Landing experience Thousand Island bridge

[Lanes1]

Hi All,

I just wanted to share my recent landing experience. I got my PPR on the 3rd April and sent off documents the next day. I then got my CoPR the following week and drove from Toronto to Kingston that Saturday as my IEC visa was due to run out on the Sunday.

My friends and I left Toronto at 6am and were at the bridge by 9am. There wasn't a queue and we drove through to the American side, we told them that I was activating my visa. Upon doing so the agent gave me a paper refusing entry into the states and we were directed back to the Canadian border. They did make us wait to collect our passports but that literally lasted two minutes. Once I got to see a border agent on the Canadian side the whole process only took an additional 15 minutes. They were really polite and the whole process took about 25 minutes.

Why I went to Thousand Island Bridge?
After reading countless threads in this forum, flagpoling at the Niagara bridges on the weekend is risky as a few people have been refused and generally those bridges tend to be busier.

What I took with me (a CEC inland applicant from the UK):

• The two CoPR copies
  
• Passport
• Permanent residency letter that comes with your CoPR
• My IEC visa

Now the wait for my PR card begins. I hope this helps anyone who is considering flagpoling in the near future.

 

[limin_w]

Thank you for sharing your experience! Hope more folks will consider this less busy route.

Hope you a fast PR Card processing and wish you all the best!!

 

[mamiojo]

Thanks for sharing this, it's definitely a route to be considered!

 

[oshin]

Did you bring extra photo? I noticed they returned the other photo that we've sent together with passports. They only use one photo.

 

[Lanes1]

Did you bring extra photo? I noticed they returned the other photo that we've sent together with passports. They only use one photo.

Sorry for the super late reply, I totally missed this. Nope, I didn't take an extra photo.

 

[sngmng]

thanks for sharing!

just wondering what type of questions did the ask you? was there a short interview? many thanks in advance!

 

[strikeharsh]

I just landed at thousands island border July 7th saturday.

I came there around 12pm. Very bad experience becuase it took me 3 hours from Toronto to drive there and I was stuck at US border for an hour becuase of traffic and stuck at Canadian border for an hour also because of traffic. Landing itself is quick becuase only one officer was waiting to help and I was the only one at the counter.

I would advise to go early in the morning like arrive there before 9am to avoid the bad traffic at both US and Canadian border.

The landing part was joyful and I was finally become a PR. Everything paid off. I didn’t care how long I drove and how long I got stuck.

 

[darkmago]

. Landing itself is quick becuase only one officer was

I just landed at thousands island border July 7th saturday.

I came there around 12pm. Very bad experience becuase it took me 3 hours from Toronto to drive there and I was stuck at US border for an hour becuase of traffic and stuck at Canadian border for an hour also because of traffic. Landing itself is quick becuase only one officer was waiting to help and I was the only one at the counter.

I would advise to go early in the morning like arrive there before 9am to avoid the bad traffic at both US and Canadian border.

The landing part was joyful and I was finally become a PR. Everything paid off. I didn’t care how long I drove and how long I got stuck.

Hi, I am planning to go there this week, probably on Friday, I would like to renew my SIN and health card the same day.
I can see that you went on a Saturday without any issues.

 

[strikeharsh]

Hi, I am planning to go there this week, probably on Friday, I would like to renew my SIN and health card the same day.
I can see that you went on a Saturday without any issues.

I landed on Saturday, today I was renewing my SIN. Service canada said they weren’t able to find my info on system. And I called thousand island CBSA and Officer said my landing was submitted in the system no problem. And it might take a few days for my info to show in service canada’s System. It won’t be possible to get SIN the same day, and if you didn’t have a health card before. There is a mandatory 3 months waiting period for health card and I am only able to receive my health card on 10-07 which is 3 months after by service Ontario.

 

[bhatnagarshrey90]

I would like to share my experience of flagpoling at Lansdowne/ Thousand Island Bridge USA/ Canada Border crossing.

Rented a car and drove from Toronto a night early and stayed at Kingston. Next morning, I arrived at the border early morning 8 AM. There was hardly any traffic. I first parked the car at Canadian side and went to CBSA office to verify the entire process. I was a bit nervous to cross the border as I did not have any USA visa. The CBSA officers were very helpful. They explained the entire process and answered all my questions.

Then, I drove to the USA border. The USA CBP officer was cordial too. He took my passport and asked for purpose of visit. Thankfully, he was familiar with the term 'flagpoling'. He asked me to park the car and wait at CBP office. There was another officer in the building, he asked me few generic questions and then returned the passport along with a slip which mentioned reason of return to be change of status in Canada. The entire process at USA side took around 30 minutes.

Then I made a U-turn and drove back to Canadian side. The CBSA officer on the road crossing was a bit grumpy but didn't give me any hard time. He checked my COPR and passport and then asked me to go inside the CBSA Building. Another officer at CBSA building validated my COPR and signed it. The entire process here took another 30 minutes.

It took an hour for the whole process to complete. The drive is beautiful. I checked out historical Kingston downtown and later went to ServiceCanada to get a new SIN which took another 15 minutes.

 

[Kumuluswolken]

I would like to share my experience too:
Overall I recommend landing at Lansdowne/1000 islands bridge.
I would think its less nerve wrecking compared to Niagara Falls since there are no restrictions or quotas. I decided to go for this option after reading experiences from people that got turned away or got told to come back in the afternoon at Niagara Falls even though they turned up at the crossing right at 8am.

