Hi All,
Just to let you know that I landed in Canada @ Calgary airport on 28 Dec, I took air Transat , it's so far one of the best flight I have ever taken.The service was excellent and it's cheaper as compare to most of the direct flights.
My flight landed half an hour before the schedule arrival time of 12pm, Temperature at Calgary was -14 and there was heavy snow outside, it took us 45 min in the queue to reach at CBSA desk where we have been asked very few and generic questions like where we are coming from after that we had been directed to the immigration room which was just situated behind the desks .
There were 7-8 people in the queue and an immigration officer was taking an average of 15-20 min per family. We were called at the counter and the guy behind the counter was very polite , I was curious as well as happy so was asking him a lot of questions rather than him asking me questions, he said he would love to live in London UK but he finds it very expensive , then we were discussing about the temperatures in Calgary and Edmonton also he mentioned that he got a house which cost around ...$ in Calgary.
While we were chatting he was also doing the paper work like filling the details in his computer , he cancelled all the visas as the visas are only single entry and he made us sign COPR after confirming that we were never involved in any crime. Whilst we were busy with the immigration there was a guy from the Air Transat came and he asked us if we came from London Gatwick and have 3 checked in baggage after confirming from us he brought all our baggage in the immigration room.
The landing formalities were done in 15 min , immigration officer didn't ask me any questions about funds or any stuff related to my federal skill visa though he asked me where I used to work in America when I told him that I lived in states for 2 years. The officer wished me best of luck and we walked towards the exit where two custom officials were sitting and all the travelers were handling them there custom declaration form that was filled in the flight by me and stamped twice , once by the CBSA officer at the generic immigration desk and the second stamp was done by the immigration officer in the immigration room.
I handed my custom form to one of the officer and as she allowed us to go outside without asking anything, I asked her that if we need to give a list of the stuff that we will be bringing with us next time as we are here only for 10 days , then she crossed on the section which was filled wrongly by me wherein states that if we will be having any unaccompanied goods following , I ticked at no , where as it should have been yes, we were directed to follow the red line marked on the floor , there were 2 custom official and I explained him that it's the first time I am landing and I may be bringing few stuff on my next visit , he asked me if we have the list and I said no then he said do we have serial number and model number of electronics , I said no, he said whatever information we have just put in the columns , he stamped the form and gave us a copy of it .
We went out and the time was 1:20 pm , all the things were done in much faster time than we expected.. It was very pleasant experience and I find the people at the airport very polite as well as helpful .
There is a Starbucks and Tim Horton coffee shops as soon as you come out and few ATMs as we still had 2.5 hours for the bus, we had a nice coffee from Tim Horton which is cheaper as we'll compare to Starbucks .
The journey to Edmonton in the bus was pleasant as well, the bus had the free wifi as well as very spacious seats and free coffee , tea, water and snacks for the journey.
It's been two days though am very happy to be here but can't go out as it's falling snow since last couple of days and freezing cold outside. The feedback I got from the people here that there are lots of opportunity in Edmonton as long as we can manage harsh winters of Edmonton.
