First of all, I would like to thank the folks in this forum. There is a significant wealth of useful information on the boards here that I've found to be really helpful throughout my PR process; but more importantly, thanks to you all, I never felt alone on this journey to permanent residency.
I landed at Peace Bridge, Fort Erie yesterday and reckoned I should share the experience for the benefit of others who looking at different landing options. There are extensive details about landing experiences at Rainbow Bridge at Niagara, but I've so far been unable to find a comparable one regarding the Peace Bridge. I've made the narrative as detailed as I could, so hopefully that helps; though I don't take credit for the pictures attached – I found them on a Chinese website a couple of weeks ago
).
By the way, my time line is on the left.
I chose the Peace Bridge at Fort Erie (especially over the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara) because it's the only land border crossing that I know of where you have the option to make an “u-turn” before even getting on to the bridge (and into US) and complete landing procedures. I don't have an American visa and I really couldn't be bothered to deal with the US border agents in any way shape or form. Now, others on this forum have had no issues at all in walking the Rainbow Bridge at Niagara, get an administrative refusal of entry into the US, walk back to Canada and complete landing. But my line of thinking was – why at all deal with two sets of border agents when one (the “good” Canadian ones ;D) would suffice? Also, who can say for absolute certainty that the administrative refusal will not cause any issues when I actually try to enter the US later on? So all things considered, off I went yesterday on a drive to Fort Erie from Ottawa.
The Approach: On the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) driving towards the Peace Bridge, I moved over to the left-most lane when I saw the sign below. At this point, my speed was already reduced to 80 kph and then further to 50 kph shortly after this sign.
You can use Google Street View to pull up a high-res version of this pic.
Location: 42.907632, -78.913359
You can enter these coordinates in Google Maps to find the EXACT spot of the u-turn. I used the overhead satellite view of Google Maps as well as the Google Street View quite extensively to recon the area before setting off. I just tried to make sure that nothing was a surprise to me on the drive up to that u-turn.
With reduced speed (I was doing about 30 kph by this stage), keep looking to your left after passing the customs building (which is a fancy, weird-looking building that is impossible to miss) but well before going up on the bridge, for a white signpost that says “Return to Canada”. As long as you are even remotely alert of your surroundings, it is nigh-impossible to miss the sign. This is precisely where you will make the u-turn.
After this, simply drive up to any of the open lanes; these are marked by green arrows.
I handed my passport and COPR to the border agent at the booth and told him that I was there to complete landing as PR. After telling the officer that I had no goods to declare, he handed back my stuff along with a yellow slip of paper and pointed to a place to park the car and an adjacent building to enter to complete the formalities.
Now I deliberately chose to land in the middle of the week (a Tuesday) and right in the middle of the day (1:30pm-ish). Let me tell you – the whole place was empty – no line-ups, no delays at all whatsoever. From the time I walked into the building, it was literally under two minutes and I was out and back in my car again. There were four immigration officers in the counters; three of them were fiddling with their computers looking bored and the other one was reading a book when I got there. Well you get the picture. Avoid weekends if you can; there is an endless gaggle of tourists who come into Fort Erie & Niagara during summer weekends.
Any ways, I handed my passport, COPR, driver's licence (as proof of address where the PR card would be mailed) to the officer. He scanned the barcode on my COPR, presumably bringing up the details on his computer for verification. He then asked for my bank statement which I provided him with. It's a good idea to take a couple of months' bank statement along just in case. It was a bit of an overkill, but I also took my recent pay-stubs and work contract documentation with me. I was a bit surprised that my work permit wasn't asked for; in any case, that gets invalidated as soon as you land as PR, but take it with you for landing just in case they ask for it. The officer then filled in the landing details on the COPR, made me sign both copies before stapling the “Client Copy” to my passport and handing it back to me.
The officer was really nice: he basically congratulated me on becoming a PR, gave me a 15-second run-down of my rights and obligations as a PR, said that my PR card would be mailed to me within 1-2 months and told me to update my SIN and inform all relevant parties, like the CRA, employer etc. about it. And then I was out of there.
I'm not complaining at all, but after the long stressful 10-months of going through the PR process, the landing was so simple and smooth, that it felt totally anti-climactic of sorts ha ha
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By the way, make sure you have 3-dollars in coins (either US or Canadian) with you that you will have to pay at the gates before they let you out.
Well that's it then. I will hang around on the forum to answer questions wherever I can; it's the least that I can do. Best of luck to everyone whose application is still in-process. Hopefully, I will see you all in the Citizenship board in a couple of years' time.
Cheers!!
I will be doing the landing this Firday night. Appreciate the co-oridnates and images from google street view.
