that correct, almost 4 months for new pr card. please check my timelines for better understanding.
COPR and coronavirus
- Thread starter zeus89
- Start date
Hi All,
I recently completed my soft-landing; finally after years of struggle I am so delighted to be a Canadian resident.
Posting my recent landing experience here:
I travelled from Melbourne, Australia to Toronto. The flight journey was quite hectic; we had stopovers in Sydney and San Francisco.
Australian passport holders are visa exempt & everything is electronic. I wasn't sure if the airline staff would be very friendly and understanding, going by previous experiences other people posted here. So I applied for an eTA (electronic Travel Authorisation), just in case the airline staff wouldn’t accept my CoPR. Anyhow the airline staff didn’t ask for the CoPR or the eTA and boarding was very easy.
We were only asked for the ArriveCan barcode at San Francisco before departure to Toronto. Ensure the ArriveCan is done before leaving (72 hours prior).
Landing at Toronto airport on a Friday evening was a nightmare. We sat in the plane for almost 1.5 hour since there was a long queue at immigrations and they were trying to clear passengers.
When we eventually got off I could see the long queue of people, and was dreading not to get caught in the middle with two young children. Fortunately there was a separate line for families which was way shorter.
First were kiosks which you mainly have to use for customs declaration (e.g carrying dutiable items etc); It will also take your photos including children and each passenger gets a receipt. You have to repeat it multiple times for each person in your family which is annoying.
Don’t understand why more of these kiosks are placed everywhere along the corridors leading to immigrations, to reduce the queue, like in Australia. Many people found it difficult to use it and I even overheard an immigrations officer say "Im tired of this! I just want to go home. Im leaving this place as soon as my shift is over. I don’t care anymore".
Soon after the kiosks you have to go to the immigrations officer and provide the receipt, passport and CoPR. Let the officer know you're doing the PR landing. He will mark the kiosk receipt and also place a sticker on your passport for covid testing. In my case it was green which meant I didn’t have to do a covid test.
Soon after immigrations you show the receipt to the next officer; he will know you're a landed immigrant and will direct you to a room on the right. This was the worst part of the whole process; there was another queue for the PR landing process in this room/hall. Only 7-10 counters of the 30 were manned by CBSA officers; other were just empty. There's a long queue with all kinds of visa applicants such as students, CoPR, work visa etc. We spent approx. 2 hours standing in the queue. Fortunately they let the women and children take a seat while the men stood in the queue.
Once the CBSA officer called me I just went over to the counter and provided my passport and CoPR. The officer asked us to wait again for 5mins. She then called us back and asked us to sign the CoPR. She kept one copy (the one with the photo) and gave the other. She asked for an address in Canada for the PR card and asked a bunch of questions like "have you ever been convicted previously" etc. The paperwork with the officer was very easy and took about 5-10mins in total. I showed her the goods to follow form and she told me to show these at customs.
We exited the hall went down the escalator to claim the baggage. Our baggage was circulating the carousel lonely, given we just spent 2hrs waiting in queue. We went to customs and showed the B4/B4A forms to the customs officer. He said we'll need to show this form only when we move permanently and have the goods actually shipped by the shipping company. He also asked for serial numbers of electronic devices like phones and laptops to be included. He also informed us that the shipping manifest will be good to have.
Once that was over, we just left the airport, caught a cab and went to the hotel. No other Covid specific issues like quarantine or testing was required. Stayed in Toronto for 5 days and then moved to the next destination.
Will make another post for the SIN. Hope this helps; happy to answer any questions if I can.
All the best!!
I recently completed my soft-landing; finally after years of struggle I am so delighted to be a Canadian resident.
Posting my recent landing experience here:
I travelled from Melbourne, Australia to Toronto. The flight journey was quite hectic; we had stopovers in Sydney and San Francisco.
