Flagpoling at rainbow bridge - Experience shared

[007JB]

landed at rainbow bridge Toronto yesterday!

Just wanna share my experience for those who land in rainbow bridge.

We parked the car in the public parking and headed to the pedestrian way to the U.S.A! Please have 2 quarters (25 cents) per person to enter the US! Luckily we had..

Then you are on the bridge! enjoy the majestic view of the Niagara (happens even if you were there for 1000 times ) from the bridge before heading to the US immigration! All I had to say was Flagpoling, and that's it done. he handed over a white paper filled with details which we need to give it back to the Canadian immigration officer! then we were on the way back to the Canadian side

The person sitting at the Canadian side gave me a yellow slip and told me to head to the opposite building. That is the Canadian Immigration Office.

I handed over the white, yellow slips and my passport and waited for my turn. There was no big crowd. We waited for 1 hour 20 mins and then my Name that feeling of becoming a Permanent resident ;D ;D she asked whether any proof of address, I showed. no fuss, no mess, no questions asked except the question from COPR! Done.. I signed the COPR! and all I heard was the phrase "Welcome to Canada"!

SIN was not given to me over there. She asked us to get it from Service Ontario! and that's it! A perfect beginning to a whole new life

All the best everyone! I will pray for each of you

 

[erable_rouge]

landed at rainbow bridge Toronto yesterday!

Just wanna share my experience for those who land in rainbow bridge.

We parked the car in the public parking and headed to the pedestrian way to the U.S.A! Please have 2 quarters (25 cents) per person to enter the US! Luckily we had..

Then you are on the bridge! enjoy the majestic view of the Niagara (happens even if you were there for 1000 times ) from the bridge before heading to the US immigration! All I had to say was Flagpoling, and that's it done. he handed over a white paper filled with details which we need to give it back to the Canadian immigration officer! then we were on the way back to the Canadian side

The person sitting at the Canadian side gave me a yellow slip and told me to head to the opposite building. That is the Canadian Immigration Office.

I handed over the white, yellow slips and my passport and waited for my turn. There was no big crowd. We waited for 1 hour 20 mins and then my Name that feeling of becoming a Permanent resident ;D ;D she asked whether any proof of address, I showed. no fuss, no mess, no questions asked except the question from COPR! Done.. I signed the COPR! and all I heard was the phrase "Welcome to Canada"!

SIN was not given to me over there. She asked us to get it from Service Ontario! and that's it! A perfect beginning to a whole new life

All the best everyone! I will pray for each of you

Congratulations!

Thank you for sharing your experience!

 

[Amra]

Didn't want to start a different thread about our experience at Rainbow Bridge, so I hope it is ok for me to post here our experience.

Reading here on the forum how easy and simple is to do the flagpole at Niagara (Rainbow Bridge), we decided to go there as well, as opposed to call CIC and arrange to activate the PR at one of their offices.

Went to Niagara on a Saturday and got there around 2 pm (bad timing, we would find later on). One of the officers that were outside told us it will take 5 hours to get through the process. So we went to have lunch first and went over the bridge. Thanks to '007JB' we had some coins with us for the bridge. On the bridge and back took us 15 minutes. When we returedn, at the Canadian border we encountered an officer not too pleased with us doing the flagpole. He asked us why didn't we call CIC and arrange an appointment at their office. He told us il will take at least 5 hours to have everything done. He gave us the yellow slip (after few questions of where you live, where you are from, etc). He sent us the building across the road. When we got the immigration building, we handed over the passport and the yellow paper. They didn't take the white paper from the US border, nor the COPR paper. And we waited, and waited, and waited ... for 3 hours until my common-law's name was called by a CBSA officer. After 10-15 min my common-law partner calls me in, as the officer wanted to talk to me. I went inside and the officer started to ask questions (it was only me and the officer in the room). The questions were I assume typical: where you met him, when you met him, why didn't you get married instead of waiting one year to be considered common-law. Where I work, how much money I make, for how long was I working there. Then again the question of why didn't we get married. It didn't bother me that he asked me some questions, but the tonality he was using did bother me. Plus, I explained him what were my beliefs regarding marriage, but he was still pushing it. And then he asked me to show him the bank statement (later on I was about to find out from my common-law partner that the reason the officer called me in was to prove that we have enough money on the account). I told him that I didn't bring any statement with me because it doesn't say on the papers we got when we received COPR. So I had to install the bank app on my phone, to log in, and to let him scroll through my accounts to see if we have enough money. He picked on a few things from the accounts, after a few minutes gave me my phone back and he sent me back in the waiting room. After another 15 minutes he called my common law partner to go back into his office. He put the stamp in his passport, reminded him about condition 51, asked for his phone number, and finally after 4 hours we were done. Later on I found out that the officer threatened that if my common-law partner doesn't collaborate, he will not process his visa.

