Hi all,
I just wanted to share my landing experience with everyone. Having read so many other forum members' experiences I figured it was time I shared mine. Those residing in the US will find this useful, hopefully those outside will do as well.
I decided to land over Memorial day (US holiday) weekend with my family. I chose to drive to Canada since I wanted the car for commuting in Canada as well. I rented a car and decided to cross into Canada via the Queenston-Lewiston bridge. Given Toronto was my destination this was the easiest way in to Canada. Also, having lived in a border town in the state of New York and crossing the US-Canada border by road multiple times I figured that the Q-L bridge was least prone to congestion among the 3 bridges in the Buffalo-Niagara region.
I reached the border at about 12.30 pm on a Friday before the long weekend. There was a long line of cars at the border and it took me about 30 minutes to get to the border officer. He asked me the purpose of my trip. I mentioned that I was here to land as a PR. He noted a few things and asked me to drive to the secondary inspection area for further processing. So far so good, a pleasant start.
I parked my car in the small parking lot and entered the secondary inspection area with my family. This is where things started going against my expectations. Upon entering the facility a border officer called me to the counter and asked me the purpose of my trip. I provided her a copy of the form that I had received earlier at the first point of contact. She looked at the form and then informed me that there was a 4 hour wait for processing PR and visa specific requests. She also let me know that such requests were low priority. I was very surprised since there were not more than 12-15 individuals in the waiting area and many seemed to be together. I assumed not more than 6-8 families/couples ahead of me.
I was asked to consider landing on another day or choose another border in the area. She also told me that I should've scheduled an appointment inland. I informed her that I was not a resident of Canada so could not schedule an appointment inland. The officer said that anybody could schedule an appointment inland and that I should've read the documents I received with my COPR clearly. I told her that was not the case and that my COPR and related documents clearly mentioned only residents could avail that facility. She urged me to land on another day, preferably a weekday.
My wife and I consulted with each other, however, we felt that we did not have another option and decided to wait "4 hours" to complete landing formalities. I asked the officer to process our papers and said we'd like to wait. We sat in the waiting area hoping we'd be called sooner. After about 45 - 50 minutes an officer called out my name. He had me sign the COPR document, next had my wife do the same and said we should be done in another 5-10 minutes. After about 10 minutes, we got our passports back and were told we were now Permanent Residents of Canada and should get our PR cards in 6 weeks or so. A bit anti-climactic. I was expecting "Welcome to Canada" or greetings along those lines but got none. They didn't ask for B4/B4A forms either and only when I inquired about them was I told to go to another officer to get it signed/acknowledged by CBSA.
I was walking with a smile on my face since we were now Canadian residents and also that it only took an hour when the expected time frame was about 4 hours. I went to the same female officer who had informed me that my wait was about 4 hours, this time with my b4/b4a. She asked me fill it out with additional details, as much as I can. We spent another 15 minutes working on the forms and submitted them to the officer. They kept the original and provided us with a copy of the same.
We made our way out of the facility only to go back in since I realized I never provided the officers with a Canadian address, so where exactly were the going to deliver my PR card. I spoke to the officer and asked him if he had an address on file for me and the family. He mentioned he did, so I asked him to read it out to me. It was my US address, he was a bit confused and decided to check for a local address. Unable to find one, he asked me for a local address and I gladly provided one to him. Phew! with PR formalities done I decided to drive to the closest SIN office.
We drove to the Service Canada office in Hamilton, no lines at all and very friendly people. A couple of jokes on US politics and we were asked for personal details for our SIN. Within 10 minutes everyone in the family had a SIN. Next stop was TD Bank, I asked for the new comer package and opening a Chequing and Savings account along with a Credit card. lots of paperwork and it took us about an hour to setup the accounts. I deposited the cash that I was carrying with me and was glad I'd accomplished all that I'd set out to do for that day.
Overall, it was a very positive experience, except for the lukewarm welcome at the CBSA office. People seemed friendly. I had no issues driving a rental, the officer even asked me when was I planning to go back to the US. We plan to go back soon to find a place to live and start our lives in our new country of residence.
