Landing experience

[Ontariolove]

I wanted to share my landing experience on Wednesday June 8, 2016 at Rainbow Bridge, Niagara Falls, ON with you as I know many of you may consider this option for your landing.

Firstly, it took me 1.5 hours roughly to drive to Niagara Falls from Etibicoke , stopping for gas and quick stretch along the way. I live in North York, but I pick-up a friend in Etobicoke who was doing her landing as well (so two of us).

I looked up the cheapest parking in the area online and found Fallsview Casino ($5.00 for the day). You don’t pay as you enter, you pay upon return. We parked and got out of the parking area around 8:30 pm. The walk to Rainbow Bridge from Fallsview Casino is appox 20 minutes with brisk walking. It took us 30 minutes because we walked slowly to enjoy the scenery a bit.

Mind you, had I known the walk was this long I would have tried to find parking closer to the Rainbow Bridge, even if I had to pay a little extra. If you don’t like walking, or unable to walk for long distances, find parking a little closer but you may have to pay $10-15.00.

So we got to the entrance of the bridge at around 9:00 pm. If you are coming from Fallview Casino, you walk all the way down the hill, pass the falls, to the base of the bridge and cross the street go up a set of stairs for the entrance of the bridge for pedestrian crossing to the USA. There is another Casino right at the bridge, much closer than Fallsview Casino.

You have to pay .50 cents to enter the bridge on the pedestrian side (don’t know how it works driving across). To walk across the actual bridge is a 2- 5 minutes’ walk. We got to the USA side and there was a sign on the door of the US border service office, “Wait to be called”, I thought “Oh man, now I have to wait”, the second I thought that I heard an officer yell “Come on in”.

LOL there were no one there – guess the officers were so bored they were glad to see us. So I greeted him politely and told him we came to do Canadian landing. He said, he will give us a flagpole paper. I told him my friend and I both have US visas so we don’t need the flagpole, we just want to cross and reenter . He assured us flagpole is much faster and it won’t go on our record. He gave us one form for both of us, my friend and I. Took less than 5 minutes there. They were very friendly, we thanked them and left – reentering Canada.

Back on the Canadian side, we first enter this small office. There was a young officer at the desk, we greeted him politely and told him why we there. He requested passport and asked if he had anything to declare, if we had shipments coming in from Jamaica (my home country – I have a Jamaican passport). LOL, I could tell he’s still new on the job he still sounded scripted but he was very straight forward and polite. He directed us to another office for the official landing after checking our passport and other documents.

At the 2nd office an officer met us at the door immediately. He took our document, showed us to some seats, pass or documents to and young female officer. Within two minutes the officer processing or documents called us verified our address and told us to retake our seats. After about 6-8 minutes she called us and read us our rights as new PRs together.

The whole process on the Canadian side took no more than 10 minutes because even though we were separate applicants, we came as friends, both names being on the same flagpole form, and were processed at the same time – which I was happy with.

Documents we took:

• All documents returned to us by CIC with our passport (CoPR, Passport), plus my current work permit, which no one asked for. Work permit was not necessary but you can still take it just in case.

Before leaving we prayed for speedy success, because I heard of people waiting over 2 hours. Plus keep in mind we went on a Wednesday and got there after 9pm ( i.e. at the offices), so on both sides there were no one! Officers on both sides seemed happy to see us. There were a couple other people on the Canadian side – doing whatever, not sure if landing but there were literally one officer to a person or more in terms of ratio.

Note, please be very polite when dealing with officers on both sides, it goes a long way. Canadians in general are very polite and friendly and even US officers can be too – so it pays off to be nice.

When you get to a officer don’t just shove all your documents in their face – tell them why you are there and they’ll tell you what they need.

Have fun – thank God and enjoy your landing experience.

Please +1 if you find this helpful.

 

[jc94]

Best approach in my mind is driving is drive across It's free going into the US and $3.50 (US) coming back. For a car, I think larger vehicles are $4. You may actually avoid this if you flagpole.

Closest parking to the falls is about $20 btw, on the Canadian side, I think I paid that even 15 mins walk away last year.
US side we parked for an hour for $5 just a few mins walk away, for me it was worth it as I'd not seen the falls from that side before (not as impressive but you get really close) and also at 6pm there was a huge queue coming back.

