Thread for September 2010 Applicants

[mmhughes]

yeah so true.. dont worry, ul get the ppt back soon with visa.

Thanks so much for your positive words. It looks like there are others in the same boat and London is now taking 4-5 weeks to return passports. When you get your passport request it says in block letters something along the lines of "do not make any plans or book flights until you receive your passport back". We should have listened to that advice. So as a note to everyone on this thread. Learn from my mistake. Unless of course you have travel insurance that would cover the cost of the flight or you are with an airline that will allow you to switch dates last minute. Air Transat won't.

 

[Rob.Barrett]

LANDED! took 2 hours to get through immigration due to the queue! First of all we were 15 minutes late landed, the it takes 20 minutes to walk to customs!

Once there, first lady sent me through to immigration. Hour wait later got a loverly CBSA officer who pretty much was joking around with me! She seemed incredibly happy that i was back with my partner and that i chose Canada, made me sign the COPR, welcomed me to canada and let me go. Then a lady on a random desk welcomed me and gave me two leaflets, and asked me to go to the "New Immigrants" area. There a German lady gave me a bag full of random goodies, and she welcomed me to Canada.

Then i got my bags but had to declare Items that were following. When i finally got down there another queue! Get there and then handed all my documents over to the officer, he was happy that i was landing in Canada! Asked me general questions and pretty much joked around again! He made me fill out some documents while he made up a invoice - for which it declared i didnt need to pay any duty charges. After that (30 mins) he shook my hand and welcomed me to Canada. Finally i walked through the last door and saw my girl - of whom i hadn't seen for 7 Months. Happy Day, despite being half dead from the flight and two hours!

 

[Canooknic]

Yay Rob!!! That brought a tear to my eye - I'm so happy for you and your lady. It must have been an amazing moment for you. I've turned into such a sap as our leaving date gets closer!!!
Have a great life full of Canadian goodness xxx

 

[pinklady]

Yeah Rob, thats such a great story and the landing experience sounds good and happy.
Congratulations on reaching the end of this!!

My landing was so uneventful its not even worth talking about.I didnt even get a 'welcome to canada' let alone a bag of goodies from a random german lady!

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

 

[Canooknic]

My landing was so uneventful its not even worth talking about.I didnt even get a 'welcome to canada' let alone a bag of goodies from a random german lady!

Maybe they're waiting and they're going to throw you a surprise party instead!! I'm going to make my fella demand a goodie bag!!

 

[pinklady]

I'm not going to hold my breath! LOL

 

[mmhughes]

LANDED! took 2 hours to get through immigration due to the queue! First of all we were 15 minutes late landed, the it takes 20 minutes to walk to customs!

Once there, first lady sent me through to immigration. Hour wait later got a loverly CBSA officer who pretty much was joking around with me! She seemed incredibly happy that i was back with my partner and that i chose Canada, made me sign the COPR, welcomed me to canada and let me go. Then a lady on a random desk welcomed me and gave me two leaflets, and asked me to go to the "New Immigrants" area. There a German lady gave me a bag full of random goodies, and she welcomed me to Canada.

Then i got my bags but had to declare Items that were following. When i finally got down there another queue! Get there and then handed all my documents over to the officer, he was happy that i was landing in Canada! Asked me general questions and pretty much joked around again! He made me fill out some documents while he made up a invoice - for which it declared i didnt need to pay any duty charges. After that (30 mins) he shook my hand and welcomed me to Canada. Finally i walked through the last door and saw my girl - of whom i hadn't seen for 7 Months. Happy Day, despite being half dead from the flight and two hours!

Congratulations! Just out of curiosity, how long did it take the Canadian Consulate to send back your passport? My hubby has been waiting for his passport to be retuned for nearly four weeks now. He had to miss his flight today back to Canada

 

[MissyIffy]

If you don't mind me asking, but could you tell me what airport that was and what day/time. I am landing in TO and have a connecting flight 2 hours later, so I'm nervous I won't make it to the next flight on time.

