Hello Everyone,
Good Morning! I landed as a Permanent Resident yesterday. I am gonna share my experience of Landing here for you guys:
Important:
- DO NOT SIGN any papers by yourself at home! The immigration officer will ask to sign wherever its needed.
- There is NO WASHROOM in the immigration office! You will not have a chance to use it until the whole processing is finished!
- Its my personal experience, it may differ from person to person.
0. Required Docs:
Must: Passport+CoPR+Work/Study Permit+CSQ
Supporting: Bank Statement+Employment letter+Paystubs
1. I did flag-poling from Montreal at Lacolle Border. I might be convenient for those who are living around Montreal. The gps location is here: http://tinyurl.com/zft9juf
2. At the USA border, you need to give your passport+CoPR to the officer. After answering some basic questions you will get an Entry Rejection Letter from the officer. Don't panic! Its usual as you are not entering USA, instead you are doing the flag-poling just. After that, you will get the docs back from the officer and will be routed to the Canadian Border service. Btw, The officer didn't ask me to go to the secondary inspection center, but sometimes they might do.
3. At the Canadian Border service, you need to give the passport+CoPR+ Entry Rejection Letter to the officer. You need to answer some basic questions here as well. After that, the officer will give you a "Yellow Piece of Paper" (sorry, I don remember the name of the paper) along with your docs and route you to the processing station/office. For me, the officer told me to take the lane-2 to drive and park my car and then go to Counter-A.
4. Here an Immigration officer will attend you and ask the reason you are here and then ask for the Documents. For me, I had been asked for the Passport+CoPR+Work Permit+The Yellow Paper. Then asked me to write my full address+phone Number+bank account balance (bizarre right?!). However, I had been asked to write the ballpark amount, not the exact amount.
5. The office will take 15-20min now. Hold on! you are not a PR yet! I would say, you are in the no-mans land, coz you already surrender your work permit! It feels like Neo is waiting at the metro/subway station in Matrix. At some point, the officer will call you again and ask some basic, but different than the border gates, questions and ask to sign the CoPR, cross the immigrant visa with a pen (what the heck! we just spent and waited a lot for that!).
6. Now, the officer will tell you the common greeting sentences.. "Congratulations! Welcome to Canada as a Permanent Resident! You have all the rights that a Canadian Citizen has except voting.........and so on". YOU ARE DONE!!!
7. The signed copy of the CoPR is the "Landing Document", you need to keep it for your entire life in Canada. It will be required at the time of the citizenship application process and so on. You do not need to apply for the PR card additionally, its automatic. I had been told that they are gonna send me the PR card in 6-8 weeks to the address that I wrote at very first moment of the processing, so be careful while you are writing the address! Its a bit weird, coz they already have my valid address, but I didn't argue at that moment..
Its recommended that you don't travel outside of Canada until you get the PR card.
8. Go to the cash counter to grab the door code, you need to use the code to unlock the parking door. Drive back home as the PR!
Remark: One of the most important tasks will be to call Service Canada asap to change your SIN number.
That's what my experience was. The Lacolle border is one 24x7, so you can plan your trip anytime. I did it at midnight.
Thanks to all the contributors to this forum, you people are great! Best of luck to those who are expecting to land soon!
Cheers!