Is COPR still valid document to reenter Canada by land?

[PinoyInUS]

As stated multiple times, you don't need PR card nor COPR to enter Canada by land. All you need is a passport for CBSA to confirm your PR status and allow you entry.

Having COPR will simply help the initial CBSA officer determine your status quicker and hopefully bypass need to go to secondary inspection where it could be delay of minutes to a couple hours being processed depending on how busy it happens to be.

This is kinda out of topic but a similar one. How about if i travel by air from the usa? Does the same rule apply?

 

[dpenabill]

This is kinda out of topic but a similar one. How about if i travel by air from the usa? Does the same rule apply?

The difference is not about what happens at the border, at the PoE.

Your question is not so much about what is necessary to enter Canada, as it is about what is required to travel to Canada. These are very different things.

Prescribed Travel Documents are required to get aboard a flight to Canada.

In contrast, no matter what mode of transportation is used, once a PR reaches the PoE, the PR is entitled to enter Canada. The CoPR is not a Travel Document. But it is strong evidence of status, and in particular it has the PR's client number so the PoE can readily look up the traveler's Canadian immigration history and status in FOSS and GCMS. Thus, if the traveler has a passport properly establishing the traveler's identity, and a CoPR, that will ordinarily suffice to establish the traveler's identity and status as a Canadian PR.

Thus, the U.S. border difference is that people can travel to the border by private vehicle, or even walk across the border.

But obviously, if the traveler had lost PR status previously, a CoPR will not get the traveler into Canada as a PR: CBSA will see, in the system, that the individual no longer is a PR and accordingly deny entry as a PR.

Flying to Canada is different, because there are more strict rules limiting who the airlines may allow to board a flight to Canada. Only prescribed Travel Documents will get the traveler aboard the flight. A CoPR is of no help here. A CoPR does not get a PR abroad the flight to Canada.

 

[PinoyInUS]

The difference is not about what happens at the border, at the PoE.

Your question is not so much about what is necessary to enter Canada, as it is about what is required to travel to Canada. These are very different things.

Prescribed Travel Documents are required to get aboard a flight to Canada.

In contrast, no matter what mode of transportation is used, once a PR reaches the PoE, the PR is entitled to enter Canada. The CoPR is not a Travel Document. But it is strong evidence of status, and in particular it has the PR's client number so the PoE can readily look up the traveler's Canadian immigration history and status in FOSS and GCMS. Thus, if the traveler has a passport properly establishing the traveler's identity, and a CoPR, that will ordinarily suffice to establish the traveler's identity and status as a Canadian PR.

Thus, the U.S. border difference is that people can travel to the border by private vehicle, or even walk across the border.

But obviously, if the traveler had lost PR status previously, a CoPR will not get the traveler into Canada as a PR: CBSA will see, in the system, that the individual no longer is a PR and accordingly deny entry as a PR.

Flying to Canada is different, because there are more strict rules limiting who the airlines may allow to board a flight to Canada. Only prescribed Travel Documents will get the traveler aboard the flight. A CoPR is of no help here. A CoPR does not get a PR abroad the flight to Canada.

My situation is i flew to the usa, without a pr card yet. Im planning to go back to Canada. Im thinking if my passport and copr would suffice. Or maybe my relative could send me the pr card once it is available. Fyi, im not a us citizen. Thanks for all the info

 

[dpenabill]

My situation is i flew to the usa, without a pr card yet. Im planning to go back to Canada. Im thinking if my passport and copr would suffice. Or maybe my relative could send me the pr card once it is available. Fyi, im not a us citizen. Thanks for all the info

Again, for PRs what is required to board a flight to Canada is more strict than what is required at the PoE.

There is little or no flexibility for what documents must be shown to board a flight to Canada.

As I understand from other posts, you are a relatively new PR, so you should have no problem at the PoE (passport plus CoPR should easily suffice).

To get on a plane headed to Canada, however, you will need the PR card, or a PR Travel Document. (There are some exceptions, but those do not appear relevant to your situation.)

 

[npcanada]

Hey Guys,

I know its been explained earlier in this thread that only a well maintained passport is sufficed to enter Canada by land.

But I just want to confirm as I want to get my mom into Canada who is disabled and don't want her to be send back from US border.

Since she has misplaced her COPR and we cannot find it, will she be allowed to enter Canada, by private vehicle, if she has her old & new passport and her expired PR card?

Also she does not meet RO, as she stayed for 2.5 years in Canada and her PR card expired in Sep 2012.

 

[jasonqw1]

Hey guys, does anyone know if I can enter by land with the landing document and current passport but without old passport? I renewed my non-Canadian passport 2 years ago and left it inside Canada. Can I still walk to the border and just tell them to look up my info from their exit/entry database?

 

[boatyyo]

Thanks everyone for your input/suggestion. This weekend i traveled with COPR and passport.

Had the short trip at Windsor, ON port of entry via the personal car. No issues except below questions:
Whats the purpose of the trip? (i thought i wont be asked this question)
Are you coming for the first time for immigration? ( I said no and told that i landed in other city earlier and this is the second time).
(note: to avoid the scrutiny in ontario i first landed earlier at saskatoon as it was SK PNP)
You are yet to received your PR card? (i said that yes i would be getting it next month)
Where are you headed? (i said Windsor,ON for bank account related)
Just for bank account opening? (i told i had appointment at bank for activating the bank account which i had to explain that i opened the account while i was outside and stuff. )

Overall its fine.