That is a very quick experience! I guess weekday evening is indeed better. At 8pm-9:30pm Sunday it was also very quiet but still took almost 1.5h. Oddly, I don't remember being told about my rights.

Also, my work permit was not returned to me. They said they keep it... They also keep one copy of the CoPR of course.

Congratulations!

 

[djshshajtm]

Wow, I thought weekday afternoon would be fast b/c people work during those hours, but I was wrong!
Glad I don't have to do it again regardless!

Side note, I asked which document (COPR or current PGWP) to use for future interaction with CIC,
and the officer said COPR, but he did not take away my PGWP. I guess it differs by officers?
Also, I wasn't read my rights.

Congrats on becoming a permanent resident of Canada.
Now our wait for PR CARD begins!

 

[hviveka]

My PR application process finally concluded on 12th June with landing.
Timelines:
BC PNP - Inland application
ITA: Jan 23
AOR 23rd Feb
Request for PP: 19th May
PP sent: 26th May
PP received by Ottawa: 31st May
PP returned : 10th June
Landing done on: 12th June at Osooys, BC
----
I decided to go to Osooys, BC although Vancouver was closer. The main reason was, we (my wife and I) didn't want to go through the process where it was crowded. The weather was great and it was cherry picking season - so decided to drive to Osooys.

It went as anticipated.. parked the vehicle right before the border and walked in with all the documents we could get hold of - directly to the US side where I explained the intention. The officer took the passports and asked us to wait. After about 10 minutes, came back with a piece of paper to hand it over to the Canadian side and told us he was refusing entry (although we had US visa).. and asked us to answer "Yes" in the future if we were asked whether we were ever denied entry to US - with the reason as "satisfying Canada immigration process". I thought we should have simply entered US and came back in half hour.. anyway, it was too late. It took about 15 minutes to finish up at US immigration.

Came in to the Canadian side where an officer attended me and when I explained, he warmly welcomed us and took the documents. Asked the standard 2 questions listed on COPR. He told that it would take about 15 minutes to finish the process and we were welcome to take a stroll (it was a beautiful day). When we came back it was all done and the Passport was ready.
He again congratulated, gave the Passport and signed COPR, spoke about the weather and waved us good bye.. The entire process on the Canadian side must have taken about 15 minutes. So, we had the rest of the day to enjoy Osooys which we did indeed.

Got my permanent SIN on Monday evening at Service Canada. Waiting for PR card since I need to travel by end Aug. Hope it reaches on time.

Thank you all for all the guidance and help over this forum - especially since I processed the papers myself. I will check on-and off see if I can be of help and pay it forward.

Thanks again and good luck to all..

 

[jc94]

Good job and congrats hviveka!

Seems like there are much friendlier out there I gotta wonder how friendly they are in the maritimes or prairies. I know years ago if you landed in the prairies they'd come out to your house and do the forms they were so eager to get immigrants

End of August should be fine, I assume you are traveling outside of Canada by air? One thing you could consider, is buying a fully refundable ticket to say Seattle, it'll be much cheaper now vs closer to the time and if it arrives you're all good, if not you have a backup to get into the US and cross on foot, so to speak. Depends where you are going, my next flight outside Canada is to PHX so it's so cheap to get a short term one way with United I'm leaving it to chance (plus that's a little later than you).

It's pretty bad he wouldn't let you enter the US. I gave my reason as "We want to see the falls then come back to do my PR landing" and while grumpy, he processed it. I don't want to have to say I was denied for whatever reason in the future.

 

[good_luck]

Hi Guys,

I am waiting for my passport to come back after PPR and wanted to ask about landing process.

I have US visa and will plan to land at Rainbow bridge.

What is a better way to land? Flagpole or just enter the US and come back ?

In flagpole, do you get refusal letter even if you have US Visa ? Does it impact your record in any way ?

Thanks.

 

[yogigal]

Am a little new to this thread hence asking a very basic question?
Did you guys make short trips into Canada to get your PR activated?
I am coming all the way from Asia to Vancouver to do this, hence nervous.
I will be providing a friend's address for the PR document to be mailed.
Apologies if i am asking / stating the obvious, but reassurances will work too , at this point !

 

[jc94]

Hi Guys,

I am waiting for my passport to come back after PPR and wanted to ask about landing process.

