MY LANDING EXPERIENCE IN CANADA
My dear fellow mates and friends,
I am sharing my experiences of landing in Canada in different stages. I hope the experience will help those who are planning to move here soon.
Purchasing Airline Ticket and travel experience: Considering the service reviews I had chosen Emirates as purchased the ticket two months earlier on 07 March 2015 directly from their Gulhsan office with BDT 73K. The flight was delayed for 1 hour in Dhaka and 30 minutes in Toronto. I had scheduled 9 hours transit in Dubai with complementary hotel facilities. The Dubai Airport was extensively large and it required 1.5 hours to get the Airport hotel desk after landing in Dubai. Among 9 hours transit I could manage only 3 hours to sleep at hotel. Dubai-Toronto flight was so long (more than 13 hours), tiring and boring. Considering service standards, allowed baggage limits (emirates allow 46 kgs whereas Turkish allow 69 kgs)transit hours and flying hours I would like to strongly recommend for choosing Turkish Airlines.
Settlement Fund Issues: Many have misconceptions that we have to bear the entire required fund that we had shown as POF during the application. Absolutely bogus statement. Bring as much funds as you can. There is no certain limit except you have to declare if you bear more than CAD 10,000.00. I was single and carried USD 4700 and EUR 200 (as per travel quota). The officer asked me how many dollar I am carrying. I explained and no further questions were asked.
Shopping: As I was singly, my advice will be applicable for single brothers and sisters only. Please take my free advice that doesn't be bothered about shopping. Focus on your dental, eye and general health. Bring prescription medicines (if required bring for at least 4 months), eye glasses (minimum 4 pairs) and fix you dental issues before you leave. You don't need to worry about clothing as all the products are available in similar price over here and for formal dresses styles are quite different over here.
Toronto Pearson Int. Airport Experience: Our plane was landed on 4:03 PM and due to hanger electricity issues we unloaded on 04:30 PM. After getting out from plane we had to walk a longer distance to reach to the immigrations desks. My free advice to walk fast to be on the front liner in the queue and will save your time a lot. There were 2 queues one was for Citizens and PR Holders and another one was for visitors. We had to follow the visitor's queue as we were not the PR holder yet. After waiting about 20 minutes into the queue my turn came. The CBSA officer asked what is your purpose for visit Canada, I told him that I am a new immigrant and want follow the landing formalities. Then he asked whether I am carrying any alcohol or tobacco products or not. I replied no and he showed me the immigration pathway. After reaching the concerned immigration desk, the officer asked some probing questions and after getting the answers he requested me to wait on the seats. After about 10 minutes he called me and asked to sign on COPR. I had already provided him my printed address and that is utmost important (if you have). After getting the signed COPR I went to Service Canada desk for SIN number and got the same within 5 minutes. Then I had to visit 2 other desks to collect some brochures, Health Insurance Card application forms. That's all from immigration formalities and now I had to complete the custom formalities. I went to luggage belt areas and found my luggage lied on the floor. After taking bags into the trolley I had attempted to get out and give my Custom Declaration Form to the respective CBSA Officer. The officer requested to follow another path for further checking. After reaching there I found many others were waiting there for being checked. I waited there for long and when my turn came, I told the officer that I am a new immigrant and this is my B4 forms. Seeing the B4 forms the face of the office was glowing and told me that he is very much happy that I was well prepared. Then he talked to his boss and requested me to wait for some time. After some time he came up with a custom clearance certificate and greet me with WELCOME TO CANADA . . .
It took almost 2 (two) hours to complete all these formalities.
