Oh..did the CBSA say anything about visas in old passports? As in, did they say whether a visa in an old passport is fine to travel/check in with?
Re-entering Canada without PR Card, only CoPR and passport - by plane
- Thread starter donnanne
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yes they confirmed we can travel with old passport, there is no issue at their end , Next time i'm gonna try with Air Canada they handle these type of cases on daily basis
Ah okay, well I'm glad you found a way out. Thank you for informing me about the Air Canada thing btw.
One last thing, Air Canada has no issues with this kind of situation across the world right? Or is it exclusive to flights from India?
Hello everyone,
This post is meant for people in a similar predicament to me of flying to Canada with a COPR document but no PR card. I've gone through countless threads on the internet, trying to salvage an expensive flight itinerary through Canada on my way to Asia. First, my immigration profile:
My routing was New York City -> Toronto -> New Delhi with a 12 hrs layover in Toronto. I had no clue that US permanent residents who are also Canadian PR aren't eligible for ETA. This became a reality when my ETA application got rejected 36 hrs before my flight from NYC. Some members here and on Reddit had success with flying on their existing visitor visa and withholding the fact of being a Canadian PR with the airline.
I decided to play the same gamble and showed up at the desk agent for check-in formalities. The agent went through my passport and visitor visa many times while processing my boarding passes. I got a sigh of relief when I heard the printer chirp and saw the boarding passes being printed. The next and final hurdle was document check at the gate, which turned out to be a non-issue as they only cared to see a valid passport.
On landing at Pearson, I used the NEXUS lanes for immigration, and the machine directed me to see the CBSA officer. The officer wanted to see my US green card, and I was let inside the country with no issues at all
I hope this post helps others who are going through severe anxiety like me. The gist of the story is not to hesitate on flying if you are in a similar pickle and you have a visitor visa. Of course, it's risky, and what worked for me might not work for you.
This post is meant for people in a similar predicament to me of flying to Canada with a COPR document but no PR card. I've gone through countless threads on the internet, trying to salvage an expensive flight itinerary through Canada on my way to Asia. First, my immigration profile:
- US Permanent Resident
- Passport: India
- Canadian Permanent Resident (did soft landing back in January 2022, got a signed CoPR document, and I am yet to order the PR card)
- Canada Visitor Visa valid until 2024 (apparently, this should've gotten canceled on PR approval/landing)
My routing was New York City -> Toronto -> New Delhi with a 12 hrs layover in Toronto. I had no clue that US permanent residents who are also Canadian PR aren't eligible for ETA. This became a reality when my ETA application got rejected 36 hrs before my flight from NYC. Some members here and on Reddit had success with flying on their existing visitor visa and withholding the fact of being a Canadian PR with the airline.
I decided to play the same gamble and showed up at the desk agent for check-in formalities. The agent went through my passport and visitor visa many times while processing my boarding passes. I got a sigh of relief when I heard the printer chirp and saw the boarding passes being printed. The next and final hurdle was document check at the gate, which turned out to be a non-issue as they only cared to see a valid passport.
On landing at Pearson, I used the NEXUS lanes for immigration, and the machine directed me to see the CBSA officer. The officer wanted to see my US green card, and I was let inside the country with no issues at all
I hope this post helps others who are going through severe anxiety like me. The gist of the story is not to hesitate on flying if you are in a similar pickle and you have a visitor visa. Of course, it's risky, and what worked for me might not work for you.
US Citizens who are Canadian PRs (but out of RO for decades) do the same: they fly to Canada with US passport, never tell CBSA that they are Canadian PRs, tour Canada and then come home a week or two later. It's good to troll CBSA and do this if you don't care much about Canadian PR status. For someone like me, for instance. I could troll CBSA all day long. The worst they can do to me is charge me with misrepresentation (civil charge) and permanently ban from entry to Canada (to which my response would be "HA-HA-HA!"). But as Canadian PR who intends to stay in Canada permanently, you could be taking unnecessary risks. I wouldn't do it if I were you. I would just travel to border by land and cross with what entitles me to admission.Hello everyone,
This post is meant for people in a similar predicament to me of flying to Canada with a COPR document but no PR card. I've gone through countless threads on the internet, trying to salvage an expensive flight itinerary through Canada on my way to Asia. First, my immigration profile:
- US Permanent Resident
- Passport: India
- Canadian Permanent Resident (did soft landing back in January 2022, got a signed CoPR document, and I am yet to order the PR card)
- Canada Visitor Visa valid until 2024 (apparently, this should've gotten canceled on PR approval/landing)
My routing was New York City -> Toronto -> New Delhi with a 12 hrs layover in Toronto. I had no clue that US permanent residents who are also Canadian PR aren't eligible for ETA. This became a reality when my ETA application got rejected 36 hrs before my flight from NYC. Some members here and on Reddit had success with flying on their existing visitor visa and withholding the fact of being a Canadian PR with the airline.
I decided to play the same gamble and showed up at the desk agent for check-in formalities. The agent went through my passport and visitor visa many times while processing my boarding passes. I got a sigh of relief when I heard the printer chirp and saw the boarding passes being printed. The next and final hurdle was document check at the gate, which turned out to be a non-issue as they only cared to see a valid passport.
On landing at Pearson, I used the NEXUS lanes for immigration, and the machine directed me to see the CBSA officer. The officer wanted to see my US green card, and I was let inside the country with no issues at all
I hope this post helps others who are going through severe anxiety like me. The gist of the story is not to hesitate on flying if you are in a similar pickle and you have a visitor visa. Of course, it's risky, and what worked for me might not work for you.
