Hi there! I had a quick question regarding landing. My wife (outland spousal) recently received her CoPR and our understanding is that has to be shown upon arrival to Canada for landing to occur. We are trying to figure out flights and were wondering how this works (at Pearson specifically) and if there is a certain time you need to arrive in order for the landing process to be conducted? Is it just the typical border / customs agents that do it or is there a separate process?
We're thinking of booking a flight that lands late at night, but if that's not going to work, we'll adjust. Really appreciate the help, thanks!
I believe any time a flight arrives you can land (CBSA works with the airport to cover all arriving planes). We were not able to apply for social insurance number at airport, apparently that part of services was not working - I do not know if there are other related that weren't functioning; didn't matter as we applied for social insurance numbers online just a few days later.
At Pearson: you join the general lines for border officers - when they see the 'new' COPR and understand it's for landing, you'll be directed to 'secondary' where the more detailed work for landing takes place. That first stage also asked for info about testing, covid, quarantine, etc. That part took for us about an hour (but family landing so four total). After that customs - where important to file unaccompanied baggage (or whatever the name is) if a shipment is coming later. If I remember correctly in total from wheels down to getting a taxi was 2.5-3 hours but very roughly; this all ended after midnight and there were no indications it was 'too late' for any of the services.
There was also PCR testing after customs. The covid-related stuff is subject to change of course and I don't know what is being done now (this was august).
I have no idea what would be faster overall - arriving late or during day - but all the critical stuff can be done on arrival even if late in the day. Not an expert so YMMV, this is just our experience.