Landing Experience - 17th Jan 2019 - Flagpoling - Lewiston Bridge - Took just 20 mins to become a PR

[bhanuprakashn]

you inform CIC that you would be doing flagpole and asked for an appointment to schedule landing interview at border.

not required.

 

[myra20sharma]

you inform CIC that you would be doing flagpole and asked for an appointment to schedule landing interview at border.

No! You don't have to

It's like a walk-in

 

[yaadman]

It purely depends on the person you meet at the booth . Officer at Rainbow bridge didnot allow me and told me they have limit of only 20 per day and its already done by the time I reach at 8:45 AM.

I prefer Queenston-Lewiston bridge, but try to be there by 8 AM. I heard some ppl start waiting from 5:30 AM itself.

Queenston guys at least told me to come back after 2 hours and it worked for me. Advantage with Queenston is, you can just take U-Turn to Canada border (right after duty free building) before entering US border, so that you don't need to enter US again during your second attempt. You can still tell him, you came from US this morning and he will allow you if there are slots.

I think putting a limit on this is ridiculous, Tuesdays might even have more people or the same amount just as Friday or Saturday or any other day. No matter what people will make time to go there. They need to do their jobs we are tax payers after all. I'll try Queenston-Lewiston bridge... Not sure where people line up but I'll figure something out

 

[yaadman]

It purely depends on the person you meet at the booth . Officer at Rainbow bridge didnot allow me and told me they have limit of only 20 per day and its already done by the time I reach at 8:45 AM.

I prefer Queenston-Lewiston bridge, but try to be there by 8 AM. I heard some ppl start waiting from 5:30 AM itself.

Queenston guys at least told me to come back after 2 hours and it worked for me. Advantage with Queenston is, you can just take U-Turn to Canada border (right after duty free building) before entering US border, so that you don't need to enter US again during your second attempt. You can still tell him, you came from US this morning and he will allow you if there are slots.

I just called Queenston-Lewiston bridge 9052624813, they said it depends on the volume of people on whatever day, guy said if I'm there for 8AM Sharp I should be fine! But if by 9AM then I'll be turned away

 

[myra20sharma]

I just called Queenston-Lewiston bridge 9052624813, they said it depends on the volume of people on whatever day, guy said if I'm there for 8AM Sharp I should be fine! But if by 9AM then I'll be turned away

We reached Queenston-Lewiston around 2:15 PM and there were just a couple of people ahead of us. We were done in less than 15 minutes. It was a Thursday.

 

[bhanuprakashn]

I just called Queenston-Lewiston bridge 9052624813, they said it depends on the volume of people on whatever day, guy said if I'm there for 8AM Sharp I should be fine! But if by 9AM then I'll be turned away

Same thing happened to me at 9 AM. The officer told me to try after 2-4 hours and I was able to make it at 12 PM. But good thing with Queenston is, you can just take U turn and wait at Starbucks area instead of wasting gas.

 

[yaadman]

Same thing happened to me at 9 AM. The officer told me to try after 2-4 hours and I was able to make it at 12 PM. But good thing with Queenston is, you can just take U turn and wait at Starbucks area instead of wasting gas.

Thanks for the update, I will try tomorrow morning for 8AM...driving ouver the the US side soon. I'll be sure to lookout for that Starbucks just in case.

 

[campesinaj]

does anyone know if you can walk over the Rainbow bridge in the winter months (like right now) to flagpole?

 

[jaini12]

Hi All!

All the best if you are still waiting for PPR and Congratulations if you have received yours.

I received my passport on 15th January and decided to do landing by scheduling a landing interview, but by looking at the timelines it was taking approximately 2 weeks from requesting to 'schedule an interview' to the actual schedule date. So, to curtail that timing, I and my dependent decided to flagpole on 17th Jan. We drove to Lewiston Bridge (Niagara-on-the-Lakes) and reached around 2:00 PM, we reached the US bridge. The US officer asked us "What is the purpose of travel?". We said "We want to flagpole to confirm our PR for Canada". She asked us for our passports, did something on her computer and asked us to drive to another officer just 80 meters away from our car and get the flagpole document. We drove there (didn't get out of the car even once), he gave us a paper saying reason to enter - 'FLAGPOLE'. This in total took just 6-7 minutes. We took that and took a U-turn towards Canada's border. There again we were stopped at the checkpoint and the Canadian officer asked, "when did you go to US?" and took our passports. We answered, "Few minutes ago.". She asked all sorts of questions, "do you have any duty free stuff?", "any groceries?", "any alcohol or cannabis?" etc. This must be a standard procedure. To all these questions, our answer was NO. She then returned our passports with a yellow paper and asked us to park and go to Canada Immigration office just 50 meters from the checkpoint.

