Greetings guys,
Just sharing some info about our (family of four, 2 adults, 2 kids) landing yesterday.
* Flight was booked from Amsterdam to Saskatoon via Minneapolis
* At Minneapolis everyone had to go through immigration even if you were
connecting to Canada.
o We were also in possession of a US DV immigrant visa, so we went through new immigrants procedure at Minneapolis for US residence
o Eventually we will drop one but I want to make sure it is the right one we keep, we want to at least explore all the options
* In general landing in Saskatoon was a breeze, IOs were very helpful, welcoming. One IO had even picked up our luggage from the belt, and stacked them neatly on a trolley for us!
* Upon arrival in Saskatoon while I was filling the arrival declaration, an officer approached me and asked if I was doing alright. I said yes and told him we were doing the first landing
* This IO helped me fill the arrival declaration, then told us to follow him to an office where we will get further assistance. At this time were almost the last ones at the arrivals; our flight also came in late around 11 PM
* We were ushered into a room by IO, here again they offered tea water for the kids and asked if we needed anything else.
* We waited for a while before IO started processing our documents. The whole process was just about filling some official forms to document arrival. One important thing was to sign the forms arrival records for the IO. Watch out here you don't want your signature to spill out of the box !
* IO simply asked us how much money we had available, didn't even bother so see any proof. We had a local bank statement and some cash at hand, IO just asked us to tell her the total we had available to us, we told her and that was it!
* After everything was done, IO and her colleagues asked us if our contact person was still waiting else they could help call a cab for us. Our contact was still waiting so IOs told us welcome to Canada and we were on our way, just about an hour after arrival.
* IO said PR cards will be coming in the mail soonish...Canadians use this a a lot,....20-ish, soonish etc...
* We didn't hand in any goods to follow or goods accompanying list. We didn't have any. All we did was present the arrival declaration in which we declared only personal items of little commercial value.
Update:
Next day we went to the government offices downtown for SIN number, and health insurance.
SIN numbers were issued immediately. Due to some errors, we only mailed the health card application today, so still waiting for that too.
For job hunting, we have not started anything in that domain as we will head back to Europe by month end, and then come for settling finally by mid next year. I went over to Ontario to have a look and talk to some prospective employers and it seems we will be moving that way when we do come to settle finally. Ottawa seems to be a very nice place. Saskatoon was very smallish ...Ottawa is a mix between Montreal and Toronto ( effectively a mix between Europe and America)
Hope this was informative and will help someone ease the anxiety of landing...it is very "anti-climatic" as someone in the forum had put it. Nothing to worry, just relax and save your worrying for something else.
My 2 cents
T.
Just sharing some info about our (family of four, 2 adults, 2 kids) landing yesterday.
* Flight was booked from Amsterdam to Saskatoon via Minneapolis
* At Minneapolis everyone had to go through immigration even if you were
connecting to Canada.
o We were also in possession of a US DV immigrant visa, so we went through new immigrants procedure at Minneapolis for US residence
o Eventually we will drop one but I want to make sure it is the right one we keep, we want to at least explore all the options
* In general landing in Saskatoon was a breeze, IOs were very helpful, welcoming. One IO had even picked up our luggage from the belt, and stacked them neatly on a trolley for us!
* Upon arrival in Saskatoon while I was filling the arrival declaration, an officer approached me and asked if I was doing alright. I said yes and told him we were doing the first landing
* This IO helped me fill the arrival declaration, then told us to follow him to an office where we will get further assistance. At this time were almost the last ones at the arrivals; our flight also came in late around 11 PM
* We were ushered into a room by IO, here again they offered tea water for the kids and asked if we needed anything else.
* We waited for a while before IO started processing our documents. The whole process was just about filling some official forms to document arrival. One important thing was to sign the forms arrival records for the IO. Watch out here you don't want your signature to spill out of the box !
* IO simply asked us how much money we had available, didn't even bother so see any proof. We had a local bank statement and some cash at hand, IO just asked us to tell her the total we had available to us, we told her and that was it!
* After everything was done, IO and her colleagues asked us if our contact person was still waiting else they could help call a cab for us. Our contact was still waiting so IOs told us welcome to Canada and we were on our way, just about an hour after arrival.
* IO said PR cards will be coming in the mail soonish...Canadians use this a a lot,....20-ish, soonish etc...
* We didn't hand in any goods to follow or goods accompanying list. We didn't have any. All we did was present the arrival declaration in which we declared only personal items of little commercial value.
Update:
Next day we went to the government offices downtown for SIN number, and health insurance.
SIN numbers were issued immediately. Due to some errors, we only mailed the health card application today, so still waiting for that too.
For job hunting, we have not started anything in that domain as we will head back to Europe by month end, and then come for settling finally by mid next year. I went over to Ontario to have a look and talk to some prospective employers and it seems we will be moving that way when we do come to settle finally. Ottawa seems to be a very nice place. Saskatoon was very smallish ...Ottawa is a mix between Montreal and Toronto ( effectively a mix between Europe and America)
Hope this was informative and will help someone ease the anxiety of landing...it is very "anti-climatic" as someone in the forum had put it. Nothing to worry, just relax and save your worrying for something else.
My 2 cents
T.
