I landed yesterday, on January 10, 2016.
Me and my wife drove from Toronto to Rainbow Bridge, Niagara, ON. It was a smooth drive regardless the weather, which was raining all day and storm during the day. It was around 10am when we took the line at the border. There were 4 or 5 open lanes and there were maybe 3 cars in front of us. Each car only took about 1 minute to pass through.
When we came up to the gate booth, the male officer greeted us and I told him that we were new immigrants to Canada and we would like to flag poll back to Canada. I handed him an instruction paper that came with my CoPR. Then he said he did not need it but he needed our passports instead. He examined it (maybe put something on his computer) for a minute and gave us a small piece of paper then asked us to go through and park our car at the nearby parking spot so we can go to the immigration office near it. He kept our passports (no, he did not return our passports).
We stepped into the building and the officers sitting and chatting to each other there told us to proceed to the second floor. We took an elevator up and arrived in a waiting room. There were maybe only 4 families when we got there, maybe with different purposes. Using electronics of any kinds was prohibited in that room, so this part was a boring part. After waiting for about 20 or 30 minutes, our names (my last name and my wife's are different) were called and asked to go through the entry door. We walked to the booth where the officer asked us if we had ever been to the States before. We answered.
That interview lasted for a minute or two. Then the officer told us to go downstairs and meet him there. He then told us to get our car and meet him back in front of the door of that building. I kind of forgot when he returned our passports. I think he returned them after I got the car. He then directed us and opened a special gate for us to turn back to Canada. We proceeded and had to pay CAD 4.50 to use the bridge, which was somehow a toll road (it was not when we were entering the States). Then we drove back to Canada, which took maybe a few minutes with speed of 40-50Km/h (I tried to drive as slow as possible).
We arrived at the Canadian gate booth where the officer greeted us and asked us for our passports. He asked why we were there and we answered the same answer as before. He then told us to park the car and go to the immigration office just next to it. I also forgot about this, but I think I had the passports at the moment, and handed them to the officer there before we went to the waiting room.
We waited for 5 minutes and our names were called. We were interviewed there, both of us at the same time. The questions were what were on CoPR, i.e., if you were ever convicted a crime. She then asked us to sit in the waiting room again. Then after another 5 minutes, she called us again, asked us to sign a copy of our CoPR, then stapled it on our passport. She told us that we were now permanent residents of Canada and congratulated us. We said thank you and wished her a very nice day. We were out at 12pm.
