Moving to Canada with Permanent Residency

[MJPNHL]

The time is finally here and we are moving to Canada with my wife finally receiving her COPR paper. We are going back to Canada to activate her permanent residency with the COPR paper at the end of January and moving back for good in March. The purpose of this January trip is simply to move stuff back and activate her permanent residency.

Here are my questions:

1. Are we allowed to begin moving our possessions back on our trip in January even though she is not technically a permanent resident until we get her PR card? (We have printed out the paper to declare our possessions)
2. Can we apply for a Health Card for her on this trip back (we will only be there a few days)? From what I researched, we will need her PR Card to do this. Also, from what I understand we will be able to get her Drivers License switched (she is from Korea) and her SIN no problem during this time.

Any other helpful information about moving to Canada, specifically Toronto, Ontario, and looking for jobs would be greatly appreciated. I am Canadian and my wife is Korean. Any Canadian companies trading with Korean that she could look for jobs with (not Korean companies)?

Any information is helpful!
Thank you,
Mike

 

[Hurlabrick]

The time is finally here and we are moving to Canada with my wife finally receiving her COPR paper. We are going back to Canada to activate her permanent residency with the COPR paper at the end of January and moving back for good in March. The purpose of this January trip is simply to move stuff back and activate her permanent residency.

Here are my questions:

1. Are we allowed to begin moving our possessions back on our trip in January even though she is not technically a permanent resident until we get her PR card? (We have printed out the paper to declare our possessions)
2. Can we apply for a Health Card for her on this trip back (we will only be there a few days)? From what I researched, we will need her PR Card to do this. Also, from what I understand we will be able to get her Drivers License switched (she is from Korea) and her SIN no problem during this time.

Any other helpful information about moving to Canada, specifically Toronto, Ontario, and looking for jobs would be greatly appreciated. I am Canadian and my wife is Korean. Any Canadian companies trading with Korean that she could look for jobs with (not Korean companies)?

Any information is helpful!
Thank you,
Mike

We are planning to do pretty much the same thing, albeit with a trip to declare PR in April 2017 and a final 'landing to establish permanent residence' in July 2017.

To answer your questions:

1. No.
In January you are NOT landing for the purposes of establishing a permanent residence, it is only when you land to do this (i.e. on your next trip) that your customs 'goods accompanying' and 'goods to follow' are needed. You will need to be clear with CBSA that your first trip is only to activate your PR and that you will return on a later trip to actually establish residence

2. No
You cannot register for health plans nor for drivers licence until you are actually resident (there are rules around this, but I am a bit too busy now to include the actual links, but I too have looked into this in detail). What you CAN do on this trip is to get her a SIN number and sort out bank accounts, that's pretty much it!

The key here is to understand that these are different trips. Your first is 'merely' to activate your PR (or do a 'soft landing' as it is often referred to). Your second trip is the biggie, where you ;land to establish a residence.

 

[MJPNHL]

Thanks Hurlabrick! Good luck with your moving to Canada process!

It must be fine to move some stuff back during that first trip though right? We do not plan to take any more than what the airline will allow us, but that does include some bags and jewelry. Is there a limit to what we can bring on that soft landing?

Thanks!

 

[CDNPR2014]

Is there a limit to what we can bring on that soft landing?

Thanks!

No

 

[Hurlabrick]

Thanks Hurlabrick! Good luck with your moving to Canada process!

It must be fine to move some stuff back during that first trip though right? We do not plan to take any more than what the airline will allow us, but that does include some bags and jewelry. Is there a limit to what we can bring on that soft landing?

Thanks!

It is my understanding (and I got it direct from a senior CBSA officer) that you can only land once for the 'to establish a residence' purposes (i.e. you cannot land to activate your PR with 'goods accompanying', then land again later on your later 'to establish a residence' trip with another lot of 'goods accompanying'. You can only do the 'goods accompanying' and of course 'goods to follow' the once and that is when you land for the purposes of establishing a residence.

I would love to be able to leave some stuff from my PR activation trip, but I will not be doing so for this reason. It is nothing to do with the airline, this is a CBSA matter.

 

[MJPNHL]

I actually found this:

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/landing-in-canada-all-you-need-to-know-t36735.0.html

It does seem that we can bring in goods during that soft landing, accompanied with the list of goods and list of goods to follow form.