Hi Friends,
I got my CoPR documents few months back and traveled to Canada by Road last week. I am sharing my experience
Port of Entry : Peace Bridge (2 Peace Bridge Plaza, Fort Erie, ON L2A 0A7, Canada)
I traveled with my Family ( wife and 2 kids ) on a rental vehicle from Washington DC Area
I started on Nov 3 morning and reached peace bridge around 7pm. It is a pretty long drive (especially if you have not driven for longer distance earlier like me)
Once you enter the toll booth , an Officer will ask you for the purpose, I told her I am here for landing process and traveling to Canada.
She asked you for cash over CAD 10K and any belongings I have. She also asked if the car is mine or a rental car.
Officer gave a a yellow slip and these answers marked/written on it.
The Officer asked me to go to a Building on left side and park the vehicle in the parking spot.
Once I reached the CBSA office, I went to the counter in front and handed over the yellow slip. I was asked to wait and my name was called out in 10 minutes.
The CBSA officer asked for CoPR Document, passports, proof of funds, I handed over the bank statements from US and India and he calculated the CAD equivalent for all the statements.
He asked if I am landing today and have an address in Canada. He asked to wait for a time since there were 4 of us and he had to enter information in his system.
There was no need for any PR Card Application as I read somewhere else.Officer will fill on his own based on information you provide.
Then I was called again and they asked some more standard questions.
He then asked to sign on my application and for my kids applications and my wife signed on her application.
Then he congratulated all of us for becoming Canadian Permanent Residents. We were elated to hear this
He told about residency requirements etc.
I reached on Saturday Evening and my PR Application was filed, someone in the forum informed PR card application can not be filled on weekend. This does not seem correct. If you are travelling by Road, port of entry is open 24*7 for landing process
Once PR Application if filled, I was asked to submit Goods to Follow list. They did not ask for Goods Accompanying list so I did not give it. Anyways, I was asked for what am I carrying currently in car.
Please carry 2 copies of the list and hand over the the officer, they will stamp and return one set to you.
It is advisable to do a total of all the items , they will ask you.
It took about 40 minutes to get it done at Peace Bridge Office.
Next, I was headed to Brampton where I booked a Hotel.
I had a US prepaid mobile service (Ultra mobile) and had $20 roaming credit initially and was also having Garmin GPS with up to date maps.
As soon as I moved to my car, I found my Phone's data network did not work. I had used this phone in India and so was confident roaming will work smoothly, but I was proven wrong.
Anyways, as a backup option, I had Garmin GPS but it also did not find any street in Canada. It only showed handful streets in Ontario. I was stunned to look at this.
It was around 7:40 pm and I tried calling my phone customer's service but call did not go through.
I had to go to Brampton anyhow, so we started thinking atleast phone or GPS will work ahead.
Next was a toll Booth which takes USD $3.75 or CAD 5. My US EZpass was accepted and did not have to pay in cash.
I could recall that there was a long road ahead Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) and we followed the road signs.
I did not download offline maps but I remember there was around 150 km from Peace Bridge to Brampton. Without maps, it was impossible to travel.
Luckily for us, I saw Walmart store on my right side and we quickly went to Walmart to buy a mobile sim card.
While I have no idea for any Canadian sim card/mobile network, I opted for Lucky mobile (which runs on Bell network) which is a prepaid card for CAD $40 for 1 month with 4.5 GB of data.
All other plans were zonal plans with no or very less data. so, I wanted to be safe and went with plan which gave enough data in all zones.
We stayed till Monday and wanted to get SIN Card.
I read on this forum we can go to Service Canada or Service Ontario.
I want to clarify, SIN can only be obtained from Service Canada since it is a federal number.
Service Ontario is somewhat like DMV for each state which issues ID card etc for each province.
SIN was issued at the desk where an officer filled our application.
The officer said, there is no SIN Card, it is just a number. He handed us a printout of the number to be kept safe
So, I was able to get both of the important things PR Card application and SIN Number.
We left for USA on Monday around 11 am and crossed the port of entry at US side. The CBP officer asked when were we last in US and how did we leave US ( by air or by road)
He also asked where do we live and what kind of visa we hold.
He had a look at the other passengers in the car and checked our passports.
Then we were cleared to go and we traveled to our home.
The route is pretty secluded and two way lanes are seen most of the time. I will strictly advise to travel during day time as it is quite scary and difficult to travel in night.
Few more important things to note
1. I took out printout of BSF186 on legal (14X11) paper.
2. Have as many copies of BSF186a as you want , but keep two sets for all such lists.
3. I had costco citi card and used it in canada without any foreign transaction charges. It was a big help.
4. To be on safe side, I had another set of PR photos taken at costco and handed to my friend just in case they ask for new photos.
5. Costco is the most economical place for PR photos, 6.99CAD for 2 pics compared to CAD 25 at some other photo studio.
6. If you plan to use your bank card, please inform bank for your travel plans.
7. There is no toll while entering US port of entry.
Best of luck. Please feel free to ask if you have any questions.
