2020 Nov soft landing at Peace Bridge w/o quarantine

[Anu_03]

Hi Anu,

You case is a little different from mine since my COPR was still valid when I traveled via land. I feel it's always going to be your own decison if it's worth a risk. What I can suggest would be to give it a shot since going by land would be the best bet and less regulations compared to air travel. You would need 2 solid reasons as I understand:
1) At checkpoint convince the officer that you traveled due to COPR expired and reissued. So don't want it to expire again so he would let you in canada
2)Once you get in the building, and here's the tricky part. You would have to convince the immigration officer the urgency and need of soft landing. Try to convince him that you would travel soon after wrapping up some work.

Again it's your decision and considering borders are open only for essential travel. You would have to decide.

Thanks for responding. Do we have to convince them? If we land by Air, I have heard generally they do not ask questions and the process is pretty simple. Let say if we enter the border via road and fail to convince officer then what are the consequences? Can they reject our application or it stands as is? Please help

 

[Harry1211]

Thanks for responding. Do we have to convince them? If we land by Air, I have heard generally they do not ask questions and the process is pretty simple. Let say if we enter the border via road and fail to convince officer then what are the consequences? Can they reject our application or it stands as is? Please help

I used the word "convince" because the borders are closed for non essential travel and if it's your bad day.. They might send you back.. Travel by air will be subjected to negative covid test results, ArriveCan app registration and Quarantine plan.. As long as you are prepared to stay in Canada for 14 days I guess Travel by air is not a bad option.

 

[Sakshi1102]

Hi Harry and all other people,

Let me explain our situation, Our COPR got expired last year in May. We did not go to validate our COPR due to COVID. We raised web form in Dec that we want to Travel now, IRCC replied stating that we have extended your docs validity; however, wanted us to respond to that email in 10 days by answering few questions. One of the conditions were, you are moving Canada permanently. Rest other options were fine; however, this option made us worried. After discussing with folks they said say yes. We received AL after responding to their email. We were planning to go to Canada next week by air and after completing the quarantine requirements we had a plan to come back to US and move Canada later. Now, Canadian govt has announced that all passengers have to take Covid test at Airport on arrival and have to quarantine in hotel for 3 days and cost will be approx CAD 2000. Since its super expensive, we are now planning to validate our PR via land. We live in NJ and planning to get the requirements done at Peace Bridge border. Please suggest would it be a problem? Can officer ask that you folks mentioned that you will be moving permanently and now you are here for soft landing? None of the papers say that we can not do soft landing and not even the AL. I just wanted to be sure before making a road trip to Peace bridge as we are three, I my spouse and a toddler. Please help!

Hi Anu,

Your case is a little different here from the rest of us. I would suggest you to call the Canada authorities mentioned in the link https://www.peacebridge.com/index.php/contact-us2
and talk to them. They are really helpful people and would guide you in a better way.

 

[Anu_03]

I used the word "convince" because the borders are closed for non essential travel and if it's your bad day.. They might send you back.. Travel by air will be subjected to negative covid test results, ArriveCan app registration and Quarantine plan.. As long as you are prepared to stay in Canada for 14 days I guess Travel by air is not a bad option.

Thanks. I guess we will travel by Air then

 

[kadkhiq81]

Hi Harry1211, Sakshi1102,

Background : Copr Valid until May 31, 2021, Lives in the USA (H1B/H4 & Twin USC kids) and planning to soft land on this month end. Could you please let me know if I can connect with you as it would be of a great help?

Thank you

 

[swan0206]

Thanks. I guess we will travel by Air then

https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/successfully-completed-soft-landing-at-peace-bridge-buffalo-with-expired-copr-feb-2021.720789/

This is a recent soft landing experience. You are still good to land via road if you are closer. Nj, i would say, you can use land border rather than Air.

 

[imranece59]

My wife(primary applicant) completed a soft landing this Saturday (13-feb-2021) at the buffalo peace bridge land border. I couldn't go cause my H1b is in extension and planning to do the same after its approval.
I dropped her at the US customs border and hired a taxi which has cross border permit. She dont have license to drive a car otherwise you can use your own car.
Taxi took her directly to Canada customs and below questions were asked by Canada CBP officer
1.not moving permanently?
2.Where is your husband? Why is he not accompanying you now?
3.when are you planning to move permanently?
Somehow she convinced the officer with her answers along with the proof of docs that we prepared.
Finally he agreed and asked Canada address to apply for a PR card and asked her to enroll things to import. Whole process took around 40 mins and Taxi took her back to US border

At the US border she used the Automatic Visa Revalidation process as recently her Change of status happened from H4 to H1. No valid stamping but she was holding a valid H1 approval copy along with non expired I 94.