Australian passport holders are visa exempt & everything is electronic. I wasn't sure if the airline staff would be very friendly and understanding, going by previous experiences other people posted here. So I applied for an eTA (electronic Travel Authorisation), just in case the airline staff wouldn’t accept my CoPR. Anyhow the airline staff didn’t ask for the CoPR or the eTA and boarding was very easy.
We were only asked for the ArriveCan barcode at San Francisco before departure to Toronto. Ensure the ArriveCan is done before leaving (72 hours prior).
Landing at Toronto airport on a Friday evening was a nightmare. We sat in the plane for almost 1.5 hour since there was a long queue at immigrations and they were trying to clear passengers.
When we eventually got off I could see the long queue of people, and was dreading not to get caught in the middle with two young children. Fortunately there was a separate line for families which was way shorter.
First were kiosks which you mainly have to use for customs declaration (e.g carrying dutiable items etc); It will also take your photos including children and each passenger gets a receipt. You have to repeat it multiple times for each person in your family which is annoying.
Don’t understand why more of these kiosks are placed everywhere along the corridors leading to immigrations, to reduce the queue, like in Australia. Many people found it difficult to use it and I even overheard an immigrations officer say "Im tired of this! I just want to go home. Im leaving this place as soon as my shift is over. I don’t care anymore".
Soon after the kiosks you have to go to the immigrations officer and provide the receipt, passport and CoPR. Let the officer know you're doing the PR landing. He will mark the kiosk receipt and also place a sticker on your passport for covid testing. In my case it was green which meant I didn’t have to do a covid test.
Soon after immigrations you show the receipt to the next officer; he will know you're a landed immigrant and will direct you to a room on the right. This was the worst part of the whole process; there was another queue for the PR landing process in this room/hall. Only 7-10 counters of the 30 were manned by CBSA officers; other were just empty. There's a long queue with all kinds of visa applicants such as students, CoPR, work visa etc. We spent approx. 2 hours standing in the queue. Fortunately they let the women and children take a seat while the men stood in the queue.
Once the CBSA officer called me I just went over to the counter and provided my passport and CoPR. The officer asked us to wait again for 5mins. She then called us back and asked us to sign the CoPR. She kept one copy (the one with the photo) and gave the other. She asked for an address in Canada for the PR card and asked a bunch of questions like "have you ever been convicted previously" etc. The paperwork with the officer was very easy and took about 5-10mins in total. I showed her the goods to follow form and she told me to show these at customs.
We exited the hall went down the escalator to claim the baggage. Our baggage was circulating the carousel lonely, given we just spent 2hrs waiting in queue. We went to customs and showed the B4/B4A forms to the customs officer. He said we'll need to show this form only when we move permanently and have the goods actually shipped by the shipping company. He also asked for serial numbers of electronic devices like phones and laptops to be included. He also informed us that the shipping manifest will be good to have.
Once that was over, we just left the airport, caught a cab and went to the hotel. No other Covid specific issues like quarantine or testing was required. Stayed in Toronto for 5 days and then moved to the next destination.
Will make another post for the SIN. Hope this helps; happy to answer any questions if I can.
All the best!!
Hi Tom,
Excited that you have finally landed. Like I said, my experience of lining up in a queue in Canada was unbelievable. We are spoilt in Australia.
I tried to get my SIN twice. The first day I had enough and left. Came back the second time and on that day, they were only 2 service Canada staff working and the other 10 odd counters were empty. I don't get it though. The queue was so long that people were outside the building on the side walk.
Toronto I hear is always crazy busy. Vancouver airport do not get a lot of visitors like Toronto according to reports from other posters. I guess that was why my landing was quick as.
Enjoy your trip
Thanks for sharing your exp Tom. I am planning to Travel from India to Vancouver with COPR for self and family (2 kids). do we need to undergo any quarantine or COVID testing for COPR holders if they are fully vaccinated?
Just ArriveCAN and previous COVID dose certificates are enough rite?
Am I missing anything here?