I have US visa and will plan to land at Rainbow bridge.

What is a better way to land? Flagpole or just enter the US and come back ?

In flagpole, do you get refusal letter even if you have US Visa ? Does it impact your record in any way ?

Thanks.

In my opinion, which is something I personally felt ANY my lawyer recommended I would cross into the US for a short time (I spent 2 hours, we had a look at the falls, filled up with gas etc..) and not flagpole as it does count (as someone said in this very thread) when asked in the future if you have ever been denied entry into the US.

That said, you will find many instances of people saying it doesn't matter. I felt paying $6 for my I-94 was better than taking a risk about any future trips to the US given half my business is there along with a lot of close friends and relatives. If you have a US Visa it should be free, but either way you get a refusal letter...

Am a little new to this thread hence asking a very basic question?
Did you guys make short trips into Canada to get your PR activated?
I am coming all the way from Asia to Vancouver to do this, hence nervous.
I will be providing a friend's address for the PR document to be mailed.
Apologies if i am asking / stating the obvious, but reassurances will work too , at this point !

I think most (everyone?) in this thread have been Canadian temporary residents crossing the border to effect our PR, rather than people coming from overseas to land and then returning home so we may not be the best people to answer you questions I really don't know I'm afraid on your question, I mean if your PR goes to your friend and you go back to Asia how do you intend to get back to Canada? Will the friend be posting the PR card (I'd recommend courier!) to you? I'm not sure how CBSA would feel about this. I'd recommend you re-post your question as a new thread to get some people with experience on this giving some more definitive answers.

Good luck.

 

[good_luck]

In my opinion, which is something I personally felt ANY my lawyer recommended I would cross into the US for a short time (I spent 2 hours, we had a look at the falls, filled up with gas etc..) and not flagpole as it does count (as someone said in this very thread) when asked in the future if you have ever been denied entry into the US.

That said, you will find many instances of people saying it doesn't matter. I felt paying $6 for my I-94 was better than taking a risk about any future trips to the US given half my business is there along with a lot of close friends and relatives. If you have a US Visa it should be free, but either way you get a refusal letter...


Good luck.

Thanks !! One more thing....If we plan to enter US and not flag pole....we don't have to mention to US officials that we are going to landing later and trying to avoid flagpole ?

 

[djshshajtm]

...

I would suggest you to actually cross the border and make everything official.
The only reason why I did flagpole is because I had to apply for ESTA application for the visit which would not make perfect sense (ESTA application asks where I'd stay in US, to that I have no answer to.)
It's better for you because you already are authroized lay your foot down in US, and thus it makes sense.

If I were you, I'd ask the officers at US border before deciding, to be honest.
If they tell you either way is fine, then I'd cross.

 

[djshshajtm]

...

You shouldn't worry about anything.
Just have documents with you to support any questions they might ask.
I don't know about providing your friend's address, but
it shouldn't matter as long as you can get it in one piece.

Try to be upfront and don't lie.
Remember you are ALREADY APPROVED, so be confident.

 

[smtele]

Q: how long is the PR visa valid?

 

[jc94]

I would suggest you to actually cross the border and make everything official.
The only reason why I did flagpole is because I had to apply for ESTA application for the visit which would not make perfect sense (ESTA application asks where I'd stay in US, to that I have no answer to.)
It's better for you because you already are authroized lay your foot down in US, and thus it makes sense.

If I were you, I'd ask the officers at US border before deciding, to be honest.
If they tell you either way is fine, then I'd cross.

Yeah despite having a up to date ESTA (which is only $14 US) I was forced to do an I-94. I fly in and out enough that that's not a concern.
The new forms as of this year(?) are more offensive, closer to a visa one, but I don't think I had to give an address, that's still optional. What is harder is contact details of a person in the US, if you are visiting a hotel you can list that, but if not actually going anywhere and not having contacts there it's harder... Maybe that's why I had to do the I-94 as the relative I listed is in Washington state

Q: how long is the PR visa valid?

If you mean the confirmation of residency (CoPR) until it says. Which is a year from the date CIC got your medical, normally a few days after doing it depending upon how quick your doctor is at uploading or sending results. The visa in your passport, if you are not visa exempt for Canada is the same, I believe and should say the date on it.

 

[smtele]

thanks @jc94!