We went inside and there was just one guy in waiting area. We went to counter and told the officer that we are here for our landing and the officer asked for our yellow document, flagpole document and of course passports (not the COPR documents, yet) and asked us to wait. In next 2-3 minutes another officer called us and took our COPRs. He asked us to put our address and phone number and made us sign our respective COPR and asked us to wait. He called us again after a minute and congratulated us on becoming Canadian PR. Stapled our copy of COPR and gave some standard instructions about "not leaving the country" etc. He asked for our WPs and shredded them, as they were no longer valid.

This entire process, excluding the drive from Toronto to Lewiston bridge LOL, took 20 minutes max. We became PR, after such a long wait (from AOR till yesterday).

PS - We didn't have a US visa at all.

Hope this would be helpful for you all!

Thanks!

Thank you for sharing your experience. its really helpful.

 

[jaini12]

Hi All!

All the best if you are still waiting for PPR and Congratulations if you have received yours.

I received my passport on 15th January and decided to do landing by scheduling a landing interview, but by looking at the timelines it was taking approximately 2 weeks from requesting to 'schedule an interview' to the actual schedule date. So, to curtail that timing, I and my dependent decided to flagpole on 17th Jan. We drove to Lewiston Bridge (Niagara-on-the-Lakes) and reached around 2:00 PM, we reached the US bridge. The US officer asked us "What is the purpose of travel?". We said "We want to flagpole to confirm our PR for Canada". She asked us for our passports, did something on her computer and asked us to drive to another officer just 80 meters away from our car and get the flagpole document. We drove there (didn't get out of the car even once), he gave us a paper saying reason to enter - 'FLAGPOLE'. This in total took just 6-7 minutes. We took that and took a U-turn towards Canada's border. There again we were stopped at the checkpoint and the Canadian officer asked, "when did you go to US?" and took our passports. We answered, "Few minutes ago.". She asked all sorts of questions, "do you have any duty free stuff?", "any groceries?", "any alcohol or cannabis?" etc. This must be a standard procedure. To all these questions, our answer was NO. She then returned our passports with a yellow paper and asked us to park and go to Canada Immigration office just 50 meters from the checkpoint.

We went inside and there was just one guy in waiting area. We went to counter and told the officer that we are here for our landing and the officer asked for our yellow document, flagpole document and of course passports (not the COPR documents, yet) and asked us to wait. In next 2-3 minutes another officer called us and took our COPRs. He asked us to put our address and phone number and made us sign our respective COPR and asked us to wait. He called us again after a minute and congratulated us on becoming Canadian PR. Stapled our copy of COPR and gave some standard instructions about "not leaving the country" etc. He asked for our WPs and shredded them, as they were no longer valid.

This entire process, excluding the drive from Toronto to Lewiston bridge LOL, took 20 minutes max. We became PR, after such a long wait (from AOR till yesterday).

PS - We didn't have a US visa at all.

Hope this would be helpful for you all!

Thanks![/QUOTE

As i am on workpermit, do i need a letter from employer for flagpoling

 

[hell911]

Should we bring any passport photos? What if I arrive there at 7am, where can I park? I believe it's a highway?

 

[myra20sharma]

As i am on workpermit, do i need a letter from employer for flagpoling

No you won't need that. They just asked about WP just to shred it but not the letter from employer.

 

[jaini12]

No you won't need that. They just asked about WP just to shred it but not the letter from employer.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[myra20sharma]

Should we bring any passport photos? What if I arrive there at 7am, where can I park? I believe it's a highway?

If you're going to Lewiston, you don't have to park on the US side, the officer in the booth will talk to you from the booth only and you'll be in your car itself. She/he will hand you over the flagpole doc. from there only. When you'll return to Canada side to actually "land", the Canadian booth officer will give you a yellow form and will then ask you to go in the landing office to complete landing. This office has a nice parking lot. You can park anywhere you want, except the spots reserved already.

 

[myra20sharma]

Thanks for your reply.

You're very welcome! And all the best!