Landing Procedure Question. Help pls....

[addie08]

Landing soon... to those just recently landed, what's the next thing to do or where should we go next after disembarking the plane in vancouver? We dont want to waste any time at the airport since we only have 4 hrs layover before our next flight.
Need your inputs about this please....

Thanks,
Addie

 

[Quink]

Woah, you're trying to land as a permanent resident during a 4hr layover? Hope you don't get held up... it can get busy there sometimes!

Anyway, they'll direct you where to go, and it's pretty easy. When you get off the plane you'll follow the walkways until you reach passport control - you can't miss it because if you try to go any other way you'll get a tap on the shoulder really quickly. The lines split in two - on the left will be the Canadian citizens and permanent residents. On the right will be a (probably much longer) line for everyone else. You'll get through this line and show your passports with your visa, and they'll direct you further to the right into another room. More lineups await - there'll be a rope maze full of tired people waiting to get to see an immigration officer. When I did this (for my working holiday permit in 2012) it took about 45 minutes to get through this second line (roughly 3pm). You'll finally get to the front, and speak with the officer who should process all your documents. After all THAT you get to go collect your bags and pass through customs. Fill out your form correctly and hopefully you won't be taken into secondary inspection.

Then you'll be in Canada and your first experience as a Canadian Permanent Resident will be hauling ass to catch your next flight. Good luck!

 

[AshesNdust]

Woah, you're trying to land as a permanent resident during a 4hr layover? Hope you don't get held up... it can get busy there sometimes!

Anyway, they'll direct you where to go, and it's pretty easy. When you get off the plane you'll follow the walkways until you reach passport control - you can't miss it because if you try to go any other way you'll get a tap on the shoulder really quickly. The lines split in two - on the left will be the Canadian citizens and permanent residents. On the right will be a (probably much longer) line for everyone else. You'll get through this line and show your passports with your visa, and they'll direct you further to the right into another room. More lineups await - there'll be a rope maze full of tired people waiting to get to see an immigration officer. When I did this (for my working holiday permit in 2012) it took about 45 minutes to get through this second line (roughly 3pm). You'll finally get to the front, and speak with the officer who should process all your documents. After all THAT you get to go collect your bags and pass through customs. Fill out your form correctly and hopefully you won't be taken into secondary inspection.

Then you'll be in Canada and your first experience as a Canadian Permanent Resident will be hauling ass to catch your next flight. Good luck!

Just to add to this since I've gotten 2 work permits and did my landing at YVR. If you will be there during normal business hours, right after passport control are all baggage claims, and to the right of those is the main immigration office. You'll grab your luggage and go over there. Right outside the office there'll be an area to leave your luggage with an airport official watching over it. Quink, I'm not sure why you waited to get your luggage until after you got your permit. Both times I got my permits, in 2013 and 2014, I got my bag first and then I went to immigration.
You'll be directed inside the office where you'll wait for someone to see you. Sometimes this can take a while, it'll depend on how many officers are working and the number of people on line. First time I went through it took me about an hour of wait time and the second time about 10 minutes. The actual landing is usually pretty quick, mine took under 10 minutes.
If you are going to be landing very early in the morning or late at night, the immigration main office might be closed. That's what happened to me. If that's the case, then after you get your luggage, instead of heading to the right, you'll head to the exit where you'll see a couple of immigration officers checking people's customs forms before they leave. Let these officers know that tou need to do your landing. They'll wave you to pass them and go to the doorway on the right, which is secondary. Then you'll wait on line until an officer frees up.
I think you'll be okay with 4 hours, but it might be close. Both times I got my permits took about 45 minutes on the passport control line before I got through the baggage. Then as I mentioned above, one had about an hour and another 10 minutes in immigration. When I did my pr landing there was not wait at passport control and about 35 minute wait in secondary.
The good news is that passport control, baggage, and immigation are literally right next to each other in one big area.

 

[addie08]

Thank you quink and ashesNdust for those inputs... just in case i missed my flight do you think I need to pay again to board the next available flight?

 

[darklord]

I saw from your timeline and you are a SINP applicant and got PR as PNP from SINP? If yes, I assume you are landing in Vancouver and going to Saskatchewan after 4 hours? Because if you are a PNP and do not land in the province that nominated you or if you land elsewhere and do not show proof that you are going to the province that nominated you (like another flight ticket etc), you might be refused entry. I hope you are aware of this?

Secondly, if you miss a flight, you will need to book again by paying whatever the cost of the booking is. The procedure for cancellation and refund of the ticket you missed your flight depends on airline policy for the ticket you purchased.

