I just landed as PR today!!
As we know, today's weather was not good for driving but also not very suitable for skiing.
The driving took much longer time, my roommate kept complaining how dangerous it was.
We managed to visit Waterbury and Burlington in VT (yes Ben & Jerry's factory tour was great and fun with a super sweet triple caramel chunk ice-cream as free sample at the end--a nice appentizer for landing event!
I also went to a bookstore (The Crow in Burlington) to get 2 books as souvenir of this special day.
There was however one small accident:
We intended to come back through Lacolle PoE, but somehow the stupid GPS guided us to a strangely small PoE (whose banner also carries the name Lacolle) but we were told that they could not process landing there (it looks so underequipped to the extent I even wondered if they could do secondary inspection. The officer instructed us to drive toward Lacolle but it's impossible to do it that way. We ended up getting to the US again and got back to Canada through the right PoE. Luckily there was no trouble at the US border. The officer there was so kind to give us directions.
Then at Lacolle:
PR landing will be served by Comptoir A.
I was the only one landing there at that time.
I presented passport + work permit and my CoPR to the officer.
Officer's first question is: do you have the csq?
I took it out from my folder and showed him.
He asked me for my address in Canada so that they could send me PR card, my contact number and the amount of money I have to support myself. (He did not ask for bank statement/account balance/job contract/pay slips)
Then he asked me if I have anything to declare which I planned to ship to Canada. After knowing there will be exemption from import tax, I finally said no, I could not think of anything I wanted or needed to ship here apart from some books.
Then he asked me to check if info on CoPR is correct and i pointed out the entry date errors and that I asked COC about it. He said if CIC said it's not important , then it's not important. And he showed me 2 questions on the CoPR (one about criminal convictions; the other, number of children); my answers to both of which are "no" then he asked me to write "no" and my initial next to them. And I was asked to sit and wait a bit.
And then I observed, my roommate chose to talk on the phone during this important moment in my life. One or two ppl arrived and had something to do in Comptoir B. The officers here assuringly looked familiar like everyday people I met in Montreal--compared to the stiff and a bit ahuman CBP officer in the US side, I was so contented that I was back to the ordinary side. There are 2 coffee machines which look like printers.
Then the officer called me back (he seemed to avoid my name as it contains some challenging pronunciation). He sincerely showed me the beautiful page 9 of my passport where he just stamped with a date, and said this is your landing stamp. He congratulated me for becoming Canadian and said the usual line about the rights and obligations we have.
But confusingly he said as you are from visa exempt country you can travel freely with this passsprt without problem. I corrected him, "do you mean it will be fine to travel with this passport and the PR card? Or do you really mean the passport alone without Pr card is fine?" I explained that I have planned o travel out of Canada before I get Pr card and I knew that I might not be able to travel back without the PR card. He seemed not to be familiar with the new rule after the eTA. He finally advised to consult CIC for this info. And he asked me if I JD any other questions. I said no.
He then got me the passcode for the car to pass through the gate on our way out. And after that I finally remembered to give him the US I-94 entry--I do not want to keep it as I am not planning to visit the states in near future (honestly I want to avoid that after Trump took up position). The officer asked if I got the refusal paper. (Well if I had the refusal paper I would not keep an I-94), I told him that no I did a day trip there.
I saw him tearing off my work permit when we left. (Maybe I mistook it but it seems he really was testing that thing into pieces.) In short I left Canada today with my PGWP and came back as a PR~~