Yes thats correct. Make sure you have the Covid Vaccination Certificate.
You will need to do the ArriveCan app 72 hours before departure. You have to upload the vacc cert in the app; Tip: an easy way to upload is to have a copy of the documents on your icloud or google drive and upload from there into the app.
The app will also ask for a quarantine plan for 10 days; you just need to add the hotel address as the place for quarantine. This is just in case you test positive on the way, they require you to have an isolation plan. The app should give you a bar code (keep a screenshot of it).
At the airport in Canada there could be random covid testing; depending on your luck, the immigrations officer could stick a green or red sticker on your passport. I had green meaning no covid test required.
I still did RAT tests for 3days in a row while I was there to make sure. Thats was it.
Hey Welluf,
Thanks so much, we just got back to Aus; Spent a few days in US too.
Yes agreed, the queues are massive there and found it very disorganised compared to Aus. We certainly are spoilt here.
I just couldn't understand why they can't put more kiosks for customs declaration all along the walk ways and corridors like we have in Melb and Syd airports.
Yea Toronto airport was very bad. The air crew was saying they had these delays for 3-4 days in a row, where the planes sat idle on the tarmac since the terminals were crowded. Someone even said they had to get riot police into the terminals to manage angry people on one of the days.
Also, they have this one Service Canada for processing everything like passport, SIN etc. Where as we have ATO doing the TFN, DFAT doing the passport, which spreads the load.
I'll post my experience for SIN, hopefully it will help people on this forum.
Now the wait for the PR card. LOL
Following my previous post here's my experience on getting the SIN.
There are 3 ways to get the SIN - Online, In-person & Post. See link.
I got my SIN in person at a Service Canada office in Toronto. There are multiple offices in downtown; But I believe only 2 out of 3 does the SIN. Use the above link, to confirm the office you're planning to visit does SIN.
You can setup an appointment at one of these offices but you will need a Canadian number and the earliest appointments is in abt 1-2 months.
I went to the College Street Service Canada in GTA on the first working day after Easter break. The office opens at 8.30am and I got there about 7.30am. There was already a queue with approximately 50-60 people. There are all sorts of people with various needs like passport applications, SIN etc. It was freezing cold.
By the time the office opened at 8.30 the queue was past the end of the block. The security came out at about 9am, saying minimum wait is 3 hrs for my area of the queue and people further behind me were told a 5hrs wait. I think some people at the back were told that there was no point waiting.
When the office opened people with appointments were called from the queue and went in ahead first. By the time I got called in, it was 10.45am; there was another 10mins of wait in the building. So in total, I waited a little over 3.5 hours; which I think is the average wait time.
Please note at this location you have to wait outside the office; so ensure you wear warm clothing as it could get very cold in the morning. I couldn't feel my fingers by the time my turn came.
Same story as the PR landing, there were about 25 counters with only 5-7 manned by staff. SIN processing in total took about 5 mins. For me it took a bit more since I had dependents. You can process SIN for your underage dependents (children) but not for an adult (i.e. spouse/wife). Unfortunately, I couldn't get it done for my wife as she sat in the hotel with the kids.
If you do wait in queue with family, ensure you have food, water and phone with internet to keep you occupied.
The Service Canada staff handed me a letter for each applicant with the SIN number. All she asked was passport and signed copr. Ensure the SIN is kept safe and not shared with anyone.
By the time I was out of the office it was around 11.30.
There are 3 ways to get the SIN - Online, In-person & Post. See link.
I got my SIN in person at a Service Canada office in Toronto. There are multiple offices in downtown; But I believe only 2 out of 3 does the SIN. Use the above link, to confirm the office you're planning to visit does SIN.
You can setup an appointment at one of these offices but you will need a Canadian number and the earliest appointments is in abt 1-2 months.
I went to the College Street Service Canada in GTA on the first working day after Easter break. The office opens at 8.30am and I got there about 7.30am. There was already a queue with approximately 50-60 people. There are all sorts of people with various needs like passport applications, SIN etc. It was freezing cold.