 

[addie08]

I saw from your timeline and you are a SINP applicant and got PR as PNP from SINP? If yes, I assume you are landing in Vancouver and going to Saskatchewan after 4 hours? Because if you are a PNP and do not land in the province that nominated you or if you land elsewhere and do not show proof that you are going to the province that nominated you (like another flight ticket etc), you might be refused entry. I hope you are aware of this?

Secondly, if you miss a flight, you will need to book again by paying whatever the cost of the booking is. The procedure for cancellation and refund of the ticket you missed your flight depends on airline policy for the ticket you purchased.

Yes.our final flight would be vancouver- saskatchewan.

 

[Quink]

Just to add to this since I've gotten 2 work permits and did my landing at YVR. If you will be there during normal business hours, right after passport control are all baggage claims, and to the right of those is the main immigration office. You'll grab your luggage and go over there. Right outside the office there'll be an area to leave your luggage with an airport official watching over it. Quink, I'm not sure why you waited to get your luggage until after you got your permit. Both times I got my permits, in 2013 and 2014, I got my bag first and then I went to immigration.
You'll be directed inside the office where you'll wait for someone to see you. Sometimes this can take a while, it'll depend on how many officers are working and the number of people on line. First time I went through it took me about an hour of wait time and the second time about 10 minutes. The actual landing is usually pretty quick, mine took under 10 minutes.
If you are going to be landing very early in the morning or late at night, the immigration main office might be closed. That's what happened to me. If that's the case, then after you get your luggage, instead of heading to the right, you'll head to the exit where you'll see a couple of immigration officers checking people's customs forms before they leave. Let these officers know that tou need to do your landing. They'll wave you to pass them and go to the doorway on the right, which is secondary. Then you'll wait on line until an officer frees up.
I think you'll be okay with 4 hours, but it might be close. Both times I got my permits took about 45 minutes on the passport control line before I got through the baggage. Then as I mentioned above, one had about an hour and another 10 minutes in immigration. When I did my pr landing there was not wait at passport control and about 35 minute wait in secondary.
The good news is that passport control, baggage, and immigation are literally right next to each other in one big area.

You make a good point about the luggage - I was getting very worried about my bags when I'd been in the immigration office lineup for as long as I was. I went to that room first because the passport control officer told me to go to the room. It was the very first time I'd been to Canada and I was worried about making sure I did everything right, so I just followed their instructions. But I do wish I got my bags first - when I finally got there mine was the only bag sitting next to the platform.

On the other hand though, waiting 10-20 minutes for your bags will be another 10-20 minutes that you're not getting through the immigration office, and with a tight timeline that might be critical. But on the other hand again, if they take your bags away you're going to need to find them somehow, which also wastes time.

So many things can happen! I hope it all goes smoothly! If things are dragging on you might possibly be able to mention to someone that you have a connecting flight, but I don't know if they'll be sympathetic to your problem or not.

 

[addie08]

Do you think its ok that if the line is so long at the passport control and I decide to fall in line there while my husband is getting our luggage just to save time?

 

[Quink]

Do you think its ok that if the line is so long at the passport control and I decide to fall in line there while my husband is getting our luggage just to save time?

Not at passport control - you can't get to the baggage claim until you're through that. However you could probably get whoever is the primary PR applicant to go straight to the immigration lineup and then everyone else can get the bags. I can't see why that wouldn't be OK, but you never know sometimes. Just be ready to explain what you're doing if anyone asks, and follow any instructions given to you (ie: if they tell you to go to immigration before getting your bags, don't argue just do it).

 

[AshesNdust]

Not at passport control - you can't get to the baggage claim until you're through that. However you could probably get whoever is the primary PR applicant to go straight to the immigration lineup and then everyone else can get the bags. I can't see why that wouldn't be OK, but you never know sometimes. Just be ready to explain what you're doing if anyone asks, and follow any instructions given to you (ie: if they tell you to go to immigration before getting your bags, don't argue just do it).

I agree, I can't see why the primary can't go to immigration first. It shouldn't be in issue getting the bags first. In fact, the agent watching the bag area right outside immigration asked me if that I had all my bags and if not get them first.
The Passport control agent shouldn't even say anything, they have pretty much nothing to do with landing or work permits. They are just checking your ID to make sure people entering Canada are the ones who are on their passport. They will answer questions when asked, but I have found them not to have the most accurate answers. I highly doubt they will issue any commands, they'll probably just point to immigration when asked where you should go for your landing with no other information.
Having your bags left on the caurosel and being uncliamed for more than 30 minutes might even cause bigger issues because unclaimed bags are considered suspicious. You don't want to have to track down seized bags and then have to explain why you didn't claim them right away.
Also agree about about following any orders issued. Just remember exactly what an agent, and try to remember what the agent looked like. I had a few agents tell me the immigration office was closed and to head to the exit and tell the agents there I needed to do my landing. When I did that, the agents at the exit told me I had to go to the immigration office to do my landing. I then explained that the agents other there told me it was closed and the agents where like, "What?" They craned their necks and finally just sent me to secondary. I got the feeling that the agents in the main immigration office might have closed up a bit earlier than they were supposed.

