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Landing Experience - 17th Jan 2019 - Flagpoling - Lewiston Bridge - Took just 20 mins to become a PR

M

Mkmaan

Full Member
Apr 28, 2017
20
2
myra20sharma said:
Hi All!

All the best if you are still waiting for PPR and Congratulations if you have received yours.

I received my passport on 15th January and decided to do landing by scheduling a landing interview, but by looking at the timelines it was taking approximately 2 weeks from requesting to 'schedule an interview' to the actual schedule date. So, to curtail that timing, I and my dependent decided to flagpole on 17th Jan. We drove to Lewiston Bridge (Niagara-on-the-Lakes) and reached around 2:00 PM, we reached the US bridge. The US officer asked us "What is the purpose of travel?". We said "We want to flagpole to confirm our PR for Canada". She asked us for our passports, did something on her computer and asked us to drive to another officer just 80 meters away from our car and get the flagpole document. We drove there (didn't get out of the car even once), he gave us a paper saying reason to enter - 'FLAGPOLE'. This in total took just 6-7 minutes. We took that and took a U-turn towards Canada's border. There again we were stopped at the checkpoint and the Canadian officer asked, "when did you go to US?" and took our passports. We answered, "Few minutes ago.". She asked all sorts of questions, "do you have any duty free stuff?", "any groceries?", "any alcohol or cannabis?" etc. This must be a standard procedure. To all these questions, our answer was NO. She then returned our passports with a yellow paper and asked us to park and go to Canada Immigration office just 50 meters from the checkpoint.

We went inside and there was just one guy in waiting area. We went to counter and told the officer that we are here for our landing and the officer asked for our yellow document, flagpole document and of course passports (not the COPR documents, yet) and asked us to wait. In next 2-3 minutes another officer called us and took our COPRs. He asked us to put our address and phone number and made us sign our respective COPR and asked us to wait. He called us again after a minute and congratulated us on becoming Canadian PR. Stapled our copy of COPR and gave some standard instructions about "not leaving the country" etc. He asked for our WPs and shredded them, as they were no longer valid.

This entire process, excluding the drive from Toronto to Lewiston bridge LOL, took 20 minutes max. We became PR, after such a long wait (from AOR till yesterday).

PS - We didn't have a US visa at all. :)

Hope this would be helpful for you all!

Thanks!
Click to expand...
Hi myra20sharma
Thanks for the information you provided
I just wanted to ask you what docs we need for the this process of flagpole
Please reply
 
B

beregszasz

Star Member
Jun 26, 2018
89
45
Did our landing yesterday at Quinston-Lewiston bridge. Took us 2 hours. They asked only for CoPR docs and passports: nothing else. I wanted to give them our permits but they said they don't need it. Even the photos were lefy with us. After waiting for about 2 hours, the officer called our names, we signed the CoPR, he staoled them into our passports, congratulated and let us go.
Important: you need to reach the canadian bordr not earlier than 8 am, otherwise the officer will ask yoy to come back.
 
I

innocenttoronto

Member
Jul 9, 2019
19
2
beregszasz said:
Did our landing yesterday at Quinston-Lewiston bridge. Took us 2 hours. They asked only for CoPR docs and passports: nothing else. I wanted to give them our permits but they said they don't need it. Even the photos were lefy with us. After waiting for about 2 hours, the officer called our names, we signed the CoPR, he staoled them into our passports, congratulated and let us go.
Important: you need to reach the canadian bordr not earlier than 8 am, otherwise the officer will ask yoy to come back.
Click to expand...
what time did you reach there?My mother has a usa visa, so we are planning to go to us and then reenter?
Any advice.
 
B

beregszasz

Star Member
Jun 26, 2018
89
45
innocenttoronto said:
You mean after 8 am it will become busy and they will not accept it? I am hoping to be there around 9sh
Click to expand...
Yes, we had to go back to the duty free and wait another 15 min because at the canadian custom, they didn't let us wait.
First time we arrived at 7:35 am. 9sh will be too late. They stopped accepting after 8:40 approximately. But again, it all depends on the load of people that day.
 
