travellers-allowed-to-skip-quarantine-hotel-but-government-wont-say-why

Evans said exempt travellers — which can include those excused for compassionate reasons, flight crews, essential service workers, people who regularly cross the border for work, people undergoing certain medical care, and government officials — could actually have a higher COVID-19 positivity rate than others.

May be mostly flight crews. I knew of 1 person that didn't and he flew for business travel. He may be exempt because he has a medical equitment related job but I don't think he should be exempt knowing the actual job duty of his .... I was shock to find out that he didn't even need to be quarantined for 14 days!!!!

 

[valvlad]

Any idea of when the hotel thing will be over? It’s a nonsense to me still..(

 

[kanislupos]

Any idea of when the hotel thing will be over? It’s a nonsense to me still..(

Yeah I want to know too, maybe 2022?

 

[valvlad]

Yeah I want to know too, maybe 2022?

I read that they extended it till the end of May for now. I really don’t want to spend extra money for nothing

 

[armoured]

I read that they extended it till the end of May for now. I really don’t want to spend extra money for nothing

All of the government travel-related orders-in-council (as far as I'm aware) are on 30-day rolling renewals, including those that started in March 2020. So it's pointless to look at those dates, they're a technical requirement under the law. Government will announce when they are changed - and that's why the travel instructions on govt websites don't say "effective until [date this month" - because it's perfectly clear they will keep renewing until conditions change (or government decides on some other approach.)

If you want to get an indication of when there may be some change - watch the infection, spread, hospitalization and death numbers; and particularly in the provinces/cities where the airports are. When they drop dramatically and stay there, that would likely be a leading indicator.

Vaccination rates are a thing you can follow and the pace now is impressive, but doesn't matter until the disease numbers start to fall and stay there. (Complicated by the explicit strategy now to get first dose in as many arms as possible and start doing the second doses later, and both doses require a few weeks to become effective).

And remember, these are all lagging indicators - the infections detected/hospitalizations/deaths etc all show up weeks after the initial 'infection date' - so there will be caution about removing measures too early.

Or an even simpler strategy: if the provincial governments and feds are all still blaming each other and/or calling for stricter measures, there's no way politically they're going to relax the travel rules/hotel requirement.

As a guess (repeat guess) it's going to be 2-3 months more at least - and not because I am guessing they will remove the hotel requirement in three months, but because no way to guess the covid situation three months from now.

(I'm referring mostly here to the hotel requirement, I'm not even going to hazard a guess about the India flight restrictions)