Hi All,
We got our COPR yesterday. We now have to land in Canada before April. My questions are:
1. We're both software engineers. Which cities in Canada are the best for us?
2. For the first visit, we're planning to just land and then actually move after a year or two. Can we do that?
3. From what I know, when we first land all we must do is cross the border, sign the COPR in front of a border security officer and come back. Is this correct?
4. Is end of December okay to do #3? I'm asking because government offices might be closed in case we have to go to some government office for some processing. Please advise..
Any tips or advice for our first visit will help!
Thanks!
There are many threads on this forum discussing this as "soft landing" or "short landing".
JOBS:
Toronto and Vancouver as everyone might say. These are the two cities for tech jobs. If your job can be done remotely/consulting then it doesn't matter much where you live as long as you are open to travel on-site if you are consultant or work from home-office for remote tech jobs.
When you finish the landing formalities, you'll need to provide them with a Canadian mailing address to receive your PR card which arrives in 2-3 months and is only sent to a Canadian mailing address (no PO boxes).
December is fine and any month is fine. People land in every month of the year, just plan based on holidays, December is actually a holiday and Christmas month so expect office closures, refer to official holiday schedules for Canada federal offices.
You can come back within few minutes after doing the airport/COPR formalities but you have few things to consider before you plan your landing. When you return back to Canada, you will either need to have a PR card to board flights or apply for a PRTD - Temporary travel document from the Canadian office in your country, it will take 1-3 weeks depending on place and processing time at that time. If you can have someone ship you the PR card received on your Canadian mailing address, then you can use your PR card to board flight without PRTD.
Also, it is advisable to get your Social Insurance number or SIN# during the same process because it only takes a few minutes or hours, and can be done the next working day or same working day of landing depending on whether offices are open. This way you will have a SIN number handy, you can also open a US-Canada crossborder account using your SIN and Canadian mailing address, this way you can transfer USD currency and even keep your money in USD currency and later convert to CAD depending in favorable exchange rate. Certain banks like TD Bank and more offer such banking accounts and some even issue a credit card which can help you begin building a credit history without waiting for years until you actually move to Canada.
I have to re-enter US using an I-94 and expired visa, so land border is the only option as long as I return in 30 days and don't travel to any other country after crossing into Canada. But, if you have a valid visa to enter US or you are a US citizen/pr you can fly or drive.
Provincial Health Insurance - each province has their own residence requirements before you can apply for a health card. Since you are not planning on staying there for few months after landing, you cannot apply for health card. You can get this done when you actually move in the future.