 

[addie08]

Thank you guys for all your inputs... really a big help...

 

[silkyshadow]

Hi Guys,

I got COPR and PNP with Saskatchewan for myself and my family. I have a few questions that I need help with please.

We are planning short landing with my family (family of 4) sometime in April (our COPR expires in October) and will be taking long flights from Lagos.

We are yet to decide on the itinerary as I have a number of unanswered questions which I believe I can get help with here.

Flight to Regina from Lagos will require 2 connecting flights whichever route we take hence we plan for Lagos to Toronto (1 connecting flight). From Toronto we plan to stay for a couple of days with a family friend to rest (considering the stress on the 2 kids) before flying to Regina which is our province.

Luckily I have an old friend in Saskatchewan (Moose Jaw) and he is comfortable for me to use his address in Saskatchewan for correspondence

I also have a blood sister in a town in Ontario Province which is about 1hr flight from Toronto however we plan to visit her much later during our short trip.

My questions are below.

Will it be ok to use my sister's address(a different province) instead of my old friend's address at POE for our PR card?

Will it be a problem to state we will be staying over just for 2 days in Toronto before flying to Regina. (I plan to book our flight from Toronto to Regina ahead and also book hotel in Regina ). As the reason for travelling to Regina is for SIN and possibly Health card and open a bank account.

Since we will be flying in for short landing, will it have an effect on PR card processing if officer is aware we are just landing for short period (2 or 3 weeks).

We plan to spend the rest of our period with my sister in ontario before flying back from Toronto to Lagos.

I really want to avoid any immigration issues or mis-presentment or inadmissable issues.

Thanks all for anticipated replies.

 

[Gabriel Adejoh]

Good day all, I am new on this platform,but i want those that are more knowledgeagble than i to put me through please on this question i wanted to ask,I actually wanted to settle with my family in Canada ( a family of Five altogether),I seek for the eligibilty and was granted by F S C W if i'm correct,but the Canadian Lawyer (David Cohen) demanded almost $2000 to file my document for immigration etc. Pls i want as many beneficaries on this forum to give me insight of the way forward that can give me and my entire family edge to canada please !

 

[Yoda24]

Hi Guys,

I got COPR and PNP with Saskatchewan for myself and my family. I have a few questions that I need help with please.

We are planning short landing with my family (family of 4) sometime in April (our COPR expires in October) and will be taking long flights from Lagos.

We are yet to decide on the itinerary as I have a number of unanswered questions which I believe I can get help with here.

Flight to Regina from Lagos will require 2 connecting flights whichever route we take hence we plan for Lagos to Toronto (1 connecting flight). From Toronto we plan to stay for a couple of days with a family friend to rest (considering the stress on the 2 kids) before flying to Regina which is our province.

Luckily I have an old friend in Saskatchewan (Moose Jaw) and he is comfortable for me to use his address in Saskatchewan for correspondence

I also have a blood sister in a town in Ontario Province which is about 1hr flight from Toronto however we plan to visit her much later during our short trip.

My questions are below.

Will it be ok to use my sister's address(a different province) instead of my old friend's address at POE for our PR card?

Will it be a problem to state we will be staying over just for 2 days in Toronto before flying to Regina. (I plan to book our flight from Toronto to Regina ahead and also book hotel in Regina ). As the reason for travelling to Regina is for SIN and possibly Health card and open a bank account.

Since we will be flying in for short landing, will it have an effect on PR card processing if officer is aware we are just landing for short period (2 or 3 weeks).

We plan to spend the rest of our period with my sister in ontario before flying back from Toronto to Lagos.

I really want to avoid any immigration issues or mis-presentment or inadmissable issues.

Thanks all for anticipated replies.

As you are a PNP nominee, your responsibility is to go to Saskatchewan while travelling from your home country. I suggest you move on with your journey to Regina, if you plan to stop in Ontario, your halt may be treated with an intent of not settling in the province nominated you and I am sure you don't want to face such situations.
Providing out of province address again is inviting trouble, why do you want that ?
I am sure you will decide appropriately and plan your travel.

 

[tetunte]

Hello,

Do you know if I do my landing at night , some procedures cannot be done ?

is it better to land during business hours?

thanks!