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V

Vickyzzzlu

Member
Jun 18, 2019
15
10
I finished my landing at Quinston-Lewiston bridge. When exiting Canada and flag poling, the traffic was fine. But when returning back to the Canada side the traffic was bad and wasted 40minutes there. Fortunately the officer still processed my case at 8:40am when I arrived at the border office. Anyways, below are my timeline for landing, good luck everyone!

Timeline for Landing Quinston-Lewiston Bridge:
- 8am: went on bridge
- 8:40am: arrived in border office and started waiting (waited for long time when trying to come back to Canada side at the border)
- 11:20am: officer called my name and said that they are starting to processing my case
- 11:40am: finished processing
 
V

Vickyzzzlu

Member
Jun 18, 2019
15
10
Vickyzzzlu said:
I finished my landing at Quinston-Lewiston bridge. When exiting Canada and flag poling, the traffic was fine. But when returning back to the Canada side the traffic was bad and wasted 40minutes there. Fortunately the officer still processed my case at 8:40am when I arrived at the border office. Anyways, below are my timeline for landing, good luck everyone!

Timeline for Landing Quinston-Lewiston Bridge:
- 8am: went on bridge
- 8:40am: arrived in border office and started waiting (waited for long time when trying to come back to Canada side at the border)
- 11:20am: officer called my name and said that they are starting to processing my case
- 11:40am: finished processing
Click to expand...
Forgot to mention, landing was done today (Oct 9, 2019).
 
J

Jayeee

Newbie
Oct 16, 2019
4
2
Hi,

I just want to let everyone know about my flagpole experience because it wasn’t easy as the reviews I have read and want to let others know as well, especially if you’re flying in just for this. When I received my copr I read everyone’s experience on this platform and decided I’ll flagpole at peace bridge or rainbow bridge, which were the two most mentioned places in here.

So I flew from my province to Toronto for this and for sight seeing after so I was staying in town for 4 days. When I arrived on Oct 15th, 2019 on a Tuesday (Rainbow bridge and peace bridge only do Tue-Thurs 8am to midnight) it was around 1.30pm we crossed bridge to states and then came back and they said flagpole is closed for the day because it’s busy. We asked if it will be open the same day or what time next day or if we can call before coming back to check. The officer at the checkout was not happy and we got yelled at.

Because I wanted this done sooner I called rainbow bridge and was told they are closed but will open that day but can’t be sure what time. We went there, crossed the bridge and came back to Canada and said closed and again got yelled at. When I said I called he said they are not going to open that day so told us you can either try Windsor or Kingston bridge which are less busy than the above said bridges.

So we went to Kingston, crossed bridge, came back and was told they are closed but will open in about 4hrs, this time the officer was very nice and gave us more information and said try to come around 6pm or 8am. Because we were too tired we went away and next day came back very early so it won’t be closed.

Arrived around 7.30 and was sent back saying too early and told us to time correctly and come in at 8 and if it’s 7.59 will send back again. So we waited and crossed bridge, this time the officers at the US border were upset over this because there were too many cars to flagpole so got yelled at, however, we needed this to be done before we leave so we bared all the yelling and said thank you to everyone of them and came back to Canada and was asked, where we are from, citizenship, why we are here (work permit,study permit or pr), if we have anything to declare. Then gave a yellow paper and asked to go inside.

When we enter inside, few of the officers weren’t happy about flagpole, didn’t even greet us. Again because this is important we smiled, greeted. Waited 3.5 hours till our name was called and after that it took less than 10 minutes to get it done. The officer who gave our landing papers were really nice though. Just wanted to let others know so you’ll plan ahead and book your flights and hotels for few days. Luckily I had few days because I wanted to roam around in Toronto.

If you really want to flagpole I’ll advice you to go to a less busy port because this was very stressful for me since I paid lot of money for flights, hotels and rental I was worried I’ll have to extend or come back.

Hope this helps someone!
 
