Assalam O Alaikum All, I am a 6-12 months letter holder and an active reader of this forum. By the grace of Allah, i have successfully landed in Toronto on the few days back. Let me share my travelling experiences with you so that those who are planning to land here shortly can use my experience for them. I left from Karachi by emirates and i would advise to all not to take Emirates for their journey. It’s just a “Oonchee Dukaan & Pheeka Pakwaan”. Their services and the rude attitude of their staff was very painful not only for me but for the passengers on board.
Now, when i landed on Toronto airport the first thing which hit me the most was the temperature. It was -20 degrees over there and my bones were chilling. Anyone who is planning to land here shortly and can extend his departure is strongly advised to do so because the winter is very very painful here and there is snowfall and fast winds which turns very problematic for us as newcomers.
Anyhow, after coming out of the plane i headed towards the immigration counter. The person over there checked my immigration card (which the airline crew provided us in the plane) and put a diagonal line on both sides of it with a pink colored highlighter and written some code words on it. Then he asked me to proceed to the immigration office. Over there, the person took my COPR and asked few questions like if was ever arrested or involved in any crime anywhere, if it was my first visit to Canada etc etc and obviously i replied “no” on every question. Then he asked me how much funds i was carrying and trusted on whatever figure i told him and did not requested the physical check. After completing his formalities and completing the questions, he asked me to sign the COPR on two places and welcomed me and asked me to proceed to another counter. On that counter they provided me some printed material (information for new comers). Afterwards, i went to another counter and they issued me my SIN number and informed that the SIN card will be mailed on the given address within 15-20 days.
Finally, i collected my baggage and thought it was all over but just before the exit, a custom officer checked the immigration card and when saw the pink highlighted line on the custom’s declaration card asked me to go for a baggage check because i was carrying more than $10000.
I informed that custom officer about the details of my funds like the details of the bank draft and the amount carried in cash and then he asked me to sign a paper and when i signed it, he said “good luck” and i came out of the airport and finally, i was a newly landed immigrant of Canada.
Now, some tips for the people who planning to land here in the future.
1- Avoid landing in the winter
2- Those who have family (specially kids) must come here alone first and arrange their job and a home and then call their families no matter how much money they have.
3- If you are landing in the winter, bring clothing from there for the initial days but buy the rest from here as proper clothing suitable for the local weather is only available here.
4- Open a bank account in Canada as soon as you land here as it would be your proof of address as well as it would be used to credit salary and other amounts etc
I think this would help you people a lot but even now, if someone wants to ask any question, just let me know and i will be pleased to help you if i can. Best of luck to all of you.
and of course they don't answer when you call them either
