Thread for outland Buffalo applicants!

[jancath410]

Just an update:  Although we rec'd PPR last week via e-mail, e-cas now show that medical has been rec'd.

[heatherusa]

My husband picked up his visa this morning in Buffalo... more info to come.

[can_usa_97]

My husband picked up his visa this morning in Buffalo... more info to come.

Looking forward to hearing. I was thinking perhaps if it worked I'd go in person for mine during a trip to Canada next month if it worked out.

[scylla]

Great news HeatherUSA! Congrats! My husband has officially been a PR for a week now. It still feels very strange. After all of the work it took to put the application together and the waiting time - it feels odd that it's all over (although odd in a good way!).

I hope everyone who's still waiting hears good news soon. Waiting stinks...

[AngelB]

My application has been in process since October 7th!

[kerianne]

I'll even cross my fingers and toes for ya

Thanks. That was my moment of weakness. I know I don't need to fret. But I'm ready for the waiting to be over so I can get into school and start working, I'm broke! I have a few friends that live on the island, so I'm sure I'll make it out there eventually. I was going to run the Victoria half marathon, but opted out last minute before registering. I'm going to train for the Vancouver half marathon instead.

Hope everybody had a great Turkey day gobble gobble  

[thebaileyohana]

Mine also changed to In Process as of October 7, 2010.

[SaugaBoss]

Hi all,

I need some advice and/or reassurance.

I'd posted a while back about not knowinf how to get my Israeli police clearance sent from Tel Aviv to Buffalo. I managed to reach the Canadian Embassy in Tel Aviv by email, and they confirmed that they had my clearance, and sent it by registered mail to Buffalo on Sept 5th. Sounds good, right?

The problem is that I can't find any record of it with the US postal service. The tracking number doesn't exist in the system. But I know it's the right tracking number, because the Israeli website confirms that it was sent to the US over a month ago.

I emailed Buffalo, but got the standard email response that they can't confirm receipt of documents. The immigration phone number is just an automated message.

This document is the last one needed to complete my file. And I have no way of knowing if it's already in Buffalo or if it got lost somewhere crossing the Atlantic and I need to go through the process of getting a new one.

Does anyone have any advice? I really don't know how to clear this up?

Thanks,
Cara

i emailed buffalo and they confirmed it and then said they dont have it and then said they dont need anything else confusing! but anyways i would just suggest asking if they need anything this way you will know what they need?

also my MP called me today the one who said he wont ask Buffalo office about my file until November but he did anyways and he said Buffalo stated that I am at the last step of the background check it can take 3 months or more to finish. Which makes no sense when people get their PPR in 2 months. he didnt confirm that they had the FBI thing though.

[giggles1985]

Hello everyone! I landed as planned on Saturday the 9th

I have some information to share about my landing experience to help others be prepared but I'm not sure if I should start a new thread for that or what. Hm.

[heatherusa]

Hello everyone! I landed as planned on Saturday the 9th

I have some information to share about my landing experience to help others be prepared but I'm not sure if I should start a new thread for that or what. Hm.

Go ahead and post it here... there are a lot of B'lo's about to land.

Congratulations BTW

[can_usa_97]

Hello everyone! I landed as planned on Saturday the 9th

I have some information to share about my landing experience to help others be prepared but I'm not sure if I should start a new thread for that or what. Hm.

Both ?

[heatherusa]

Looking forward to hearing. I was thinking perhaps if it worked I'd go in person for mine during a trip to Canada next month if it worked out.

Well here is to hoping it works out.  That would be so convenient!

[giggles1985]

Alrighty then! Well, I've read the experiences of others here and they indicated that the process was rather simple and you don't have to bring anything other than your list of goods. But when I landed in St. Johns airport they asked me for several additional pieces of information. Honestly, it seemed like they don't do this often and were kind of going "by the book" and perhaps that's why they were more thorough than the larger airports where people land all the time.

Anyway, here's what they wanted:
Proof of medical - they said they could find it in their system but it would be helpful if I had it. I did not, so they looked it up. It was fine but it resulted in about half an hour delay while they went to go find it.
Proof of funds on hand (bank account statements) - they let me go without this since it doesn't matter for spousal, but again would have sped up the process if I could have just shown it to them
Information about how I had shipped my goods to follow and tracking numbers - I did actually have this so that was fine.
An actual B4 form, B4A was not sufficient on its own - they brought out a B4 and filled it out for me based on my information. They said that the B4A is just a continuation of the B4 when you don't have enough space to put it all. I had read this somewhere else but the recent landing experiences on this forum seemed to indicate that the B4A was sufficient. Unless I am mistaken? Anyway, again, it would have shaved like 10 minutes off of my time that I spent in that room if I had had an actual B4 filled out.

From what I have read here, most people have simpler landing experiences than I did but I thought I would share since the people planning to land soon might want to make sure they have all of the above available just in case. Everything went fine and they were all very nice to me but my husband ended up waiting for me for about an hour while they sorted out all this stuff. I don't know, maybe everyone else already had this stuff with them and I just failed at landing but I thought I'd share anyway as I don't recall ever reading any advice indicating to have these papers available when landing.

[jancath410]

Alrighty then! Well, I've read the experiences of others here and they indicated that the process was rather simple and you don't have to bring anything other than your list of goods. But when I landed in St. Johns airport they asked me for several additional pieces of information. Honestly, it seemed like they don't do this often and were kind of going "by the book" and perhaps that's why they were more thorough than the larger airports where people land all the time.

Anyway, here's what they wanted:
Proof of medical - they said they could find it in their system but it would be helpful if I had it. I did not, so they looked it up. It was fine but it resulted in about half an hour delay while they went to go find it.
Proof of funds on hand (bank account statements) - they let me go without this since it doesn't matter for spousal, but again would have sped up the process if I could have just shown it to them
Information about how I had shipped my goods to follow and tracking numbers - I did actually have this so that was fine.
An actual B4 form, B4A was not sufficient on its own - they brought out a B4 and filled it out for me based on my information. They said that the B4A is just a continuation of the B4 when you don't have enough space to put it all. I had read this somewhere else but the recent landing experiences on this forum seemed to indicate that the B4A was sufficient. Unless I am mistaken? Anyway, again, it would have shaved like 10 minutes off of my time that I spent in that room if I had had an actual B4 filled out.

From what I have read here, most people have simpler landing experiences than I did but I thought I would share since the people planning to land soon might want to make sure they have all of the above available just in case. Everything went fine and they were all very nice to me but my husband ended up waiting for me for about an hour while they sorted out all this stuff. I don't know, maybe everyone else already had this stuff with them and I just failed at landing but I thought I'd share anyway as I don't recall ever reading any advice indicating to have these papers available when landing.

What is B4?  My husband and I are planning to go to BUF to hand in his passport and land on the same day.  I hope it won't be as complex.

[heatherusa]

What is B4?  My husband and I are planning to go to BUF to hand in his passport and land on the same day.  I hope it won't be as complex.

B4 is the list of goods and B4a is the additional list that accompanies the B4 if you need more space.

When I brought my goods I just had a paper list - they had me assign values to everything and then rewrite the list on the B4 and B4a.  If you are bringing any goods they will make you fill out at least the B4 when you land.