I just wanted to share my landing experience with everyone. Having read so many other forum members' experiences I figured it was time I shared mine. Those residing in the US will find this useful, hopefully those outside will do as well.
I decided to land over Memorial day (US holiday) weekend with my family. I chose to drive to Canada since I wanted the car for commuting in Canada as well. I rented a car and decided to cross into Canada via the Queenston-Lewiston bridge. Given Toronto was my destination this was the easiest way in to Canada. Also, having lived in a border town in the state of New York and crossing the US-Canada border by road multiple times I figured that the Q-L bridge was least prone to congestion among the 3 bridges in the Buffalo-Niagara region.
I reached the border at about 12.30 pm on a Friday before the long weekend. There was a long line of cars at the border and it took me about 30 minutes to get to the border officer. He asked me the purpose of my trip. I mentioned that I was here to land as a PR. He noted a few things and asked me to drive to the secondary inspection area for further processing. So far so good, a pleasant start.
I parked my car in the small parking lot and entered the secondary inspection area with my family. This is where things started going against my expectations. Upon entering the facility a border officer called me to the counter and asked me the purpose of my trip. I provided her a copy of the form that I had received earlier at the first point of contact. She looked at the form and then informed me that there was a 4 hour wait for processing PR and visa specific requests. She also let me know that such requests were low priority. I was very surprised since there were not more than 12-15 individuals in the waiting area and many seemed to be together. I assumed not more than 6-8 families/couples ahead of me.
I was asked to consider landing on another day or choose another border in the area. She also told me that I should've scheduled an appointment inland. I informed her that I was not a resident of Canada so could not schedule an appointment inland. The officer said that anybody could schedule an appointment inland and that I should've read the documents I received with my COPR clearly. I told her that was not the case and that my COPR and related documents clearly mentioned only residents could avail that facility. She urged me to land on another day, preferably a weekday.
My wife and I consulted with each other, however, we felt that we did not have another option and decided to wait "4 hours" to complete landing formalities. I asked the officer to process our papers and said we'd like to wait. We sat in the waiting area hoping we'd be called sooner. After about 45 - 50 minutes an officer called out my name. He had me sign the COPR document, next had my wife do the same and said we should be done in another 5-10 minutes. After about 10 minutes, we got our passports back and were told we were now Permanent Residents of Canada and should get our PR cards in 6 weeks or so. A bit anti-climactic. I was expecting "Welcome to Canada" or greetings along those lines but got none. They didn't ask for B4/B4A forms either and only when I inquired about them was I told to go to another officer to get it signed/acknowledged by CBSA.
I was walking with a smile on my face since we were now Canadian residents and also that it only took an hour when the expected time frame was about 4 hours. I went to the same female officer who had informed me that my wait was about 4 hours, this time with my b4/b4a. She asked me fill it out with additional details, as much as I can. We spent another 15 minutes working on the forms and submitted them to the officer. They kept the original and provided us with a copy of the same.
We made our way out of the facility only to go back in since I realized I never provided the officers with a Canadian address, so where exactly were the going to deliver my PR card. I spoke to the officer and asked him if he had an address on file for me and the family. He mentioned he did, so I asked him to read it out to me. It was my US address, he was a bit confused and decided to check for a local address. Unable to find one, he asked me for a local address and I gladly provided one to him. Phew! with PR formalities done I decided to drive to the closest SIN office.
We drove to the Service Canada office in Hamilton, no lines at all and very friendly people. A couple of jokes on US politics and we were asked for personal details for our SIN. Within 10 minutes everyone in the family had a SIN. Next stop was TD Bank, I asked for the new comer package and opening a Chequing and Savings account along with a Credit card. lots of paperwork and it took us about an hour to setup the accounts. I deposited the cash that I was carrying with me and was glad I'd accomplished all that I'd set out to do for that day.
Overall, it was a very positive experience, except for the lukewarm welcome at the CBSA office. People seemed friendly. I had no issues driving a rental, the officer even asked me when was I planning to go back to the US. We plan to go back soon to find a place to live and start our lives in our new country of residence.
