Dear Forum Members,
I've been following this forum since the day I submitted my application to CEC in June 2012. It's been a very long journey, finally yesterday evening, I completed my landed procedure!
During the journey, reading the posts posted by the forum members reduce my anxiousness knowing that are others in the same boat as me.
Kudos to you all active members who are so patient in helping to answer the members' questions.
I feel that I will need to contribute a little to this forum my experience with the landing procedure.
I will start with the important dates (approximation, can't remember the exact dates):
Application submitted: early June 2012
Police clearance request: mid October 2012
Medical request: mid April 2013 (sent early mid April 2013)
Passport request: mid May 2013 (sent mid May 2013)
Passport received: yesterday
Landed: yesterday evening
So in total it's around 1 year process for my case.
The landing procedure is very easy and straight forward, as been described in detail by one of the senior member. I did my landing at Niagara Falls, ON.
1. Parked my car at one of the municipal lot ($1.75 for 1 hr) near Bender St. (link: niagarafalls.ca/city-hall/transportation-
services/parking/municipal-lot-maps.aspx).
2. Just walk south towards the duty free shop. Behind it there's a walkway towards the bridge then there's a door with a sign "To USA".
You will need to
pay 50 cents per person to cross the rainbow bridge (the gate only accepts quarters, but there's change
machine). Just bring exact change to be easy. I used up all of my quarters to pay for parking, luckily the nice attendant was willing to
swap my dimes with quarters.
3. Exiting the door will lead to the pedestrian walkway, next to the car lanes, pretty gorgeous view of the falls, take your time and enjoy
the view. The journey is almost over
4. At the end of the bridge, you will arrive at the USA border custom office. They've a man trap door so only one person / party can get
in at once. Wait until you are called to enter.
5. State your intention to do the landing procedure, the ICE agent will ask for your passport and create a letter stating your "flagpole"
procedure. Keep this paper!
6. You will then told to exit through the same door you took to enter earlier and exit back to Canada towards the rainbow bridge
pedestrian walkway.
7. Again, if you'd like enjoy the view, you're halfway in completing your journey!!
8. Enter the door on the right (the one on the left is where you exit earlier after paying the 50 cents).
9. A CBSA agent will be there and explain that you're there for landing procedure and he/she will ask for your passport (to check the
temporary visa stamped on your passport). He/she will hand you a
yellow slip that states your intention to complete landing
procedure and ask if you need to declare anything.
10. Then you exit and go across to another office, watch out for the traffic.
11. Enter the building (when I was there, there were lots of tourists), you will see two CBSA agents, that are checking the tourists. Just
explain the landing and show him the
yellow slip given by the first CBSA agent earlier.
12. He/she will tell you to go to the other section (still in the same room) and wait for other CBSA agent to call you and complete the
landing. Don't sit and wait for them, just stand up by the sign that says "Line Up Here"! Unless you need to catch your breath from
walking two ways across the rainbow bridge.I sat down thinking they would call me but none of the four CBSA agents there called me,
until I stood by the sign.
13. Hand all of your documents, in my case she only asked for passport, CoPR, confirmation of address (bills, etc.)
It's a good idea to review the CoPR for any typo so you could point it out to the agent. The agent will review all the documents and
call you back with a good news: CONGRATULATIONS YOU'RE NOW A PERMANENT RESIDENCE!
14. Time to get the new SIN number (service canada) and OHIP card (service ontario).
For those who are still waiting, be patient. You're time will come