I started in Toronto at around 6.30am on a Tuesday and arrived at the border crossing at around 9.45am. It might be worthy to note that the bridge is a toll road and it costs 4$ to use. I wasn't aware of that before, so make sure you have some cash or a credit card with you when you go.
On the US side there were just 4 cars in front of me in the lane, so that was maybe a 5 minute wait. I told the officer I was there to flagpole, she understood and sent me over to a parking lot where I should go into the CBP building and take a seat. Inside the building were also just 2 or three other people, so not really busy. Now, they were very interested in a trip to Iran I did some years back and asked a couple of questions about that. I had that coming I guess and would assume it would have been the same at the Niagara Falls border. After explaining everything they proceeded and in the end handed me the administrative refusal to show to the Canadian officers. Overall I spent about two hours in their office.
Then I went back to the Canadian crossing where there were just two cars in front of me, so it was my turn very quickly again. The officer there was very friendly and knew what to do. He told me to get to the parking lot and get into their building.
I was the only person there, no waiting time whatsoever, the officer at the desk was also very friendly asked some questions about how long I've been in Canada already, where I work etc., filled out some forms, gave them to me to sign and in about 15 minutes I was done. That was so quick, I couldn't believe that was all
I was back in Toronto at around 4pm again, had no traffic jams in the morning and on the way back some traffic when I was back in Toronto. The usual

For me it was the right decision to go to this border. I don't like the lottery game at Niagara Falls and Lansdowne is after all just one hour more to drive. So if you have the time and the car to go there and rather want to be certain to be processed I recommend going there

 

[darkmago]

I never gave some feedback, so here it goes.

I landed at the 1000 islands bridge. I recommend it. it is really fast and easy. They treated me very well. however, I went to the queenston bridge first during that day, They treated me really bad on the US side, it was horrible, and when I came back to Canada, they told me that I did flagpoling to early, before 8:00 am, that I had to wait until that, and go to USA again, which of course, I was never going back there at that time. So we just went to 1000 islands bridge, right away.

However, during the landing I could see other people who made some terrible mistakes. when I arrived I saw two groups of people crying, I thought somebody died. It was inevitable to listen what they were talking about.

One person lied to an officer, about something in her documents, and she was accused of misrepresentation and got banned from Canada during her landing. I saw the officer trying to calm her down, and told her something like, don't be worried you are not going to jail.

The other person graduated from some college, and she got refused for her PGWP, because she brought a screenshot of her College transcripts and not the official ones. the officer told her, that it was the second time he refuses her, so now she was forbidden to apply for it. he told her, that she can try to apply online, but he already added a note to her UCI #. I saw her going to her car, where she cried for minutes, I even left and she was still crying.

I was only there for no more than 30 mins. On the USA side, they were nice. there was nobody else doing landing. In my case, I only answered the 4 questions they ask you, I just told the truth. They asked me whether I have been refused before, which it was correct, and I said it. So, guys never lie about anything, or you would lose everything in matter of minutes.

 

[Sreeh1989]

Hi
Does anyone know if we can do landing at 1000 islands bridge on weekends?
If you can share link to find this information is appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

 

[darkmago]

Hi
Does anyone know if we can do landing at 1000 islands bridge on weekends?
If you can share link to find this information is appreciated.
Thanks in advance!

Yes you can, this bridge is 24/7.
only this one. the reason is that it does not get overpopulated, people do not go there because it is far. so it can be an advantage for you.

 

[RSands242]

Hello All,
I would also like to share my experience landing at the 1,000 islands bridge yesterday, June 6th 2019.
My situation was a bit different so I hope this helps others in my situation. Firstly, I ended up heading there around 7PM at night as I was waiting on my partner to get home from work and wanted some company for the drive. Beautiful scenery on the way, took us about 3 hours with a few bathroom breaks. I got to the border at around 10:30PM, I had initially dropped my partner off to the bargain shop near the border because he didn't have his passport (did not want to go through that with US immigration). I ended up pulling up to the wrong side of the US immigration compound and got hammered by questions by the US officer, he was very snarky and not very understanding. The area was not well lit and it was a genuine mistake going to the wrong section, after a few questions he searched my car and finally told me where to go to get to the right section of the crossing.

When my partner and I pulled up to the correct crossing this time (lol) we noticed there wasn't a place for me to let him out in time. I was a bit concerned with him not having a passport (I personally had a valid US visa and an expired work permit with a pending restoration of status application). Met a lady at the US border who was once again pretty curt and not very friendly. Was pretty snarky with me and my partner but accepted his drivers license as proof of identification. She eventually showed us an area to park and we went into the US immigration office. Thankfully the gentleman here was very nice and understanding, asked us a few questions i.e. the purpose of our visit, which I told him was just to flagpole. He gave me all the corresponding paper work and guided me on where to go to get to the Canadian border (he did mention that my partner would need to have a passport next time, which was an expected response lol). We were in and out in about 15-20 mins.

Got to the Canadian border and this officer was really nice, asked me all the typical questions i.e. do I have any weapons in the car, more than $10,000, etc. Told him my purpose or re-entering Canada to finish my landing. He then guided me to the Canadian immigration office. There was nobody there at this point (it was around 11:00PM), the officer there was nice. He kept the whole process simple and only asked me 3 or so questions like have I ever been convicted of a crime, how many funds are in my bank acc (which wasn't a very high amount lol) and if I had any dependents. He told me to sit and him and his colleagues were going over some things, he never asked for my receipt for proof of restoration of status application but instead asked me for a temporary visitor's Visa, at this point I was concerned because I don't have such a document. His colleague stepped in and pointed out that my passport is from a Commonwealth country (The Bahamas) which is visa-exempt. He then stamped my passport and said congrats on becoming PR! The whole process from the initial border crossing took about 30-45 minutes. Very relieving and relatively easy process, US immigration can be a bit mean but thats nothing new lol, as long as you don't have anything to hide then you should be fine. Would totally recommend flagpoling here!