MY LANDING EXPERIENCE:
Dreams come true!!! I am a PR 8)
Friday, July 11
5:17 PM - my passports finally get delivered. I tell my spouse we are going to land tomorrow and I don't care that I have to work till 5pm.
Saturday, July 12
9AM-5PM patiently working, thinking of the upcoming landing.
5:01PM - closing the office and rushing to College and Yonge intersection where I meet my spouse and we take a casino (Safeway) bus to Niagara. By the way for those who don't know about this cool option, you can purchase a casino card which is $35 dollars and go to Niagara as often as you would like for 7 dollars per round trip. You have to play at casino though, but I usually use $5 so that my card gets activated and I don't get a fine on the way back. I know it is not nice, but the bus takes 1 hour and 30 minutes without stupid Greyhound/GO stops since it goes directly to the Casino that is very close to the Rainbow Bridge. Anyways, where was I?
We leave Toronto at 6:20PM and get to Niagara at 7:50 PM. I am eager to land but my spouse tries to calm me down saying that they work 24/7 let us enjoy Niagara one more time. Finally, I win and we go to the Rainbow Bridge. Both me and my spouse have U.S. visas so instead of an administrative refusal we go to the US for literally 20 minutes, take a few pics of the Falls from the U.S. side and get back to the Canadian side.
We are greeted by the nice old fellow who asks us what citizenship we have and forwards us into Canada again. Here is what I don't understand: after crossing the border back to Canada you can just leave and don't land. I imagined that you don't get back into Canada until you have landed. It pissed me off for one simple reason: WHY THE HELL DO WE NEED PERMANENT RESIDENT VISAS THEN??? Both me and my spouse had valid Canadian Visas still valid for 2 more months. Why doesn't CIC ask if you have a valid visa before wasting 2 weeks of our time and nerves and fears of losing our passport. Here is what I would do if it was up to me: 1. Visa exempt countries - send COPR as they do now 2. Countries that require visas to enter Canada - send COPR and state that to cross the border you will need a valid visa, if you don't have one, send your passport to us, we will give you one so that you can land.
Seriously... Such a waste of time... But anyways...
We go to the building where magic happens and see a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge line there, we are greeted by a Doughnut-like looking lady with a cup of Tim Hortons and she takes our passports with her doughnut-like fingers, then she forwards us to the waiting area where lots of ppl are nervously waiting. We sit down and wait for 1 hour and 20 minutes telling each other jokes just to calm down a little bit. Here I must mention that I was afraid of landing as hell. I imagined it would be just like the last challenge but it wasn't...
Around 10:30PM we are called over by the officer who just got back from his break. He asks us very rudely (first time I saw a Canadian being so angry and rude, hope it is just an exception lol) what is the purpose of our presence and we tell him that we are landing today, he had COPR in front of him so I don't know what this qustion was about. Then he asks us a few questions:
- Who is the primary applicant?
- Are you employed at the moment?
- Does your spouse speak English?
- Is your spouse employed?
He makes us read the sentence about criminal record on our COPR aloud and tells us to write YES/NO and initial it. We obviously say NO, initial it.
Then he makes us read the sentence about dependents aloud and we state NO again and initial it.
He asks us to sit down and wait.
In 5-7 minutes he calls us over again and asks us to sign our COPR. We do sign it and he tells us we can go ahead and update our SIN numbers now. Here I get angry with this guy and ask him if we are PR yet, cuz I was hoping he would say something. He says yes and shows his desire on his face not to see us again. My spouse and me say hoooray, not very loudly but just to drop the tension a little bit and he smiles a little bit.
We leave the building and get f***ing wasted at 4 different bars, play a little bit of casino and leave Niagara at 3AM.
So here I am at work, hungover as hell but happy as hell as well.
I am a Permanent Resident of Canada! Dreams come true!!!!
What a journey this was, thank you to all of those who helped me in this forum and to those who dealt with my panic attacks, I know I panic too much.
I will definitely stay around to help those who need help and to answer questions.
