Hello All,
Posting after a long time.
Just wanted to share my landing experience as it may be helpful to any future 'landers'.
My PR visa was issued by ND VO in late Dec 2011 and I had time till Sept'2012 to land. I did my landing via bus -- Greyhound NY-Buffalo-Toronto; I had lots of baggage to carry and excessive flight baggage fees were not worth it (I am based out of Mumbai but was on a business visit to NY and took some time off to finish my landing formalities).
I was too conservative to pack my bags as per the max weight rules but as it turned out they didn't even check the baggage weight !!. I could have packed more but left some stuff back in NY. The route was through Peace Bridge and all went smoothly at the border. The officer asked some general questions (are you going to stay permanently, How much cash are you carrying, your address etc), checked the landing papers and stamped the COPR and gave back a copy. He then asked us to see a Customs officer on the other side to show our GAL and GTF. She flipped through the GAL/GTF forms and the relevant attachments and stamped each document and issued a customs receipt for the declared value of GAL/GTF stuff.
The whole thing took about 30 mins or so and having all the required documents pre-filled really helped to get out of their quickly and smoothly. The only hiccup was from the bus driver (who btw was a real a***ole; I was the only one on board doing PR landing and it took us about 15 mins more than others and that pissed him off and we had a heated argument after I came back from the Immigration office).
Send me a msg if you have any questions, especially if you are landing via NYC-Toronto bus.
I could see some familiar names from about a year back and hope they too are through with their visa process.
Congarts to those who crossed the last hurdle and good luck to those who are still awaiting !!
Regards,
JasonBourne (Btw it's just a coincidence that I landed in the same week as the release of 'The Bourne Legacy')