By the time the office opened at 8.30 the queue was past the end of the block. The security came out at about 9am, saying minimum wait is 3 hrs for my area of the queue and people further behind me were told a 5hrs wait. I think some people at the back were told that there was no point waiting.
When the office opened people with appointments were called from the queue and went in ahead first. By the time I got called in, it was 10.45am; there was another 10mins of wait in the building. So in total, I waited a little over 3.5 hours; which I think is the average wait time.
Please note at this location you have to wait outside the office; so ensure you wear warm clothing as it could get very cold in the morning. I couldn't feel my fingers by the time my turn came.
Same story as the PR landing, there were about 25 counters with only 5-7 manned by staff. SIN processing in total took about 5 mins. For me it took a bit more since I had dependents. You can process SIN for your underage dependents (children) but not for an adult (i.e. spouse/wife). Unfortunately, I couldn't get it done for my wife as she sat in the hotel with the kids.
If you do wait in queue with family, ensure you have food, water and phone with internet to keep you occupied.
The Service Canada staff handed me a letter for each applicant with the SIN number. All she asked was passport and signed copr. Ensure the SIN is kept safe and not shared with anyone.
By the time I was out of the office it was around 11.30.
Hi everyone. Please advise:
I am an Indian applicant (currently in India as well).
My COPR expired in May 2020 (issued before March 2020).
In December 2021, I received a re-medical request (it was accepted and the same reflected in my profile in January 2022).
Received a Schedule A (Background Declaration) request in March 2022 (submitted in the same month).
Yesterday (5 May 2022) I received a 'Ready for Visa' email.
What is the way forward for me? I am having trouble understanding the following things:
1. Do I need to resubmit the RPRF application fee? (this was already done back in 2019 when I had originally applied)
2. Do I need to physically submit my passport to the VFS?
3. Do I need to get my biometrics done again?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
(Please don't mind if my questions seem silly, I am completely clueless about these things and I haven't been on this forum for months now!)
I am an Indian applicant (currently in India as well).
My COPR expired in May 2020 (issued before March 2020).
In December 2021, I received a re-medical request (it was accepted and the same reflected in my profile in January 2022).
Received a Schedule A (Background Declaration) request in March 2022 (submitted in the same month).
Yesterday (5 May 2022) I received a 'Ready for Visa' email.
What is the way forward for me? I am having trouble understanding the following things:
1. Do I need to resubmit the RPRF application fee? (this was already done back in 2019 when I had originally applied)
2. Do I need to physically submit my passport to the VFS?
3. Do I need to get my biometrics done again?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!
(Please don't mind if my questions seem silly, I am completely clueless about these things and I haven't been on this forum for months now!)
The email just said to submit my passport for the COPR. Since Indian passport holders have to submit their physical passports, I am not sure if I have to go and physically deposit it by taking an appointment/no appointment needed, or if I need to do the same via CVAC official courier service. The email didn't clarify these points.
Thanks for clarifying about the RPRF.
I spoke to a few people and they mentioned that RPRF and Biometrics do not have to be paid/done again.
Still confused about the entire process of passport submission.
Good morning from Canada,
I successfully landed with my family before yesterday through Toronto airport
The IRCC officer process was around 5 minutes waiting, 5 minutes process, after 5 other minutes she called me back and said welcome to Canada
The only question from IRCC officer were :
Good luck for you team, you will do ir believe me.
All the best
I successfully landed with my family before yesterday through Toronto airport
The IRCC officer process was around 5 minutes waiting, 5 minutes process, after 5 other minutes she called me back and said welcome to Canada
The only question from IRCC officer were :
- How much many are you planning to bring Canada
- Any other family member mentioned who wasn't part of this trip ?
- She asked me also to ensure my custom declaration is done properly.
Good luck for you team, you will do ir believe me.
All the best