______________________________________________________________________________________________
***Please note that I am not aware of how the action you took would be interpreted under Canadian laws. By all means you have not made material misrepresentation to enter Canada. You were entitled to be admitted to Canada as Canadian PR in full compliance of RO. And airline not being official government body, it's the one who had checked your non-immigrant visa, CBSA shouldn't be able to charge you for use of non-immigrant visa to board a plane, which CIC itself failed to invalidate. The fact is: you were entitled to be admitted to Canada, you just jumped the hoops to board a commercial vessel. Therefore, it's possible that any misrepresentation charges by CBSA would be thrown out of court.
But I bet there are Orwellian Triple Hermetic Secret Worshippers (a.k.a. rulers of the clowns) who will see this as a loophole, and they will come up with some measures fitting of GESTAPO to close it in near future.
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Thanks for providing your insights! I fully agree with you on this being a Grey area and I would ever jeopardize my legal status for anything but it was a non refundable business class ticket
I never falsified any information (only withheld), however, I was never asked for my status in the US or Canada. They took my passport, went through their system and issued a boarding pass.
Also, does this mean your visitor visa is not revoked until its expired even after getting the PR?
You are welcome!Thanks for providing your insights! I fully agree with you on this being a Grey area and I would ever jeopardize my legal status for anything but it was a non refundable business class ticket
I never falsified any information (only withheld), however, I was never asked for my status in the US or Canada. They took my passport, went through their system and issued a boarding pass.
Also, does this mean your visitor visa is not revoked until its expired even after getting the PR?
I get your point about business class ticket, but you have to compare the cost/benefit of one flight in a business class with the potential cost of having to litigate this in future and defending yourself against misrepresentation charges. I assure you , latter costs a lot more (never forget to include the psychological toll) than many VIP/first class trips around the world on Emirates Airlines I might be exaggerating it, of course, and careful legal analysis may reveal that you have done nothing risky, but I neither have knowledge nor expertise to assert one way or another, only experienced, well versed and seasoned immigration attorney can. Regarding non-immigrant visa, I really don't know much about it, so I can only make a conjecture, based on my understanding of general application of the law: I believe the moment you became Canadian PR, your non-immigrant visa had lost its' power (was essentially nullified), regardless of whether it was officially revoked/cancelled in the CIC database or not. It may still exist as a stamp in your passport, but it legally means nothing (or is irrelevant to your current situation).
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The reason this works is because you can visit Canada using the US GC (you enter as a visitor instead of the PR status). Now, you could board the plane with the US GC and then actually show the COPR to the CBSA after landing at a Canadian airport to enter as a Canadian PR instead of visitor - that would be the same like driving via land and using the COPR there (no PR card needed in either case).Hello everyone,
This post is meant for people in a similar predicament to me of flying to Canada with a COPR document but no PR card. I've gone through countless threads on the internet, trying to salvage an expensive flight itinerary through Canada on my way to Asia. First, my immigration profile:
- US Permanent Resident
- Passport: India
- Canadian Permanent Resident (did soft landing back in January 2022, got a signed CoPR document, and I am yet to order the PR card)
- Canada Visitor Visa valid until 2024 (apparently, this should've gotten canceled on PR approval/landing)
My routing was New York City -> Toronto -> New Delhi with a 12 hrs layover in Toronto. I had no clue that US permanent residents who are also Canadian PR aren't eligible for ETA. This became a reality when my ETA application got rejected 36 hrs before my flight from NYC. Some members here and on Reddit had success with flying on their existing visitor visa and withholding the fact of being a Canadian PR with the airline.
I decided to play the same gamble and showed up at the desk agent for check-in formalities. The agent went through my passport and visitor visa many times while processing my boarding passes. I got a sigh of relief when I heard the printer chirp and saw the boarding passes being printed. The next and final hurdle was document check at the gate, which turned out to be a non-issue as they only cared to see a valid passport.
On landing at Pearson, I used the NEXUS lanes for immigration, and the machine directed me to see the CBSA officer. The officer wanted to see my US green card, and I was let inside the country with no issues at all
I hope this post helps others who are going through severe anxiety like me. The gist of the story is not to hesitate on flying if you are in a similar pickle and you have a visitor visa. Of course, it's risky, and what worked for me might not work for you.
Airlines need an entry document, which the COPR is not. But the CBSA will treat that (the COPR) as a valid document of status once you are able to reach that point in the entry process.
All the rest aside, US PRs and visitors with non-immigrant visa are required to get eTA. It's very odd that stackystack was able to board plane without it, while presenting himself as non-immigrant visitor to airline. So, it shouldn't have worked if airline detected the fact that his eTA was rejected.
See https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/services/visit-canada/eta/facts.html and https://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/questions-answers-by-topic.asp?st=16.7
US Citizens (aside from Canadians) are the only ones who are not required to get eTA to fly into Canada and can simply withhold their Canadian PR status from airline to board a plane, and then enter Canada as either Canadian PRs or US Citizens (many non-compliant with RO Canadian PRs did the latter and shared their experiences, including in this forum).
If what stackystack describes is what actually took place, then either the airline is sloppy, or some major changes took place during the pandemic and political decision could have been made not to enforce the rules as they used to be enforced before pandemic and after the final steps of Orwellian Triple Hermetic border initiative were implemented.
This is actually not true. It worked for me only because I have a Canadian visitor visa stamped on my passport. Being a US Green card holder, I needed an ETA to travel, which was rejected by CBSA.
Or maybe it takes a while for the visitor visa to actually become invalid. Airline didn't ask me for my status in the US or Canada at all.