Hello! Some questions…
My wife and I have been living in the US, she is an American citizen, I’m a Canadian citizen. My wife has just recently received her confirmation of permanent residency, we need to land before the end of March and had some questions about this process.
We will not be ready to move all of our things for good by the end of March, we’ll have a number of things to do here to wrap up (putting our house on the market, etc.), we were hoping to complete the move in the summer. Our understanding is that with my wife’s confirmation of permanent residency, as long as we land before the end of March we can use her letter, and forthcoming record of landing to come and go from Canada via our private vehicles (i.e. cars) as needed in order to do this?
It is our understanding that once we have established ourselves in Canada that we’ll notify Canada of our Canadian address within 180 days of becoming a permanent resident, and they will mail my wife her permanent resident card? When we land, my wife will be issued a record of landing, which, along with her confirmation of permanent residency will function as a temporary permanent resident card? It doesn’t seem like there is a set expiration for this, or is there? Is the permanent resident card just to make this process easier, and more permanent? We obviously have no intentions to not get her card, we’re just looking for assurances that we won’t be hassled with relying on these two documents temporarily, before her card is issued?
Is it also correct that the residency requirements are for keeping the permanent residency in good standing? We have no intention to relocate after our move, just curious as to how this is assessed.
What, exactly, should we expect when crossing the border? Is there enough documentation needed that should we make landing a separate trip, rather than during our next more time sensitive visit to Canada? Or, will this be a pretty low-stress document signing formality?
As far as crossing the border with $10,000 or more. By “carrying” do they mean physical money in possession? I’m assuming so, and that money transfers are tracked differently, without requiring this form? We don’t plan to travel with that kind of money on-hand, I’m just wondering what the process of moving some funds to a Canadian bank account might entail.
Regarding our having to list personal and household items, how detailed will this list need to be? I’m assuming that we won’t need to list every garment in our clothing collection, but more so larger pieces of furniture or anything with some sort of substantial amount of value? Is there a rough value we should focus on?
Looking at this same page, under the “other documents you might need” section it looks like a number of pieces of info requested in our sponsorship application is listed here as well. Should we bring a copy of this application, or is this mostly intended for people in other circumstances? What other documents would you suggest bringing for this landing process?
Vehicles…
We understand that we will have to pay GST on the values of our vehicles in order to import them. How are these values assessed? We’ll need to decide whether it makes sense to sell one or both of our vehicles here in the States, or import them and pay the GST. This is obviously outside of the scope of immigration, but is there a website which details which vehicles bought in the states can be easily serviced in Canada?
As far as the timing of this, will our vehicles be legal until our American vehicle registration expires? How long will we be able to use only our American drivers licenses?
Thanks in advance for helping with these questions, I realize there are many here, but even answering those that you can will help reduce a lot of stress!
My wife and I have been living in the US, she is an American citizen, I’m a Canadian citizen. My wife has just recently received her confirmation of permanent residency, we need to land before the end of March and had some questions about this process.
We will not be ready to move all of our things for good by the end of March, we’ll have a number of things to do here to wrap up (putting our house on the market, etc.), we were hoping to complete the move in the summer. Our understanding is that with my wife’s confirmation of permanent residency, as long as we land before the end of March we can use her letter, and forthcoming record of landing to come and go from Canada via our private vehicles (i.e. cars) as needed in order to do this?
It is our understanding that once we have established ourselves in Canada that we’ll notify Canada of our Canadian address within 180 days of becoming a permanent resident, and they will mail my wife her permanent resident card? When we land, my wife will be issued a record of landing, which, along with her confirmation of permanent residency will function as a temporary permanent resident card? It doesn’t seem like there is a set expiration for this, or is there? Is the permanent resident card just to make this process easier, and more permanent? We obviously have no intentions to not get her card, we’re just looking for assurances that we won’t be hassled with relying on these two documents temporarily, before her card is issued?
Is it also correct that the residency requirements are for keeping the permanent residency in good standing? We have no intention to relocate after our move, just curious as to how this is assessed.
What, exactly, should we expect when crossing the border? Is there enough documentation needed that should we make landing a separate trip, rather than during our next more time sensitive visit to Canada? Or, will this be a pretty low-stress document signing formality?
As far as crossing the border with $10,000 or more. By “carrying” do they mean physical money in possession? I’m assuming so, and that money transfers are tracked differently, without requiring this form? We don’t plan to travel with that kind of money on-hand, I’m just wondering what the process of moving some funds to a Canadian bank account might entail.
Regarding our having to list personal and household items, how detailed will this list need to be? I’m assuming that we won’t need to list every garment in our clothing collection, but more so larger pieces of furniture or anything with some sort of substantial amount of value? Is there a rough value we should focus on?
Looking at this same page, under the “other documents you might need” section it looks like a number of pieces of info requested in our sponsorship application is listed here as well. Should we bring a copy of this application, or is this mostly intended for people in other circumstances? What other documents would you suggest bringing for this landing process?
Vehicles…
We understand that we will have to pay GST on the values of our vehicles in order to import them. How are these values assessed? We’ll need to decide whether it makes sense to sell one or both of our vehicles here in the States, or import them and pay the GST. This is obviously outside of the scope of immigration, but is there a website which details which vehicles bought in the states can be easily serviced in Canada?
As far as the timing of this, will our vehicles be legal until our American vehicle registration expires? How long will we be able to use only our American drivers licenses?
Thanks in advance for helping with these questions, I realize there are many here, but even answering those that you can will help reduce a lot of stress!