Questions for entering Canada with PR status or not

[howie2610]

Hi there, I got a situation here hope someone can help to answer.

I am a Canadian Citizen and my wife just got her PR approved and received the letter, we originally planned to go to Canada in Feb for 3 weeks as a visitor and come back to Hong Kong where we currently lived in.

Now since her PR status is approved, not sure if she can apply ETA anymore, I have experienced this before when my father was a PR long time ago and he could not get a ETA, and he ended up applied for a PRTD to travel to Canada.

Here is the tricky part where I am not sure whether it will be a problem, for the trip we already planned in Feb, we will be traveling from Hong Kong to Vancouver and connect to Calgary to meet my friends, then goes to Chicago (my wife already has a US visa) for a few days, and finally to Toronto for a week and back to Hong Kong.

Q1 Can my wife still apply for a ETA as a tourist to enter Canada?

Q2. Can my wife use her PR letter to enter Vancouver (onward to Calgary) when the letter stated "Toronto" as the city we intended to live in.

Q3. If we can enter Vancouver as well as Calgary I believe since it's domestic flight, and then leave Canada to Chicago, will there be a problem when we enter Canada again in Toronto from Chicago? I heard that the PR letter can only be used once, and my wife should apply for a PR card once she is in Canada, but I don't we could complete this in just 3 weeks.

Q4. If we could make the trip as planned using her PR letter to travel (Hong Kong - Vancouver - Calgary - Chicago - Toronto- Hong Kong), will there be another issue when we immigrate to Toronto in Apr? If the PR letter can only be used once, does she needs to apply for PRTD in Hong Kong in order to travel back to Canada to apply for a PR card.

Sorry for so many questions...I hope someone can help on this complex situation..

Million Thanks!
Howie

 

[Rob_TO]

Hi there, I got a situation here hope someone can help to answer.

I am a Canadian Citizen and my wife just got her PR approved and received the letter, we originally planned to go to Canada in Feb for 3 weeks as a visitor and come back to Hong Kong where we currently lived in.

Now since her PR status is approved, not sure if she can apply ETA anymore, I have experienced this before when my father was a PR long time ago and he could not get a ETA, and he ended up applied for a PRTD to travel to Canada.

Here is the tricky part where I am not sure whether it will be a problem, for the trip we already planned in Feb, we will be traveling from Hong Kong to Vancouver and connect to Calgary to meet my friends, then goes to Chicago (my wife already has a US visa) for a few days, and finally to Toronto for a week and back to Hong Kong.

Q1 Can my wife still apply for a ETA as a tourist to enter Canada?

Q2. Can my wife use her PR letter to enter Vancouver (onward to Calgary) when the letter stated "Toronto" as the city we intended to live in.

Q3. If we can enter Vancouver as well as Calgary I believe since it's domestic flight, and then leave Canada to Chicago, will there be a problem when we enter Canada again in Toronto from Chicago? I heard that the PR letter can only be used once, and my wife should apply for a PR card once she is in Canada, but I don't we could complete this in just 3 weeks.

Q4. If we could make the trip as planned using her PR letter to travel (Hong Kong - Vancouver - Calgary - Chicago - Toronto- Hong Kong), will there be another issue when we immigrate to Toronto in Apr? If the PR letter can only be used once, does she needs to apply for PRTD in Hong Kong in order to travel back to Canada to apply for a PR card.

Sorry for so many questions...I hope someone can help on this complex situation..

Million Thanks!
Howie

She is not a PR until she officially lands in Canada as a PR.

1 - Upon getting COPR, an eTA should automatically be applied to her passport number to fly to Canada to land.
Once she has landed in Canada as a PR, then after that she can only fly on her PR card or PR TD, and eTA should be cancelled.

2 - It's fine, PR landing is done at first point of entry in Canada. Doesn't matter what city you put on the forms (only Quebec has some special requirements).

3 - Domestic flights are fine as just the passport is enough, no need for PR info.

However if she has already landed as a PR in Vancouver, she can't fly from Chicago to Toronto shortly after. The airline must see a valid PR card or PR Travel Document to allow boarding, no exceptions. She will be denied boarding without either of these 2 things.

If driving back to Canada that would be fine as CBSA can just use her COPR to allow entry at the land border.

So you may want to consider delaying her actual PR landing, until the trip from Chicago to Toronto. This means she'll enter as a visitor only in Vancouver so do not use her COPR landing doc, and won't become a PR until she arrives in Toronto from Chicago.

4 - At time of PR landing CBSA will ask for a permanent address in Canada to send PR card to. You can use the address of a friend/family who can receive the card for her and then courier it to HK. O if you will have no address then she can delay applying for the PR card until she comes back to Canada permanently.

Without the PR card, she'll need to apply for a PR TD when back in HK if she wants to fly back to Canada.

 

[howie2610]

Hi Rob,

Many thanks for your reply, pretty much sorted out my queries. In this case, she may just land Vancouver as a visitor and use her COPR when we land in Toronto, and you mentioned an ETA should automatically applied to her passport, so she do not need to apply for a visitor ETA? So when we land in Vancouver, she just show her Hong Kong passport without the COPR, right? Just want to make sure, thanks again!!

Howie