My Landing Experience at Peace Bridge, Fort Erie

[yahoo7]

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/my-landing-experience-at-rainbow-bridge-t155129.0.html

What I am saying is why do we even have to go across the bridge at rainbow bridge. The canada office is just before we enter the bridge...can we not go directly to canada office by parking the car the currency exchange counter?

 

[swahid]

Unfortunately you can't.

Quoting from a post by another member (check the link below): "Then I walked to the CBSA building on the Canadian side( next to the casino); the Canadian IO instructed that I cannot land just by entering their building, I must seek entry to Canada coming from a foreign country( in this case the USA) then she(a nice lady) instructed me to cross the bridge and go to the US side to have either an administrative refusal to enter the USA or the I-94 sticker if you have a US-visa".

http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/-t143309.0.html

What I am saying is why do we even have to go across the bridge at rainbow bridge. The canada office is just before we enter the bridge...can we not go directly to canada office by parking the car the currency exchange counter?

 

[greatlakes]

Thanks Swahid. I exactly followed your steps and landed successfully on Fort Erie. Just made a u-turn before the peace bridge. http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/my-landing-experience-at-peace-bridge-fort-erie-t152323.0.html

Thanks a lot everyone for your support. Its been a long 3.5 yrs for me, but its a pleasant feeling to be a permanent resident.

 

[virajrao]

Thanks Swahid. I exactly followed your steps and landed successfully on Fort Erie. Just made a u-turn before the peace bridge. http://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/my-landing-experience-at-peace-bridge-fort-erie-t152323.0.html

Thanks a lot everyone for your support. Its been a long 3.5 yrs for me, but its a pleasant feeling to be a permanent resident.

Congrats greatlakes.

 

[ujbaby]

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 .

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!!

This is great swahid. may I know how u upload the pics here?

 

[shah0076]

dear,
could you help me with that i have to go back home so i just got ppr request i am planing go to back home with pr visa and corp paper and back from there in one month so basically landed from my home country is thats works could you plz answer my question as soon as possible plz

 

[immigrant7]

Thanks Swahid...Thats quite a neat and good explanation

 

[CECFEB2013]

Friends,

I don't have a US Visa and didn't want to go to US side and get the administrative refusal letter.

I followed the instructions on this thread and became a PR on Jan 22, 2014 at 9.00PM. I didn't had to go to US side.

Please carry $3.25 change for the toll gate.

I thank you for all your wonderful support!

 

[Cavin]

Hey Swahid,

Thanks for the detailed information on Peace Bridge Landing I will be doing the landing this Firday night. Appreciate the co-oridnates and images from google street view.

Congrats on your PR as well

Cheers!

 

[anyta66]

Swahid:

This was an excellent post, I followed your instructions to the letter and was able complete my landing process within 15 minutes. I also found a video in youtube showing the route, I think could be very helpful. Search on youtube: Peace Bridge-Fort Erie-U-Turn

Good luck to those in the process!

 

[donwin4real]

Thanks! Well I took all additional documents along just out of caution in case they asked for something.

The officer just said "Can I see your bank statement?", glanced at it for less than 5-seconds and handed them back to me. I highly doubt that is was proof of funds that he was looking for, quite simply because I hardly maintain any significant balance in my current/checking account whose statement I gave to the officer. If they wanted proof of funds, I think the officer would have asked me for pay-stubs, work contract, CRA NOA or a copy of my investment account statement (all of which I had with me, for like I said, just in case scenarios).

I think its a formality/procedure, albeit one that varies from one officer to another. My recommendation would be to take along some relevant documents (as mentioned above and as it applies to you) for the landing, just to be on the safe side of things.

Thanx for sharing, nice idea

 

[donwin4real]

Friends,

I don't have a US Visa and didn't want to go to US side and get the administrative refusal letter.

I followed the instructions on this thread and became a PR on Jan 22, 2014 at 9.00PM. I didn't had to go to US side.

Please carry $3.25 change for the toll gate.

I thank you for all your wonderful support!

Nice...each thread in the forum holds very vital information in connection to completing our landing process successfully and the PR as a whole!

Congratulations!!

 

[donwin4real]

Very informative thread...thanx to Swahid

 

[Leizifei]

I landed at Rainbow bridge and I do not have a US visa, I walked in and asked that I was there to do my landing, the officer told me I will need to cross to the US side and come back, I asked the officer about the refusal letter, if the letter would affect anything if one day I decide to apply for a US visa, she said absolutely not, it is just a piece of paper proving that you went to the US side. I crossed the bridge with my girlfriend, it was 9:00pm and freezing, once on the other side I told the US officer that I was there to get a letter for my landing, he asked our passports just to take a look at the photos to make sure it was our passports,and he handed the passports back, he wrote our name in a paper saying that we crossed to the US side, he did not stamp or scan our passports. We went back to the Canadian side and finish the process which took like 20 minutes in total.

 

[hemramtor]

Fantastic info. I did exactly like mentioned here and we are in and out in 15mins.
Some one here also mentioned about the youtube video and it is indeed really helpful. thanks a ton for the sharing excellent information.