Okay, so as promised--
I'm a US citizen and have been living in Montreal, so I figured the easiest way to land would be to go and flagpole around the border. My girlfriend (who is a Canadian) and I got a Communauto car and drove down to the border at St-Bernard-Lacolle on Thursday evening. Since it was a weekday night, it was completely deserted--the US border guard didn't even give me the refusal paper (probably because I'm a US Citizen) but just told me to turn off and circle back to the Canadian crossing.
When I got to the Canadian border guard, I told them I was there to land as a permanent resident. They looked at my passport and told me to go park in a certain space in the lot and go inside the building.
Again, since it was a weekday night, there was almost nobody there. I went to the counter and told them I was there to land as a permanent resident. She asked me for:
- My CoPR
- My passport and current work permit
- My CSQ (DON'T FORGET THIS!)
- Proof of funds--I didn't know I had to bring this, but I brought up my bank balance on my phone and she just wrote down the number.
She had me look over the CoPR and asked me if there were any mistakes. I told her the last date entered, first date entered, and place of last entry were all wrong. She said "oh, that doesn't matter." She then asked me to read the two questions on the CoPR form ("Have you been convicted of a crime..." and "Do you have any additional dependents...") and write down the answer and put my initials next to the answer. She also asked me to write down my current address. I said no to both, wrote down the address, and then she told me to sign and date both CoPR copies. I did it and then she had me sit down while she did some processing.
After a couple minutes, she called me back up and told me that I was a permanent resident! She gave me a little talk about my rights as a PR and what I needed to do to maintain my status, and then said that they would mail the PR card within 6-8 weeks. She also said I would need to call the RAMQ to modify my status for Quebec Medicare.
...then, she asked me if me and my girlfriend would like a picture next to the Canadian flag, which she took for us
Overall it was a really easy process--and what a relief!
