Thread for outland Buffalo applicants!

[NYQUE]

We are officially at the 1 year mark today, also 10 days before our interview in Buffalo, I consider to be on the lucky side as we, even though applied outland, have been able to be together for the past 8 months, from when I (sponsored) received a letter stating that an interview was required, I as a national of a country that requires visa to enter to Canada I was able to renew my TRV before coming to Canada, I extended my staying until April 25, even though I have a valid visitor visa until 2013, in the event that after the interview further processing is required, will I have a problem coming back to Canada with my wife?

We are planning to drive to Buffalo from Montreal a day before the interview, and coming back to Canada after the interview, I was previously in the US as a F1 student, I completed my degree in May and while in Canada I renewed my US visitor visa to attend the interview.

I ordered and received GCMS notes a few days ago, even though I sent medicals after submitting our application, I know they received them since it shows its expiration date (6-14-2012), but other than that, it says the purpose of the interview is to assess eligibility, it says medical not started, background not started and security in progress. Makes me think no decision will be made after our interview, I hope to be wrong though.

I will share my experience once we are done with the interview, we hope everything will be fine as we have nothing to hide, as has been mentioned before, seems that is a normal practice to request interview for non us citizens applying through Buffalo.

We were just a bit disappointed to the fact that between the letter advising interview is required and the actual interview date, it has been 8 months, a lot of other applicants have had their application completed is less than that time.

Anyways I wish everyone the best, I'm off to watch some NBA Knicks vs Heat!

B.

[mumbles]

Hi Mumbles,

If your PPR email asks you to land before 10th of May , and since your medicals haven't expired while your app was being processed, I wouldn't take any risks/assumptions to land after that day. You might want to contact CIC through email/fax and get the date extended from them. I would rather do this now and avoid any trouble at the time of landing,usually they are very picky about all these things. In the worst case, if you dont get any reply back , I would plan on landing before the said date.

Goodluck!

[mumbles]

Hi Mumbles,

If your PPR email asks you to land before 10th of May , and since your medicals haven't expired while your app was being processed, I wouldn't take any risks/assumptions to land after that day. You might want to contact CIC through email/fax and get the date extended from them. I would rather do this now and avoid any trouble at the time of landing,usually they are very picky about all these things. In the worst case, if you dont get any reply back , I would plan on landing before the said date.

Goodluck!

Sorry...lol

We have not received our COPR yet...I was just kind of curious...In the PPR email it did not say a date at all....it however, state that a date would be given for validity of Landing....I am trying to arrange the whole move and spend as little money as possible to end this nightmare lol...From what i was reading on-line and forums, most people were given a date that matched the expiration date of the medicals...We are hoping that it is at least until the end of May that we have for my hubby to land....actually...we wouldn't be at the Washington port of entry until June 1st.... :S

 My other question is...If we do have to cross before June 1st...we could drive up to Pembina, ND and land and export car there...but I wonder if the car has to stay in canada for a certain amount of time before it can cross back into the us??  Because we would want to go from Minneapolis to Vancouver and enter near seattle....travel through the US....

I will email the vehicle export office but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts to share on this....

[OhCanadiana]

My other question is...If we do have to cross before June 1st...we could drive up to Pembina, ND and land and export car there...but I wonder if the car has to stay in canada for a certain amount of time before it can cross back into the us??  Because we would want to go from Minneapolis to Vancouver and enter near seattle....travel through the US....

I will email the vehicle export office but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts to share on this....

As long as you add your car to your B4, if you are just landing and coming right back to the US, you may want to consider not exporting/importing your car until you enter near Seattle.   Given that it's on the B4 you won't have any issues importing it later and you'll save yourself the hassles of exporting it, having a tickingu clock to have it pass inspection and register it in Canada, and having to be at the border when they are open for vehicle exports.   You'll have to explain to the Canadians why you aren't importing it yet but it shouldn't be a big deal since you aren't planning to spend time in Canada before you import it.

[bloodyguitars]

Sorry...lol

We have not received our COPR yet...I was just kind of curious...In the PPR email it did not say a date at all....it however, state that a date would be given for validity of Landing....I am trying to arrange the whole move and spend as little money as possible to end this nightmare lol...From what i was reading on-line and forums, most people were given a date that matched the expiration date of the medicals...We are hoping that it is at least until the end of May that we have for my hubby to land....actually...we wouldn't be at the Washington port of entry until June 1st.... :S

 My other question is...If we do have to cross before June 1st...we could drive up to Pembina, ND and land and export car there...but I wonder if the car has to stay in canada for a certain amount of time before it can cross back into the us??  Because we would want to go from Minneapolis to Vancouver and enter near seattle....travel through the US....

I will email the vehicle export office but I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts to share on this....

Lol..sorry. I assumed that everyone gets the landing by date in the ppr email. Mine is exactly one year from the date of medicals. Well, I hope you'll have fun driving from Minneapolis to Vancouver I wish I could do that one day...

[aminca]

Hi guys. I went and landed yesterday. My COPR showed up on Thursday and I was so excited, but I expected it to be prettier! Haha. It's just a boring old piece of paper.

Anyway landing went well, I went to Buffalo first to shop with the family and then went back over via the Peace Bridge. I got the same old grump who wrote me my visitor record. They had some sort of inside joke going on between him and the guy at the door... they kept signaling each other and doing head nods and laughing... I had no idea what was going on, nor did my husband. He's pretty sure they were making fun of the teenagers who were getting their car torn apart... they seemed to be a little blazed if you get my drift. My MIL and FIL were having a good old time in the car watching this happen (they were parked right next to them).