Question: is it normal for an officer to ask for bank statements if all the papers and proofs were already sent, and you are already approved as a PR?
Is this a normal behaviour in majority of cases, even though the application was already approved by VO?
Our application was filed as outland, and was processed in Paris while my common-law partner was living with me. I understand to go through something like that if we had some red flags on our application, but I don't think so, otherwise we wouldn't have been approved in less then 5 months. We know each other for 4 years, living together at the same address for 3 years, but we only had one year of continuous cohabitation before we filed our application. And he always maintained his legal status while here with me in Canada by extending his visitor visa.

Anyway, we are glad it is over now and my partner is permanent resident, but we do have a bitter taste after our 'landing' experience. (My parner did not even receive the customary 'welcome to canada'.... really?)
I hope other members will have a much smoother experience at landing than we had. All the best.

 

[Decoy24601]

Didn't want to start a different thread about our experience at Rainbow Bridge, so I hope it is ok for me to post here our experience.

Reading here on the forum how easy and simple is to do the flagpole at Niagara (Rainbow Bridge), we decided to go there as well, as opposed to call CIC and arrange to activate the PR at one of their offices.

Went to Niagara on a Saturday and got there around 2 pm (bad timing, we would find later on). One of the officers that were outside told us it will take 5 hours to get through the process. So we went to have lunch first and went over the bridge. Thanks to '007JB' we had some coins with us for the bridge. On the bridge and back took us 15 minutes. When we return, at the Canadian border we encounter an officer not too pleased with us doing the flagpole. He asked us why didn't we call CIC and arrange an appointment at their office. He told us il will take at least 5 hours to have everything done. He gave us the yellow slip (after few questions of where you live, where you are from, etc). He sent us the building across the road. When we got the immigration building, we handed over the passport and the yellow paper. They didn't take the white paper from the US border, nor the COPR paper. And we waited, and waited, and waited ... for 3 hours until my common-law's name was called by a CBSA officer. After 10-15 min my common-law partner calls me in, as the officer wanted to talk to me. I went inside and the officer started to ask questions (it was only me and the officer in the room). The questions were I assume typical: where you met him, when you met him, why didn't you get married instead of waiting one year to be considered common-law. Where I work, how much money I make, for how long was I working there. Then again the question of why didn't we get married. It didn't bother me that he asked me some questions, but the tonality he was using did bother me. Plus, I explained him what were my beliefs regarding marriage, but he was still pushing it. And then he asked me to show him the bank statement (later on I was about to find out from my common-law partner that the reason the officer called me in was to prove that we have enough money on the account). I told him that I didn't bring any statement with me because it doesn't say on the papers we got when we received COPR. So I had to install the bank app on my phone, to log in, and to let him scroll through my accounts to see if we have enough money. He picked on a few things from the accounts, after a few minutes gave me my phone back and he sent me back in the waiting room. After another 15 minutes he called my common law partner to go back into his office. He put the stamp in his passport, reminded him about condition 51, asked for his phone number, and finally after 4 hours we were done. Later on I found out that the officer threatened that if my common-law partner doesn't collaborate, he will not process his visa.

