gs123 said:
I landed today at Vancouver airport.
Hi guys,
My 3 hours flight from Los Angeles arrived at Vancouver airport at 1:00pm. Customs form was provided to passanger in the flight which I filled in before reaching the Visitors verification window. It was not a long queue so I reached the window after a short wait in the queue.
Officer at the window asked me for Passport and customs form. He saw my immigration visa and directed me to go to the new immigrats/students section. This was a 2-3 minutes process.
I was the only one there for new immigrant formalities. The officer at the counter greeted me and asked for my passport and COPR. He then looked for me record on his computer and gave me welcome kit and then directed me to go to another window where there were already around 25-30 students from China waiting for them to be called for verification. This took 10 minutes.
For verification window, it took me 15-20 minutes for my turn. Officer asked me for my passport and COPR. He then started looking at my immigration file on his computer which he said was very large. He also mentioned about some extra documentation for my medicals in his system because of my invalid IME and also about my POF transactions clarifications which was there on the file. He asked me my address in Canada and if this is my short trip to which I said yes. I gave my friend,s address to which he said that my PR card will be sent to the same address within 6 weeks and told me to visit Service Canada to apply for SIN (SIN is not done at the airport). After going through my file, he stamped the COPR and said all is done and I should proceed to Cashier counter because I had over 10,000 dollars which I had already mentioned on my customs form.
Then, I told him (I proactively asked this; Thanks to the info shared by Qorax on 2013 forum) I have Goods Accompanying and Goods to follow forms which I want him to stamp at which he saw the papers and said he will be able to take care of this. I had also mentioned my car which I wanted to move from USA. He was not sure if car can be mentioned on this (B4) form so he checked with other official and striked through the car and said that vehicles are taken care at the border. He signed, stamped and mentioned the confirmation number on the form, kept one and gave another copy to me. This took around 20-25 minutes.
After this, I went to the cashier window where I told the person how much amount I was carrying in cash and cashier check(I had a few USD, CAD and bigger amount as cashier check), the currency. I was also asked to show the cashier check. He filled in a form and mentioned the amounts on that and signed my customs form. This took 5 minutes as there was nobody else before me at this window.
I went towards airport exit where the customs form was collected before exit so overall a very simple process. I have been to Vancouver earlier as a visitor but this time the sky looked more beautiful, weather more pleasant, air so musical, people more charming, myself more relaxed. I became a Permanent Resident afterall and that too in exactly 4 months.
I am going to be in Vancouver for a week during which I will open bank account, apply for SIN and will go back to USA. My current employer may transfer me to Canada or I will search for a new job myself and move here permanently. This time I came only with a carry on bag and will move rest of my stuff later when I come back with a job offer. This is completely legal to come once to complete landing formalities and come back later to settle so have no doubts. Good luck to all.
I referred to the following information posted by Qorax and reposted by islandbabe which is very useful pre-landing knowledge:
congrats.thanks a lot for your post,it gives lot of hope.