I got my CoPR documents few months back and traveled to Canada by Road last week. I am sharing my experience
Port of Entry : Peace Bridge (2 Peace Bridge Plaza, Fort Erie, ON L2A 0A7, Canada)
I traveled with my Family ( wife and 2 kids ) on a rental vehicle from Washington DC Area
I started on Nov 3 morning and reached peace bridge around 7pm. It is a pretty long drive (especially if you have not driven for longer distance earlier like me)
Once you enter the toll booth , an Officer will ask you for the purpose, I told her I am here for landing process and traveling to Canada.
She asked you for cash over CAD 10K and any belongings I have. She also asked if the car is mine or a rental car.
Officer gave a a yellow slip and these answers marked/written on it.
The Officer asked me to go to a Building on left side and park the vehicle in the parking spot.
Once I reached the CBSA office, I went to the counter in front and handed over the yellow slip. I was asked to wait and my name was called out in 10 minutes.
The CBSA officer asked for CoPR Document, passports, proof of funds, I handed over the bank statements from US and India and he calculated the CAD equivalent for all the statements.
He asked if I am landing today and have an address in Canada. He asked to wait for a time since there were 4 of us and he had to enter information in his system.
There was no need for any PR Card Application as I read somewhere else.Officer will fill on his own based on information you provide.
Then I was called again and they asked some more standard questions.
He then asked to sign on my application and for my kids applications and my wife signed on her application.
Then he congratulated all of us for becoming Canadian Permanent Residents. We were elated to hear this
He told about residency requirements etc.
I reached on Saturday Evening and my PR Application was filed, someone in the forum informed PR card application can not be filled on weekend. This does not seem correct. If you are travelling by Road, port of entry is open 24*7 for landing process
Once PR Application if filled, I was asked to submit Goods to Follow list. They did not ask for Goods Accompanying list so I did not give it. Anyways, I was asked for what am I carrying currently in car.
Please carry 2 copies of the list and hand over the the officer, they will stamp and return one set to you.
It is advisable to do a total of all the items , they will ask you.
It took about 40 minutes to get it done at Peace Bridge Office.
Next, I was headed to Brampton where I booked a Hotel.
I had a US prepaid mobile service (Ultra mobile) and had $20 roaming credit initially and was also having Garmin GPS with up to date maps.
As soon as I moved to my car, I found my Phone's data network did not work. I had used this phone in India and so was confident roaming will work smoothly, but I was proven wrong.
Anyways, as a backup option, I had Garmin GPS but it also did not find any street in Canada. It only showed handful streets in Ontario. I was stunned to look at this.
It was around 7:40 pm and I tried calling my phone customer's service but call did not go through.
I had to go to Brampton anyhow, so we started thinking atleast phone or GPS will work ahead.
Next was a toll Booth which takes USD $3.75 or CAD 5. My US EZpass was accepted and did not have to pay in cash.
I could recall that there was a long road ahead Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) and we followed the road signs.
I did not download offline maps but I remember there was around 150 km from Peace Bridge to Brampton. Without maps, it was impossible to travel.
Luckily for us, I saw Walmart store on my right side and we quickly went to Walmart to buy a mobile sim card.
While I have no idea for any Canadian sim card/mobile network, I opted for Lucky mobile (which runs on Bell network) which is a prepaid card for CAD $40 for 1 month with 4.5 GB of data.
All other plans were zonal plans with no or very less data. so, I wanted to be safe and went with plan which gave enough data in all zones.
We stayed till Monday and wanted to get SIN Card.
I read on this forum we can go to Service Canada or Service Ontario.
I want to clarify, SIN can only be obtained from Service Canada since it is a federal number.
Service Ontario is somewhat like DMV for each state which issues ID card etc for each province.
SIN was issued at the desk where an officer filled our application.
The officer said, there is no SIN Card, it is just a number. He handed us a printout of the number to be kept safe
So, I was able to get both of the important things PR Card application and SIN Number.
We left for USA on Monday around 11 am and crossed the port of entry at US side. The CBP officer asked when were we last in US and how did we leave US ( by air or by road)
He also asked where do we live and what kind of visa we hold.
He had a look at the other passengers in the car and checked our passports.
Then we were cleared to go and we traveled to our home.
The route is pretty secluded and two way lanes are seen most of the time. I will strictly advise to travel during day time as it is quite scary and difficult to travel in night.
Few more important things to note
1. I took out printout of BSF186 on legal (14X11) paper.
2. Have as many copies of BSF186a as you want , but keep two sets for all such lists.
3. I had costco citi card and used it in canada without any foreign transaction charges. It was a big help.
4. To be on safe side, I had another set of PR photos taken at costco and handed to my friend just in case they ask for new photos.
5. Costco is the most economical place for PR photos, 6.99CAD for 2 pics compared to CAD 25 at some other photo studio.
6. If you plan to use your bank card, please inform bank for your travel plans.
7. There is no toll while entering US port of entry.
Best of luck. Please feel free to ask if you have any questions.
