Sincere congrats to all the 2010 applications that have been approved in the last while. Once the backlog is cleared out, all applications will be moving along faster...and those of us who were approaching a one year waiting anniversary needed some love!
While following the forum, I have found landing stories really interesting (and helpful) to read. For this reason, I thought I'd share ours in case it might be the same for someone else.
My husband's passport arrived back from NYC yesterday morning by mail, so this morning we drove to the Ontario/NY border so that he could land in Prescott. We crossed the bridge to the States and turned around immediately. Not sure if Ogdensburg is always slow or it was just good timing for us, but we got back to the Canadian side and were waved in immediately. The guard took my husband's paperwork, asked him to check it for errors and then went into the back to process. When the guard returned, my husband signed a document and then the guard shook his hand and, with a smile that we waited 11 long months to see, said "Welcome to Canada". From start to finish it took about 15 mins. Since my husband's goods did not cross with us, he completed a form so that we will not be forced to pay duty when we go back to get them later this year. Apparently the PR card comes in 6-8 weeks by mail, and we were instructed not to leave to country until then because airlines will not honour re-entry with the temporary form that is now stapled inside his american passport. The guard was lovely and very professional.
All the stress (both emotional and economic) that we thought would never go away just evaporated at that moment. Having now lived to tell the story, if I may be permitted to share one piece of advice, it would be this: in the end, it *really* is worth it. Just hang onto that.
Bon courage everyone! Thanks for being here for us along the way.
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