Things were really smooth at the land border. Hope this helps if anyone is looking for soft landing process

 

[swan0206]

My wife(primary applicant) completed a soft landing this Saturday (13-feb-2021) at the buffalo peace bridge land border. I couldn't go cause my H1b is in extension and planning to do the same after its approval.
I dropped her at the US customs border and hired a taxi which has cross border permit. She dont have license to drive a car otherwise you can use your own car.
Taxi took her directly to Canada customs and below questions were asked by Canada CBP officer
1.not moving permanently?
2.Where is your husband? Why is he not accompanying you now?
3.when are you planning to move permanently?
Somehow she convinced the officer with her answers along with the proof of docs that we prepared.
Finally he agreed and asked Canada address to apply for a PR card and asked her to enroll things to import. Whole process took around 40 mins and Taxi took her back to US border

At the US border she used the Automatic Visa Revalidation process as recently her Change of status happened from H4 to H1. No valid stamping but she was holding a valid H1 approval copy along with non expired I 94.

Things were really smooth at the land border. Hope this helps if anyone is looking for soft landing process

Wow..! This is a very good landing success story. Kudos to your step.

 

[imranece59]

Wow..! This is a very good landing success story. Kudos to your step.

Thank you.

 

[rev3]

My wife(primary applicant) completed a soft landing this Saturday (13-feb-2021) at the buffalo peace bridge land border. I couldn't go cause my H1b is in extension and planning to do the same after its approval.
I dropped her at the US customs border and hired a taxi which has cross border permit. She dont have license to drive a car otherwise you can use your own car.
Taxi took her directly to Canada customs and below questions were asked by Canada CBP officer
1.not moving permanently?
2.Where is your husband? Why is he not accompanying you now?
3.when are you planning to move permanently?
Somehow she convinced the officer with her answers along with the proof of docs that we prepared.
Finally he agreed and asked Canada address to apply for a PR card and asked her to enroll things to import. Whole process took around 40 mins and Taxi took her back to US border

At the US border she used the Automatic Visa Revalidation process as recently her Change of status happened from H4 to H1. No valid stamping but she was holding a valid H1 approval copy along with non expired I 94.

Things were really smooth at the land border. Hope this helps if anyone is looking for soft landing process

Congratulations!! Did you have to get a covid test done for soft landing? or was it asked for?

 

[imranece59]

Congratulations!! Did you have to get a covid test done for soft landing? or was it asked for?

nope. She didnt take any covid test. it was not even asked by the officer.

 

[swan0206]

Congratulations!! Did you have to get a covid test done for soft landing? or was it asked for?

Covid test check started from 15th Feb. She landed on 13th.

 

[harirajmohan]

Covid test check started from 15th Feb. She landed on 13th.

Just now i called cbsa asking on if i need test from canada to provide it to the border while returning back from daytrip and he said that i need test from US.
Its totally illogical. Ridiculous to expect a Canadian residents to provide test from US - or this article just only considered/ for nonresidents and they forgot to mention the travel restrictions for residents. Eitherway, cbsa is just reading this text and implementing literarily.
https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/flying/covid-19-testing-travellers-coming-into-canada
"proof of a valid COVID-19 molecular test result taken in the U.S. "

 

[canprofus]

Just now i called cbsa asking on if i need test from canada to provide it to the border while returning back from daytrip and he said that i need test from US.
Its totally illogical. Ridiculous to expect a Canadian residents to provide test from US - or this article just only considered/ for nonresidents and they forgot to mention the travel restrictions for residents. Eitherway, cbsa is just reading this text and implementing literarily.
https://travel.gc.ca/travel-covid/travel-restrictions/flying/covid-19-testing-travellers-coming-into-canada
"proof of a valid COVID-19 molecular test result taken in the U.S. "

it is not wrong. everyone Canadian goes on vacation to US and comes back is a resident too.. just that they don't classify people who travel to work once a month as essential travelers and require test from them as well. I don't see any workaround for this other than bringing the test results

 

[harirajmohan]

it is not wrong. everyone Canadian goes on vacation to US and comes back is a resident too.. just that they don't classify people who travel to work once a month as essential travelers and require test from them as well. I don't see any workaround for this other than bringing the test results

But thousands travel everyday to come back same day or next day. Seems this situation is not accounted at all. This is affecting people, especially residents.
This rule is just designed for US residents and for those people who you quoted, staying for a week or more. But rest of them cant produce a test result.
How will it make difference if i get the test in Canada or in US.
its not wrong but its not possible for some type of travellers to get from US.