Dreams come true!!! I am a PR 8)
Friday, July 11
5:17 PM - my passports finally get delivered. I tell my spouse we are going to land tomorrow and I don't care that I have to work till 5pm.
Saturday, July 12
9AM-5PM patiently working, thinking of the upcoming landing.
5:01PM - closing the office and rushing to College and Yonge intersection where I meet my spouse and we take a casino (Safeway) bus to Niagara. By the way for those who don't know about this cool option, you can purchase a casino card which is $35 dollars and go to Niagara as often as you would like for 7 dollars per round trip. You have to play at casino though, but I usually use $5 so that my card gets activated and I don't get a fine on the way back. I know it is not nice, but the bus takes 1 hour and 30 minutes without stupid Greyhound/GO stops since it goes directly to the Casino that is very close to the Rainbow Bridge. Anyways, where was I?
We leave Toronto at 6:20PM and get to Niagara at 7:50 PM. I am eager to land but my spouse tries to calm me down saying that they work 24/7 let us enjoy Niagara one more time. Finally, I win and we go to the Rainbow Bridge. Both me and my spouse have U.S. visas so instead of an administrative refusal we go to the US for literally 20 minutes, take a few pics of the Falls from the U.S. side and get back to the Canadian side.
We are greeted by the nice old fellow who asks us what citizenship we have and forwards us into Canada again. Here is what I don't understand: after crossing the border back to Canada you can just leave and don't land. I imagined that you don't get back into Canada until you have landed. It pissed me off for one simple reason: WHY THE HELL DO WE NEED PERMANENT RESIDENT VISAS THEN??? Both me and my spouse had valid Canadian Visas still valid for 2 more months. Why doesn't CIC ask if you have a valid visa before wasting 2 weeks of our time and nerves and fears of losing our passport. Here is what I would do if it was up to me: 1. Visa exempt countries - send COPR as they do now 2. Countries that require visas to enter Canada - send COPR and state that to cross the border you will need a valid visa, if you don't have one, send your passport to us, we will give you one so that you can land.
Seriously... Such a waste of time... But anyways...
We go to the building where magic happens and see a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge line there, we are greeted by a Doughnut-like looking lady with a cup of Tim Hortons and she takes our passports with her doughnut-like fingers, then she forwards us to the waiting area where lots of ppl are nervously waiting. We sit down and wait for 1 hour and 20 minutes telling each other jokes just to calm down a little bit. Here I must mention that I was afraid of landing as hell. I imagined it would be just like the last challenge but it wasn't...
Around 10:30PM we are called over by the officer who just got back from his break. He asks us very rudely (first time I saw a Canadian being so angry and rude, hope it is just an exception lol) what is the purpose of our presence and we tell him that we are landing today, he had COPR in front of him so I don't know what this qustion was about. Then he asks us a few questions:
- Who is the primary applicant?
- Are you employed at the moment?
- Does your spouse speak English?
- Is your spouse employed?
He makes us read the sentence about criminal record on our COPR aloud and tells us to write YES/NO and initial it. We obviously say NO, initial it.
Then he makes us read the sentence about dependents aloud and we state NO again and initial it.
He asks us to sit down and wait.
In 5-7 minutes he calls us over again and asks us to sign our COPR. We do sign it and he tells us we can go ahead and update our SIN numbers now. Here I get angry with this guy and ask him if we are PR yet, cuz I was hoping he would say something. He says yes and shows his desire on his face not to see us again. My spouse and me say hoooray, not very loudly but just to drop the tension a little bit and he smiles a little bit.
We leave the building and get f***ing wasted at 4 different bars, play a little bit of casino and leave Niagara at 3AM.
So here I am at work, hungover as hell but happy as hell as well.
I am a Permanent Resident of Canada! Dreams come true!!!!
What a journey this was, thank you to all of those who helped me in this forum and to those who dealt with my panic attacks, I know I panic too much.
I will definitely stay around to help those who need help and to answer questions.