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to check again.. if i were to take a rental car can i still cross the border with COPR? i landed in Oct 2017 and haven't recieved my PR card yet.

 

[fireal.jon]

Hi Guys,

Just wanted to check again.. if i were to take a rental car can i still cross the border with COPR? i landed in Oct 2017 and haven't recieved my PR card yet.

If you read the detailed posts in this thread then you would know the answer.. which is yes. Your CoPR is not a travel document tho. It will just help the CBSA officer look you up in their system to verify that your PR status is valid. Your passport will confirm your identity so you will be allowed entry.

 

[homemadefishball]

just found this one from the forum.
'''Just to share my experience: I traveled without PR card to Germany. For return, I showed my visa to the airline and at the PoE, the officer did not ask me even a single question. I gave her my passport and CoPR and added that I have landed recently. She was totally OK with them. I did not say anything about my PR card, but she added "So, you have not received your card, yet" and I said "Yes".''''

 

[Rob_TO]

just found this one from the forum.
'''Just to share my experience: I traveled without PR card to Germany. For return, I showed my visa to the airline and at the PoE, the officer did not ask me even a single question. I gave her my passport and CoPR and added that I have landed recently. She was totally OK with them. I did not say anything about my PR card, but she added "So, you have not received your card, yet" and I said "Yes".''''

VIsas and eTAs are supposed to be cancelled once you land as a PR.

Some posters have reported success flying on previously obtained TRV or eTA, and there is no firm rule on exactly how/when they are cancelled (if it requires someone to manually do it so some CBSA or IRCC staff may forget, etc). However any PR that tries this does so at their own risk since they could be cancelled at a moment's notice resulting in a denied boarding when they try to check into the airline.

 

[Tempest8008]

I landed in Canada at the ripe age of 4yrs old in 1977. I've been a Permanent Resident ever since.
I obtained a PR card 5 years ago to go back to England to bury my Mother. It's the first time I've left Canada in over a decade. Since then I haven't had to travel.
Now my work wants me to go to Alaska for a week to do some software installations and training, so I'm researching what I need.

My PR card expires about 2 weeks before I'm scheduled to leave. I've already started the process to obtain a new one, but I likely won't receive it on time.

So, to beat a dead horse (referring to the age of this thread and the number of people who have already replied that you CAN do it this way), I'm looking at driving into the 'States and flying from there.
I have my British passport, my birth certificate, my very old, dog-eared, pink and worn Canadian Immigration Identification Record from 1977, my British birth certificate, my soon-to-expire PR card...and of course my Ontario Driver's Licence and Health Card etc etc.

Will those be sufficient to get me IN to the 'States, take my (now domestic) flights, and then back into Canada when I land back at where I left my car?

Thanks in advance for your advice.
(In case you can't tell, I don't travel often)

 

[meyakanor]

PR card renewal takes about 3-4 months, so you most likely won't get it on time. Your plan seems like it's going to work.

You can always drive back to Canada with just a landing paper and other identification documents. Since you are a PR, they will let you in (even if you have no document to directly show you're a PR, they still have to verify your identification, after which they would still have to let you in).

Since you don't have a permanent status in the US, it would be up to you to convince the CBP to let you in as a visitor, but you should not have any problem.

 

[rish888]

You can get back into Canada with the documents you have. Your PR card (even if it's expired) is probably the best document to use at the POE. (To ensure you're processed as quickly as possible.)

Getting into the US shouldn't [really] be an issue given you're a British citizen.

Also, I'd apply for Canadian citizenship if I were you.

 

[Tempest8008]

PR card renewal takes about 3-4 months, so you most likely won't get it on time. Your plan seems like it's going to work.

You can always drive back to Canada with just a landing paper and other identification documents. Since you are a PR, they will let you in (even if you have no document to directly show you're a PR, they still have to verify your identification, after which they would still have to let you in).

Since you don't have a permanent status in the US, it would be up to you to convince the CBP to let you in as a visitor, but you should not have any problem.

CBP. Canada Border Patrol?
Sorry, there are so many acronyms floating around this forum that I admit to being a certain level of confused.

Do you mean that I'd have to convince the US Border agents to let me in to the US? I'm going for valid business purposes, to train USAF staff on the use of our software they just bought.

 

[Tempest8008]

You can get back into Canada with the documents you have. Your PR card (even if it's expired) is probably the best document to use at the POE. (To ensure you're processed as quickly as possible.)

Getting into the US shouldn't [really] be an issue given you're a British citizen.

Also, I'd apply for Canadian citizenship if I were you.

I know, I know. I really should. Personally (and not just because it would benefit me) they should just offer to make you a citizen after you live here for, oh, say 25 years concurrently. I'm more Canadian than I've ever been anything else. My kids are Canadian, my brother is 4yrs older than me and he got his citizenship just a few years back. I should just bite the bullet.

Thank you for your input, btw.