Work permit at port of entry questions

[youknowluke]

I have a 4 year open work permit letter to take to the port of entry when I land.

1. Is this work permit issued at immigration at the airport or do they take you to secondary inspection to inspect your bags, and issue the permit there etc. to complete the process ?....so you don't hold up the line.

2. It says on my letter I need to provide proof of funds at the Port of entry and proof of health insurance for the time of my permit. Proof of funds is fine, but the problem is I can only buy 2 years health insurance this is the maximum term the providers do getting a policy before I land which the letter says I should do. They don't do 4 year policies. So is 2 years enough to satisfy the officer? Or how does it work as I'm a little confused.

Thanks everyone I searched the forums but could not find answers to these questions

 

[fkl]

1. I don't know how you got that notion of secondary inspection. That is usually when at the airport they are worried about you being there altogether and do their security screening. Secondary inspection is never about facilitating any immigration document for you.

CBSA would simply redirect you to immigration office at the airport (on very small airports or even land borders, a designated CBSA officer might be doing the same), which would see all your docs and issue the work permit. They may or may not have a line at immigration, but generally it is considerably shorter unless you are landing at say a very busy place like Toronto.

2. Two years should be pretty good. Who knows you might get PR in that time frame. I don't know why it says so in your case. Normally for any student or work permit holder, they are eligible for public health care 3 months after landing in most of Canadian provinces. And i never saw CBSA asking even for that 3 month private healthcare needed by every one.

 

[youknowluke]

1. I don't know how you got that notion of secondary inspection. That is usually when at the airport they are worried about you being there altogether and do their security screening. Secondary inspection is never about facilitating any immigration document for you.

CBSA would simply redirect you to immigration office at the airport (on very small airports or even land borders, a designated CBSA officer might be doing the same), which would see all your docs and issue the work permit. They may or may not have a line at immigration, but generally it is considerably shorter unless you are landing at say a very busy place like Toronto.

2. Two years should be pretty good. Who knows you might get PR in that time frame. I don't know why it says so in your case. Normally for any student or work permit holder, they are eligible for public health care 3 months after landing in most of Canadian provinces. And i never saw CBSA asking even for that 3 month private healthcare needed by every one.

Thanks very much, that is exactly where I'm landing Toronto...so I'll get redirected to an immigration office within the airport?

I just thought you would go to secondary as potentially you'll be in the country a long time so they wanna make sure your not bringing any phrohibited items into the country.

That's my plan as long as we love Canada after a year I'll have enough points to qualify for PNP under the skilled worker program then I'll hopefully gain PR through express entry sponsoring my common law partner. Unless we don't like it and want to leave which is highly unlikely, as we loved Ontario when we visited. I did get offered a job in BC but the housing cost/availability was worse than Toronto.

 

[ozlis]

I have a 4 year open work permit letter to take to the port of entry when I land.

1. Is this work permit issued at immigration at the airport or do they take you to secondary inspection to inspect your bags, and issue the permit there etc. to complete the process ?....so you don't hold up the line.

2. It says on my letter I need to provide proof of funds at the Port of entry and proof of health insurance for the time of my permit. Proof of funds is fine, but the problem is I can only buy 2 years health insurance this is the maximum term the providers do getting a policy before I land which the letter says I should do. They don't do 4 year policies. So is 2 years enough to satisfy the officer? Or how does it work as I'm a little confused.

Thanks everyone I searched the forums but could not find answers to these questions

To answer your health cover question/permit question - you are not getting a four year permit. IEC is two years max depending on the country you are coming from.

You need to show proof of health care for the time of the permit (2 years) that also covers repatriation to your home country in the event of an accident etc. Provincial health cover does not qualify for this. It's rare that they ever check the health insurance but you don't want to be the one person that they do it for.

 

[fkl]

To answer your health cover question/permit question - you are not getting a four year permit. IEC is two years max depending on the country you are coming from.

You need to show proof of health care for the time of the permit (2 years) that also covers repatriation to your home country in the event of an accident etc. Provincial health cover does not qualify for this. It's rare that they ever check the health insurance but you don't want to be the one person that they do it for.

That's good addition ozlis, i didn't know some of this as well +1