Hi all,
I would like to share my flag poling experience at Rainbow Bridge. We did our flag pole by walking across the bridge on the 10th of April 2019. We took GO train and stayed in a hotel overnight as we planned to report early to the CBSA office. As per CBSA site policy for Rainbow bridge, please plan to go there on tue, wed, thurs and also, early in the morning so that they cannot deny you saying that their quota for the day is full. They open at 8 AM in the morning
We stayed in Days Inn in Centre Street, walkable to Niagara Falls. We walked down to Falls Ave where you can see a sign posted for 'Pedestrian Walk to USA. Take some change with you as you need to insert four 25c per person to give you access to the bridge. We walked to the US immigration office and stated that we were there to do flag poling for activating our PR status. The officer gave us a form with our details mentioning as Flag poling.
We walked back the same way in the bridge and reached the Canada border. An officer will give you a yellow slip and then direct you towards the main CBSA building. You need to give the yellow slip, white form from the US officer, your passports and CoPR document to the officer.
They will ask you to wait and then call you when they are completed with the process. Though It was early at 8.45 AM, there was quite a crowd of people who had come there for WP, SP and PR. We had to wait for 4 hours to receive our passports and signed CoPR documents.
Few tips: Take some snacks, water and food with you as the wait times are long.
Be patient, the officers serve on first come first serve basis.
When you receive your CoPR, kindly make sure that the officer has signed in all the places.
It is just a 3 min walk in the bridge to USA side, so its definitely walkable.
Hope my post helps anyone who wants to flag pole by walk in the Rainbow bridge.