Question: is it normal for an officer to ask for bank statements if all the papers and proofs were already sent, and you are already approved as a PR?
Is this a normal behaviour in majority of cases, even though the application was already approved by VO?
Our application was filed as outland, and was processed in Paris while my common-law partner was living with me. I understand to go through something like that if we had some red flags on our application, but I don't think so, otherwise we wouldn't have been approved in less then 5 months. We know each other for 4 years, living together at the same address for 3 years, but we only had one year of continuas cohabitation before we filed our application. And he always maintained his legal status while here with me in Canada by extending his visitor visa.

Anyway, we are glad it is over now and my partner is permanent resident, but we do have a bitter taste after our 'landing' experience.
I hope other members will have a much smoother experience at landing than we had. All the best.

No, not when you're landing. I've experience similar judgement from a very rude CBSA officer with a bad attitude for meeting my husband online. He was either having a bad day or just a rude person. I wouldn't worry about it. You're a landed PR now, congratulations!

 

[sam54562]

Didn't want to start a different thread about our experience at Rainbow Bridge, so I hope it is ok for me to post here our experience.

Reading here on the forum how easy and simple is to do the flagpole at Niagara (Rainbow Bridge), we decided to go there as well, as opposed to call CIC and arrange to activate the PR at one of their offices.

Went to Niagara on a Saturday and got there around 2 pm (bad timing, we would find later on). One of the officers that were outside told us it will take 5 hours to get through the process. So we went to have lunch first and went over the bridge. Thanks to '007JB' we had some coins with us for the bridge. On the bridge and back took us 15 minutes. When we returedn, at the Canadian border we encountered an officer not too pleased with us doing the flagpole. He asked us why didn't we call CIC and arrange an appointment at their office. He told us il will take at least 5 hours to have everything done. He gave us the yellow slip (after few questions of where you live, where you are from, etc). He sent us the building across the road. When we got the immigration building, we handed over the passport and the yellow paper. They didn't take the white paper from the US border, nor the COPR paper. And we waited, and waited, and waited ... for 3 hours until my common-law's name was called by a CBSA officer. After 10-15 min my common-law partner calls me in, as the officer wanted to talk to me. I went inside and the officer started to ask questions (it was only me and the officer in the room). The questions were I assume typical: where you met him, when you met him, why didn't you get married instead of waiting one year to be considered common-law. Where I work, how much money I make, for how long was I working there. Then again the question of why didn't we get married. It didn't bother me that he asked me some questions, but the tonality he was using did bother me. Plus, I explained him what were my beliefs regarding marriage, but he was still pushing it. And then he asked me to show him the bank statement (later on I was about to find out from my common-law partner that the reason the officer called me in was to prove that we have enough money on the account). I told him that I didn't bring any statement with me because it doesn't say on the papers we got when we received COPR. So I had to install the bank app on my phone, to log in, and to let him scroll through my accounts to see if we have enough money. He picked on a few things from the accounts, after a few minutes gave me my phone back and he sent me back in the waiting room. After another 15 minutes he called my common law partner to go back into his office. He put the stamp in his passport, reminded him about condition 51, asked for his phone number, and finally after 4 hours we were done. Later on I found out that the officer threatened that if my common-law partner doesn't collaborate, he will not process his visa.

Question: is it normal for an officer to ask for bank statements if all the papers and proofs were already sent, and you are already approved as a PR?
Is this a normal behaviour in majority of cases, even though the application was already approved by VO?
Our application was filed as outland, and was processed in Paris while my common-law partner was living with me. I understand to go through something like that if we had some red flags on our application, but I don't think so, otherwise we wouldn't have been approved in less then 5 months. We know each other for 4 years, living together at the same address for 3 years, but we only had one year of continuous cohabitation before we filed our application. And he always maintained his legal status while here with me in Canada by extending his visitor visa.

Anyway, we are glad it is over now and my partner is permanent resident, but we do have a bitter taste after our 'landing' experience. (My parner did not even receive the customary 'welcome to canada'.... really?)
I hope other members will have a much smoother experience at landing than we had. All the best.

Dear Amra,

This is for your partner:
"WELCOME TO CANADA"