As for landing- I got no welcome to Canada, no SIN information, nothing. And they kept getting my address wrong on every form (because they were too busy with their non-verbal communications). It was kind of funny. I'm just glad it's over. But I guess it won't be funny when I end up not getting my PR card... I hope he corrected my address in the system, I had him correct it on everything else.

My only question, I did a goods to follow list- when speaking with the Cashier, she told me I have as long as I want to bring my goods in just make sure to have the form with me... I thought I only had one year from the date of landing? Anyone know anything about this? I expect to go get everything in a couple months, but for some reason if I can't it would be nice to not have a time limit.

[GOGOGO]

Congratulation for your landing, aminca!

The cashier is right that you have your life time to bring your goods here.  I just read the official memorandum from CBSA a little bit earlier today.

"29. Only goods that were declared and listed as “goods to follow” on the settler's original Form B4 are eligible for duty- and tax-free importation at a later time under tariff item No. 9807.00.00. There is no time limit for importing goods to follow that were listed on the settler's Form B4. Any discrepancy between what was declared on the B4 and the goods to follow should be questioned. Goods that were not declared on the initial entry as “goods to follow” are subject to regular import assessments."

My only question, I did a goods to follow list- when speaking with the Cashier, she told me I have as long as I want to bring my goods in just make sure to have the form with me... I thought I only had one year from the date of landing? Anyone know anything about this? I expect to go get everything in a couple months, but for some reason if I can't it would be nice to not have a time limit.

[Ambber29]

Did you get your GCMS note? Ours is on June 12 before yours.

Our lawyer said we dont need to order notes. Notes are required if it is rejected and to know the reason of rejection?
We dont wanna do anything that lawyer says we should not.

Please advise

[computergeek]

Our lawyer said we dont need to order notes. Notes are required if it is rejected and to know the reason of rejection?
We dont wanna do anything that lawyer says we should not.

Please advise

Notes tell you about the status of your application.  If your application is rejected OF COURSE you will ask for them to understand WHY it was rejected.  But notes in process are certainly useful for monitoring the status of your application.

Note that if you only ask for electronic case notes it does not affect processing of your application.  If you ask for a physical copy then it disrupts your application because it must be pulled and copied.

[Calgary-Bound]

hey guys! 

How long do they tend to give you once you receive your COPR to land?  I've been reading that they usually give the one year anniversary date of your medicals.....but thats May 10th for us and we were hoping to not do this until May 30th or so.....any thoughts??

Mumbles

There has been people on here that hasnt even gotten the PPR until after there medicals have expired.They still landed and said when they did the border crossing officer didnt even ask about there medicals.I actualy havent even heard of an officer ask about anyones medicals when they have landed and Ive been aroud for a bit.

[AW2011]

We are officially at the 1 year mark today, also 10 days before our interview in Buffalo, I consider to be on the lucky side as we, even though applied outland, have been able to be together for the past 8 months, from when I (sponsored) received a letter stating that an interview was required, I as a national of a country that requires visa to enter to Canada I was able to renew my TRV before coming to Canada, I extended my staying until April 25, even though I have a valid visitor visa until 2013, in the event that after the interview further processing is required, will I have a problem coming back to Canada with my wife?

We are planning to drive to Buffalo from Montreal a day before the interview, and coming back to Canada after the interview, I was previously in the US as a F1 student, I completed my degree in May and while in Canada I renewed my US visitor visa to attend the interview.

I ordered and received GCMS notes a few days ago, even though I sent medicals after submitting our application, I know they received them since it shows its expiration date (6-14-2012), but other than that, it says the purpose of the interview is to assess eligibility, it says medical not started, background not started and security in progress. Makes me think no decision will be made after our interview, I hope to be wrong though.

I will share my experience once we are done with the interview, we hope everything will be fine as we have nothing to hide, as has been mentioned before, seems that is a normal practice to request interview for non us citizens applying through Buffalo.

We were just a bit disappointed to the fact that between the letter advising interview is required and the actual interview date, it has been 8 months, a lot of other applicants have had their application completed is less than that time.

Anyways I wish everyone the best, I'm off to watch some NBA Knicks vs Heat!

B.

Wish you all the best and a successful interview. We understand exactly what you're going through. Our interview is going to be in June.

[AW2011]

Our lawyer said we dont need to order notes. Notes are required if it is rejected and to know the reason of rejection?
We dont wanna do anything that lawyer says we should not.

Please advise

I would sure order it. As it normally shows their concern notes at the end of your file. This way you can be more prepared in addressing it. Your lawyer just doesn't want the extra work. Order it yourself. It will help your interview. 

[Calgary-Bound]

Our lawyer said we dont need to order notes. Notes are required if it is rejected and to know the reason of rejection?
We dont wanna do anything that lawyer says we should not.

Please advise

I would definately order your GCMS notes.It doesnt effect anything and it will tell you everything about your application that has happened so far.I ordered mine twice actualy and I remember someone from awhile back that ordered theres every month just to keep tabs on there app.

[gypsy494]

Congrats aminca !!!! I have been watching for you to post glad it went well and hope they corrected your address.

I was hoping I would get mine today.....my bday but Fed ex not activated yet
Be 4 weeks this Thursday since thet rc'd it.

Anyhoo CONGRATS HON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Timemachine]

Happy birthday gypsy!  Did your ppr email state you will get your passport back within 4 weeks? Maybe you should call/email Seattle on thurs to see what the hold up is?