Hi Admins, please update. We landed last June 15, 2014. The first few weeks were pretty busy. There are still few things to be done but I'm pretty much back on track now. Below is my experience.
Sunday, June 15, landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport at around 2pm. It is a pretty busy airport and the lines are long. It took us about an hour on the first check point and more than 3 hours waiting in the immigration counter. Patiently waited! The immigration officer was a nice guy and it took him about 20-30 minutes to process our papers (4 of us). He did not asked for proof of funds. After we received our COPR, we were directed to a room to get the welcome kit, spent about 10-20 minutes there. Then, I went to customs counter for the declaration of goods I got and the ones to follow. This was pretty fast because I got the forms pre-filled, about 15 minutes I would say. Whoaaa!!!! we are officially Permanent Resident of Canada!!!!!!!!!!! Went to the hotel to get some rest.........
We spent the following days obtaining the necessary documents and looking for an apartment..... SIN, Provincial Insurance, Bank Accounts, Phone Numbers, Registering kids at school etc...... Roughly took us a couple of weeks.
Some banks are asking for proof of billing before you can open an account with them. We opened our accounts at CIBC. They have this new comer to Canada program where they don't require you to provide billing statement. I bet some banks have this program too. They also also gave us credit cards, credit limit is pretty decent I would say.
Apartments usually ask for credit history, luckily I found one that accepts (or can check) US credit history. Moved in last July 1. I was told that if you don't have credit history, you can find a guarantor also. Or maybe find a place that you can rent from an individual or negotiate and see if they will accept you if you do advance payments on top of the first and last month payments.
My goods to follow, I went to the shipping company and gave them the customs forms that I got from the airport. Then they directed me to a local customs office to get my stuff cleared. I was told by the agent that since I got the forms from customs in the airport, it will make it easier and faster to clear my stuff. She was right, it only took me about 15 minutes in the local customs office.
Hope this helps. Feel free to PM me if you need more information. Good luck everyone with your Canada journey!!!!
