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Passports to CPC Ottawa-August 2017

kaybea

Member
Sep 12, 2017
13
6
My Landing Experience at Rainbow Bridge: FAILED

Guys, if you can help it, please DO NOT land at Rainbow Bridge. Take the time to travel to another border. I read a few posts on here about refusals at Rainbow Bridge but thought I'd chance it anyway and assumed all would be fine.

I travelled from Toronto to the Rainbow Bridge border with my boyfriend (who is Canadian) yesterday around 3pm, anticipating a long wait but we didn't mind. We paid our 50 cents each and walked across the bridge to the USA side and waited there for less than two minutes to be called. The USA agent was super friendly, made jokes with my boyfriend about being Canadian, congratulated me on my PR and gave me my slip to take back to the Canadian side. We walked back across the bridge (taking pictures of me with my papers, with the 'to Canada' signs etc etc hahaha) and waited about 10-15 minutes to be seen by the Canadian agent...

We walked in and she asked me my status and where I lived, I told her 'Canada' and that I was there flag poling to confirm my PR. She told me they weren't accepting anymore flagpoles for the day and the way she said it, we thought she was joking and we laughed. But she told us, no, sorry, that she was being serious and they shut down the line at 7.30am as they already had 60 people in line and that those 60 people were still waiting to be processed (at this time around 4pm). I asked when the line would reopen and she kind of shrugged her shoulders and said 'probably tomorrow.' She told me that its an Ontario wide thing, that they're all super busy and will close the lines down early in the day. She told me I have plenty of time left on my visa so I should "just keep trying", or book an appointment, which kind of annoyed me a little . I thanked her for the information (went outside to cry haha), grabbed a beer and decided to just enjoy our day in Niagara.

Going to try again at Sarnia next week and if I don't have any luck there, I'll wait it out for an appointment!
 
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ruhin

Star Member
Mar 14, 2017
79
19
My Landing Experience at Rainbow Bridge: FAILED

Guys, if you can help it, please DO NOT land at Rainbow Bridge. Take the time to travel to another border. I read a few posts on here about refusals at Rainbow Bridge but thought I'd chance it anyway and assumed all would be fine.

I travelled from Toronto to the Rainbow Bridge border with my boyfriend (who is Canadian) yesterday around 3pm, anticipating a long wait but we didn't mind. We paid our 50 cents each and walked across the bridge to the USA side and waited there for less than two minutes to be called. The USA agent was super friendly, made jokes with my boyfriend about being Canadian, congratulated me on my PR and gave me my slip to take back to the Canadian side. We walked back across the bridge (taking pictures of me with my papers, with the 'to Canada' signs etc etc hahaha) and waited about 10-15 minutes to be seen by the Canadian agent...

We walked in and she asked me my status and where I lived, I told her 'Canada' and that I was there flag poling to confirm my PR. She told me they weren't accepting anymore flagpoles for the day and the way she said it, we thought she was joking and we laughed. But she told us, no, sorry, that she was being serious and they shut down the line at 7.30am as they already had 60 people in line and that those 60 people were still waiting to be processed (at this time around 4pm). I asked when the line would reopen and she kind of shrugged her shoulders and said 'probably tomorrow.' She told me that its an Ontario wide thing, that they're all super busy and will close the lines down early in the day. She told me I have plenty of time left on my visa so I should "just keep trying", or book an appointment, which kind of annoyed me a little . I thanked her for the information (went outside to cry haha), grabbed a beer and decided to just enjoy our day in Niagara.

Going to try again at Sarnia next week and if I don't have any luck there, I'll wait it out for an appointment!
I would recommend Sarnia. It took me around an hour to complete all the formalities. The officers from both sides were nice.
 
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PAuaePakTor

Star Member
Oct 5, 2016
174
45
My Landing Experience at Rainbow Bridge: FAILED

Guys, if you can help it, please DO NOT land at Rainbow Bridge. Take the time to travel to another border. I read a few posts on here about refusals at Rainbow Bridge but thought I'd chance it anyway and assumed all would be fine.

I travelled from Toronto to the Rainbow Bridge border with my boyfriend (who is Canadian) yesterday around 3pm, anticipating a long wait but we didn't mind. We paid our 50 cents each and walked across the bridge to the USA side and waited there for less than two minutes to be called. The USA agent was super friendly, made jokes with my boyfriend about being Canadian, congratulated me on my PR and gave me my slip to take back to the Canadian side. We walked back across the bridge (taking pictures of me with my papers, with the 'to Canada' signs etc etc hahaha) and waited about 10-15 minutes to be seen by the Canadian agent...

We walked in and she asked me my status and where I lived, I told her 'Canada' and that I was there flag poling to confirm my PR. She told me they weren't accepting anymore flagpoles for the day and the way she said it, we thought she was joking and we laughed. But she told us, no, sorry, that she was being serious and they shut down the line at 7.30am as they already had 60 people in line and that those 60 people were still waiting to be processed (at this time around 4pm). I asked when the line would reopen and she kind of shrugged her shoulders and said 'probably tomorrow.' She told me that its an Ontario wide thing, that they're all super busy and will close the lines down early in the day. She told me I have plenty of time left on my visa so I should "just keep trying", or book an appointment, which kind of annoyed me a little . I thanked her for the information (went outside to cry haha), grabbed a beer and decided to just enjoy our day in Niagara.

Going to try again at Sarnia next week and if I don't have any luck there, I'll wait it out for an appointment!
Sorry to hear that but for sure Sarnia would be fine.
I did my landing at DWT in Windsor and I also live in Toronto.
After hearing those bad stories I called CBSA BIS line and asked for Niagara timings. She said that she would not recommend Niagara but go to either Sarnia or Windsor. I chose Windsor because there are more buses each day while Sarnia had only one.
It took me about 1 hour to complete the procedure. 5 minutes in USA (have US visa so did not do Flagpole), Officer asked where I was going to
USA and told him that main purpose is landing in Canada. He said then would you like to take a shuttle bus and go back. I said yes and he showed me the way to bus stop which is just at the back of the office. Had to wait about 30 minutes for shuttle bus, and it was only 1 minute journey to CBSA office. Nobody waiting in CBSA, only 4 of us who got off shuttle bus and there were four CBSA officers. So everybody took a spot. It took me about 15 minutes to get COPR and welcome note. The time was about 6:30 am.
I am sure you had a good landing at Sarnia.
Good luck to all others
Donot go to any Niagara entry points as the CBSA BIS recommended. Although the journey to Sarnia, Windsor (Windsor has two entry points, a bridge and a Tunnel and both are within couple of KMs to each other) and thousand Islands is longer than Niagara, BUT WORTH IT. Good luck to all.
 
Last edited:

Garry2i3i89

Star Member
Jun 6, 2017
118
18
I just checked my cic account and the status now is Approved.
How much time it will take for return tracker to get activated?
PNP inland:
AOR: 9 March
PPR: 12 Sept
Passport sent: 13th Sept
Passport received: 14th Sept
App Approved: 28 Sept
RETURN TRACKER ACTIVATED: ................
PASSPORT RECEIVED:....................
LANDING:............................
 

chawla.kanu

Full Member
Apr 30, 2015
45
10
Hello Frends,
Is there any way to upgrade the post from xpresspost to priority one? My application is approved yesterday 29 Sep but the tracker have not been activated yet ..
I have my flight on 5th oct so little bit worried...
How long CIC will take to handover the passports to canada post, as my application is approved yesterday around 1:30 PM EDT, so they usually handover on the same day or it might be delayed as it was Friday ?
Any help will be appreciated...!!
Thanks..
Kunal