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Landing Experience: Peace-Arch border Crossing, Douglas/Blaine

sidroy09

Hero Member
Jul 26, 2013
284
154
Hello Guys,

Last Thursday night, I tried doing my PR first landing by driving from Seattle,WA,USA to Surrey,BC,Canada.
I went there with my wife who is on H1-B status with expired H1-B Visa stamping.
I am on F-1 Visa with H1-B application is process. We had our personal stuff for 2 days, COPR, personal documents, some cash and 2 copies of completed BSF 186 and BSF 186A forms.

Day 1:
We flew to Seattle and rented a car which I drove to Surrey. At 1 AM, we reached Peace-Arch border Crossing, Douglas/Blaine. Only 1 lane was OPEN at that time but there was Zero wait time. The lady officer was very nice but she said their Immigration system is down and she cannot process my PR documents. I believe IRCC was maintaining their system at that time. I checked on their twitter page and saw that they usually maintain the systems between 3AM-5:30AM EST. We were in a dilemma as we already had the Hotel and Bank Appointments booked in Surrey. Luckily, we had Canadian Tourist Visa stamped on our passports and the lady suggested us to use this visa, enter the Canada and come back tomorrow morning. I booked a Hotel in Surrey 5 minutes away from border so at least we did not have to drive for long after crossing the border disappointingly.
Strangely, conversation happened so quickly that she did not even ask a single question from us. But there was a catch. We need to go back to USA and enter Canada again to get our landing done(Flagpolling). That means we need to go through USA's immigration with our current Visa statuses and a dozen of questions.

Day 2:
Checked-In at 1:30AM, after a sleepless night, we started from Hotel at 7 AM. To be on a safer side, I called Canadian Border Services to confirm if their system is up and running. We decided to do flagpolling on foot but because of the rain, we joined the queue of cars at USA border. We explained the USA border officer that we are doing Flagpolling. He gave us an Orange slip and asked to go for the secondary checking (expected).
We handed over our documents such as passports, I-797, I20 & OPT Card(F1) and i94.
That officer seems to be a newbie and the first thing he asked us, how many times you had been to Middle-East. I was numb for a moment but my wife handled the situation.

It took us around 20-30mins inside the building and the officer wrote Refused entry and Flagpolling on a page which he handed over to us.
At 8:15 AM, we did second try at Peace-Arch border Crossing, Douglas/Blaine:
Me: We are here for our first landing as Permanent Residents.
Officer: Please move down the rear windows. Are you moving right now?
Me: No, we are planning to move within next 6 to 10 months. Today we plan to get started with SIN and Bank accounts in Vancouver.
Officer: Any food in car?
Me: No
Officer: What do you do for living?
Me: Explained
Officer: Started talking to another officer and telling him that they are not moving right now etc etc.
Me: I gave him forms BSF 186 and BSF 186A explaining what we have right now and what will follow.
Officer: Do you have any Cash?
Me: Explained
Officer: Park your car next to the building and the officer will guide you inside.
Me: Thank you.

We went inside the building where another officer helped us with the documentation work. It took around 30 mins to complete the Landing process.
Once everything was done like signing the documents, providing the Canadian address for PR card and getting the COPR copy attached to the passport, we came out of the building with happy faces and continued our journey towards Surrey.
We went directly to the closest Canadian Service Center where we got our SIN numbers within 15 mins. Somebody told us to have Indian food at Horn OK Please in Vancouver. We drove 56 kms with empty stomachs just to see that the Restaurant is closed. :(

Never mind, we had some more coffee and went to Bank where I had 1 PM appointment. It took us around 1.5 hours to get accounts and credit card applied.
Lastly, our second attempt in a day at USA immigration took around 1 hour with the queue of cars and secondary inspection (again). To our surprise, the officer did not ask anything about my wife's expired H1B and any related questions. It was me again on F1 visa being questioned.
The officer asked us why did you apply for Canadian PR?
We explained about our family and friends are living in Canada along with keeping an option open in case needed.

We reached Seattle at 7:30PM and slept till next morning. Those were tight 24 hours for us but we were happy returning home next day and thinking that everything was done successfully in the end.
If anybody is doing landing at midnight or late, I would strongly recommend doing it either early morning after 5:30 AM EST or before 2 AM EST. Or check IRCC's twitter page for maintenance notifications. I don't think there is any other way to check that.

Thanks everyone for the great help on this portal. :)
 
Last edited:

Mat_M

Full Member
Mar 28, 2017
30
4
Thanks so much for sharing. Just to be clear, you are saying that your wife entered the US with an expired visa? I have to land in Canada from the US shortly but my visa has expired and I do not know if I'll be allowed back in the US once I enter Canada.
 
