Hi everyone,
I landed on July 2 in Canada Place at Edmonton. Now, officially, I am a permanent resident in Canada. However, I need to share with my unsuccessful first landing experience, which may help you prevent similar things happening to you.
I drove to US boarder on Saturday, June 27th, the round trip took 16 hours, however I wasn't able to land.
When I crossed the boarder and got back to the Canadian side, the boarder officer checked my application and told me he cannot proceed it. Usually it is due to my application is NOT complete on CIC system. He used to work for CIC so that he was sure it was because the CIC officer didn't check a box in his/her system. But he had not authority to change it after a new system had been updated by CIC. Neither he can contact CIC on Saturday. I had to go home and phone CIC call centre on Monday. Thank goodness I still have valid study permit so I can get back to Canada.
On Monday, the call agent refused to admit it's CIC 's problem, rather he said the problem is in boarder officer's system. Anyhow, besides my frustration of being fooled by the bureaucracy, he helped me to arrange an inland landing appointment three days later.
The landing process went smooth. But the immigration officer at Canada Place told me I wasn't able to land for the first time because CIC has updated to a new system and the boarder officer has the old one. She meant there is incompatibility between two systems. Personally I don't think it is true. I still believe the boarder officer's statement:CIC officer didn't check the box on their system, and yet they fixed it right away after I called.
My conclusions are: 1. for those who want to go to boarder to land, please at least choose a weekday instead of a weekend. 2. land inland if you can.
Wish all of you the best.
I will let you know when the tracker got activated.