Sorry, but this is not correct. 'Landing to activate PR' and 'landing as settler / to establish a residence' can be on different dates (albeit in that order) - many people have done precisely this as it is more common than not, given the normally tight expiry dates on a CoPR and the normally longer time it takes to sell up everything overseas.
See here:
http://britishexpats.com/wiki/Landing_as_PR-Canada
Note that the contributor who made the detailed statement on the 'Landing at Ottawa Airport' thread, ('Former Lancastrian') is a current CBSA senior officer.
Thank you for correcting me on that i do really appreciate all new information , however i still wouldn't advise anyone not to have there goods to follow form when flagpoling or a soft landing , but at least i now know they can still present there forms afterwards they just need to know the rules and hopefully the CBSA officer isn't snotty
The
actual CBSA memo drawing a distinction between the two 'types of landing' (the wording is a bit turgid!):
http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/dm-md/d2/d2-2-1-eng.html
Having said all of that, not all CBSA officers are aware of the distinction! I personally fell foul of one such officer (who was perfectly polite, just wrong!) at Ottawa airport as recently as mid-April this year when we landed to activate PR but not to establish a permanent residence. He blankly insisted that this was my one and only chance to declare goods to follow. I was too jet lagged to argue and fortunately had read that occasionally some CBSA officials get it wrong, so I already had a detailed goods to follow list so presented that!