M

mahakarsha

Member
Mar 12, 2019
18
1
Jayeee said:
Hi,

I just want to let everyone know about my flagpole experience because it wasn’t easy as the reviews I have read and want to let others know as well, especially if you’re flying in just for this. When I received my copr I read everyone’s experience on this platform and decided I’ll flagpole at peace bridge or rainbow bridge, which were the two most mentioned places in here.

So I flew from my province to Toronto for this and for sight seeing after so I was staying in town for 4 days. When I arrived on Oct 15th, 2019 on a Tuesday (Rainbow bridge and peace bridge only do Tue-Thurs 8am to midnight) it was around 1.30pm we crossed bridge to states and then came back and they said flagpole is closed for the day because it’s busy. We asked if it will be open the same day or what time next day or if we can call before coming back to check. The officer at the checkout was not happy and we got yelled at.

Because I wanted this done sooner I called rainbow bridge and was told they are closed but will open that day but can’t be sure what time. We went there, crossed the bridge and came back to Canada and said closed and again got yelled at. When I said I called he said they are not going to open that day so told us you can either try Windsor or Kingston bridge which are less busy than the above said bridges.

So we went to Kingston, crossed bridge, came back and was told they are closed but will open in about 4hrs, this time the officer was very nice and gave us more information and said try to come around 6pm or 8am. Because we were too tired we went away and next day came back very early so it won’t be closed.

Arrived around 7.30 and was sent back saying too early and told us to time correctly and come in at 8 and if it’s 7.59 will send back again. So we waited and crossed bridge, this time the officers at the US border were upset over this because there were too many cars to flagpole so got yelled at, however, we needed this to be done before we leave so we bared all the yelling and said thank you to everyone of them and came back to Canada and was asked, where we are from, citizenship, why we are here (work permit,study permit or pr), if we have anything to declare. Then gave a yellow paper and asked to go inside.

When we enter inside, few of the officers weren’t happy about flagpole, didn’t even greet us. Again because this is important we smiled, greeted. Waited 3.5 hours till our name was called and after that it took less than 10 minutes to get it done. The officer who gave our landing papers were really nice though. Just wanted to let others know so you’ll plan ahead and book your flights and hotels for few days. Luckily I had few days because I wanted to roam around in Toronto.

If you really want to flagpole I’ll advice you to go to a less busy port because this was very stressful for me since I paid lot of money for flights, hotels and rental I was worried I’ll have to extend or come back.

Hope this helps someone!
Click to expand...
I have am planning for flagpole next week? People, please let me know which bridge? I was thinking of Queenston Lewiston Bridge
 
J

Jayeee

Newbie
Oct 16, 2019
4
2
mahakarsha said:
I have am planning for flagpole next week? People, please let me know which bridge? I was thinking of Queenston Lewiston Bridge
Click to expand...
If you’re planning to do at Lewiston make sure you’re at the Canadian side right at 8am. That’s the best time. But if you are able to do it at another place other than in Toronto I say choose that.
 
M

mahakarsha

Member
Mar 12, 2019
18
1
Jayeee said:
If you’re planning to do at Lewiston make sure you’re at the Canadian side right at 8am. That’s the best time. But if you are able to do it at another place other than in Toronto I say choose that.
Click to expand...
What about thousand islands? Suggest a place? I can don't mind going anywhere in Ontario.
 
K

khoshtip10

Newbie
Oct 24, 2019
4
0
Hello,

I just want to confirm the previous experiences on a precise timing. I went yesterday to the Rainbow bridge, and was back to the Canada side at noon and the officer told me the flagpoling was closed. I did not know they only accept flagpoling at 8am to 8:50am on three days. That is what the officer said. Despite explaining my case to him and how much it is critical, he denied helping. I was told to go to Windsor or Kingston ports since they are not busy. I am not sure if they have such timing in those places. I will call them to check.

I would suggest:
- call them to check the time they accept.
- manage to be there right when they asked for
- preferably choose ports other than those around Niagra Falls

Flagpoling is so stressful but if it is successful it will save a lot of time. Wish best of luck for everyone.
 
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