Landing Experience
Hi Friends..
Let me share my experience with you as it might help the friends who haven't landed yet.
LANDING: DAY 1
Actually we have decided to do a 'short landing' in Toronto and then permanent move location will be decided based on job hunting progress by end of 2015 Inshallah.
We landed in Toronto (YYZ) terminal 1. The whole process at Toronto airport took almost 90mins (from aircraft door to airport exit gate). The word 'Welcome to Canada' was heard more than 15 times in between
1st step: Passport Control counters, there was a short queue in the visitors queue (BTW, we should go to visitors queue not residents queue, because at this point, we are not residents yet), it took around 10 mins max. Officer asked for the purpose of our visit (which is immigration), took our passports, stamped on the immigration visa and customs declaration, asked how much fund we are carrying (we declared over 10K CAD), then asked to go to new immigrants office just on the right side of passport control counters.
2nd Step: New Immigrants Counters: The officer took our passports, COPR, asked few questions (like do we have any other dependents, how much fund we are bringing for settlement [he didn't ask to show it], etc). And asked for our Canadian address (I recommend that you print the address in a paper and give it to them instead of dictating it). Then asked us to sit in the lobby until he finishes his work). This took around 20mins.
Note: The COPR had one photo attached and stamped from visa office and another photo clipped, I added another recent photo to the clipped one, the officer asked which photo is more recent, so I showed it to him, he returned all the other photos. So, it is acceptable that you clip a new photo other than the COPR photo....
3rd Step: Newcomers Welcome counter; They gave us some brochures and papers titled Welcome to Canada, health insurance forms, and some child tax return docs and some other papers.
4th Step: SIN numbers (ServiceCanada Counter, Terminal 1 at YYZ): We landed during working hours. Around 1:30pm on Monday. Officer asked questions like fathers name, mothers name, correct spelling, etc.. Then printed SIN numbers on A4 paper. There are no longer SIN cards. This process took around 15mins.
Note: If you land outside working hours, SIN counters at the airport will be closed, you will get your SIN number from any ServiceCanada office. It takes 5-10mins max.
5th Step: Baggage Carousal: Our bags were already in the carousal, we just collected them.
6th Step: Customs, as we entered the customs queue, the officer noted that we filled YES in 'Are you carrying funds over 10K CAD' so immediately she directed us to customs office next door, we entered there, the officer took the good to follow list (I prepared B4+B4A+Picture of all gold that we will bring later). The officer was really happy to see our organized preparation, stamped all the 3 pages (B4+B4A+Gold pic) and asked me to wait a bit. He entered the total value in his system and gave me an official printed form for tax-free import. This process took another 15mins.
This was the last step in the airport. Then we headed out of the terminal to rental car offices, I have booked a car earlier, so we picked that car and headed to a furnished apartment in Mississauga (booked earlier from booking.com).
Another step we did on the same day, is we opened a bank account in TD Trust Canada (booked an appointment earlier by online chat with TD Bank). The brunch was in the next building of our apartment and open until 8pm. So we opened 2 separate accounts (for myself and my wife), got debit card instantly. Applied for credit card, usually it takes 7-10 days delivered to your mailing address, but I requested a rush delivery to the same branch, I got up the cards from the branch exactly after 4 days.
MY RECOMMENDATIONS
I recommend that you prepare the following ahead of time, they will be very happy if you do your homework, as it will make their life much easier. Many officers were very happy and said 'You guys are very organized and prepared everything.. Thank you'.
1) Canadian address printed in a small paper
2) Print form B4 and B4A. Write the total value in the last row. ONLY FOR THE GOODS TO FOLLOW.
3) If you are bringing gold or other jewelry later, print a colored picture of that. ONLY THE GOLD YOU WILL BRING LATER.
For the accompanying goods and gold, the officer said we don't need it. But if you want to make a list, make sure that you make a separate list and don't combine it with good to follow list.
That was DAY 1.
Please let me know if you have any question. I will be glad to help.