LANDED! took 2 hours to get through immigration due to the queue! First of all we were 15 minutes late landed, the it takes 20 minutes to walk to customs!

Once there, first lady sent me through to immigration. Hour wait later got a loverly CBSA officer who pretty much was joking around with me! She seemed incredibly happy that i was back with my partner and that i chose Canada, made me sign the COPR, welcomed me to canada and let me go. Then a lady on a random desk welcomed me and gave me two leaflets, and asked me to go to the "New Immigrants" area. There a German lady gave me a bag full of random goodies, and she welcomed me to Canada.

Then i got my bags but had to declare Items that were following. When i finally got down there another queue! Get there and then handed all my documents over to the officer, he was happy that i was landing in Canada! Asked me general questions and pretty much joked around again! He made me fill out some documents while he made up a invoice - for which it declared i didnt need to pay any duty charges. After that (30 mins) he shook my hand and welcomed me to Canada. Finally i walked through the last door and saw my girl - of whom i hadn't seen for 7 Months. Happy Day, despite being half dead from the flight and two hours!

 

[jendrian]

daaamn, I just got in and got out ... no new immigrants area or bag of goodies I landed in Vancouver

 

[Gemauru]

If you don't mind me asking, but could you tell me what airport that was and what day/time. I am landing in TO and have a connecting flight 2 hours later, so I'm nervous I won't make it to the next flight on time.

Most likely you won't make it. The good news is that the airline will give you the next available flt.

 

[limanoid]

If you don't mind me asking, but could you tell me what airport that was and what day/time. I am landing in TO and have a connecting flight 2 hours later, so I'm nervous I won't make it to the next flight on time.

It might be fine, I think it really depends how busy it is. Don't worry yet... As another poster said, the airline will put you on another flight.

 

[Kaycee1]

daaamn, I just got in and got out ... no new immigrants area or bag of goodies I landed in Vancouver

His signature says LHR to YYZ - that's London Heathrow to Toronto Pearson

 

[jendrian]

haha that last bit was so cryptic in his signature. I get it now though, I guess I should've landed in Toronto for the package.

Now I'm wondering what it has because I'm having a hard time figuring out a couple things for immigrants here like, nobody told me banks have special "deals" for immigrants, like waiving your account's annual fee or monthly fees for 12 months.

I've also seen a lot of people using special bus passes in chinese and korean here, and given the price of public transportation here... I want something similar

 

[MissyIffy]

It might be fine, I think it really depends how busy it is. Don't worry yet... As another poster said, the airline will put you on another flight.

Thanks Limanoid - I hope so! I read some other people's experiences in TO, and it sounds like people's experiences depend on the officer and how busy the airport is - so basically no way to know!

Anhyhoo, one good thing I found out is that Westjet flies out of the same terminal that I'm flying into.

So that's my piece of information for today- Westjet flies out of T3, Air Canada from T1 - knowing that just might save you some time in between flights!

 

[MissyIffy]

Thanks so much for your positive words. It looks like there are others in the same boat and London is now taking 4-5 weeks to return passports. When you get your passport request it says in block letters something along the lines of "do not make any plans or book flights until you receive your passport back". We should have listened to that advice. So as a note to everyone on this thread. Learn from my mistake. Unless of course you have travel insurance that would cover the cost of the flight or you are with an airline that will allow you to switch dates last minute. Air Transat won't.

Since you're bi***ing about airlines, I'll get this off of my chest: I've just spent the last three years living in Asia where most airlines still offer all the goodness Western airlines used to - refunds, date changes, free seat selection, etc. So why oh why is travel to and from Canada such a depressing affair!!! Westjet = sneaky so and sos! Air Canada = Dinosaur Air.

mmhughes - I'm so sorry that they wouldn't let you change your flight, but I'm not surprised. I never had a good experience with western airlines.