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Reactions: sidroy09

rahulsingh16

Star Member
Aug 18, 2017
62
16
Hello Guys,

Last Thursday night, I tried doing my PR first landing by driving from Seattle,WA,USA to Surrey,BC,Canada.
I went there with my wife who is on H1-B status with expired H1-B Visa stamping.
I am on F-1 Visa with H1-B application is process. We had our personal stuff for 2 days, COPR, personal documents, some cash and 2 copies of completed BSF 186 and BSF 186A forms.

Day 1:
We flew to Seattle and rented a car which I drove to Surrey. At 1 AM, we reached Peace-Arch border Crossing, Douglas/Blaine. Only 1 lane was OPEN at that time but there was Zero wait time. The lady officer was very nice but she said their Immigration system is down and she cannot process my PR documents. I believe IRCC was maintaining their system at that time. I checked on their twitter page and saw that they usually maintain the systems between 3AM-5:30AM EST. We were in a dilemma as we already had the Hotel and Bank Appointments booked in Surrey. Luckily, we had Canadian Tourist Visa stamped on our passports and the lady suggested us to use this visa, enter the Canada and come back tomorrow morning. I booked a Hotel in Surrey 5 minutes away from border so at least we did not have to drive for long after crossing the border disappointingly.
Strangely, conversation happened so quickly that she did not even ask a single question from us. But there was a catch. We need to go back to USA and enter Canada again to get our landing done(Flagpolling). That means we need to go through USA's immigration with our current Visa statuses and a dozen of questions.

Day 2:
Checked-In at 1:30AM, after a sleepless night, we started from Hotel at 7 AM. To be on a safer side, I called Canadian Border Services to confirm if their system is up and running. We decided to do flagpolling on foot but because of the rain, we joined the queue of cars at USA border. We explained the USA border officer that we are doing Flagpolling. He gave us an Orange slip and asked to go for the secondary checking (expected).
We handed over our documents such as passports, I-797, I20 & OPT Card(F1) and i94.
That officer seems to be a newbie and the first thing he asked us, how many times you had been to Middle-East. I was numb for a moment but my wife handled the situation.

It took us around 20-30mins inside the building and the officer wrote Refused entry and Flagpolling on a page which he handed over to us.
At 8:15 AM, we did second try at Peace-Arch border Crossing, Douglas/Blaine:
Me: We are here for our first landing as Permanent Residents.
Officer: Please move down the rear windows. Are you moving right now?
Me: No, we are planning to move within next 6 to 10 months. Today we plan to get started with SIN and Bank accounts in Vancouver.
Officer: Any food in car?
Me: No
Officer: What do you do for living?
Me: Explained
Officer: Started talking to another officer and telling him that they are not moving right now etc etc.
Me: I gave him forms BSF 186 and BSF 186A explaining what we have right now and what will follow.
Officer: Do you have any Cash?
Me: Explained
Officer: Park your car next to the building and the officer will guide you inside.
Me: Thank you.

We went inside the building where another officer helped us with the documentation work. It took around 30 mins to complete the Landing process.
Once everything was done like signing the documents, providing the Canadian address for PR card and getting the COPR copy attached to the passport, we came out of the building with happy faces and continued our journey towards Surrey.
We went directly to the closest Canadian Service Center where we got our SIN numbers within 15 mins. Somebody told us to have Indian food at Horn OK Please in Vancouver. We drove 56 kms with empty stomachs just to see that the Restaurant is closed. :(

Never mind, we had some more coffee and went to Bank where I had 1 PM appointment. It took us around 1.5 hours to get accounts and credit card applied.
Lastly, our second attempt in a day at USA immigration took around 1 hour with the queue of cars and secondary inspection (again). To our surprise, the officer did not ask anything about my wife's expired H1B and any related questions. It was me again on F1 visa being questioned.
The officer asked us why did you apply for Canadian PR?
We explained about our family and friends are living in Canada along with keeping an option open in case needed.

We reached Seattle at 7:30PM and slept till next morning. Those were tight 24 hours for us but we were happy returning home next day and thinking that everything was done successfully in the end.
If anybody is doing landing at midnight or late, I would strongly recommend doing it either early morning after 5:30 AM EST or before 2 AM EST. Or check IRCC's twitter page for maintenance notifications. I don't think there is any other way to check that.

Thanks everyone for the great help on this portal. :)
Hi,can you please tell the bank which allowed opening credit card on soft landing? What did they accept as address proof? Also didnot they ask for Canadian phone number ?Were card given at the bank itself and were they ready to use ?
 

sidroy09

Hero Member
Jul 26, 2013
284
154
Hi,can you please tell the bank which allowed opening credit card on soft landing? What did they accept as address proof? Also didnot they ask for Canadian phone number ?Were card given at the bank itself and were they ready to use ?
You can go to any bank but make sure you take appointment in advance. They just need your SIN, passport and landing proof. Address can be any.
 
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sidroy09

Hero Member
Jul 26, 2013
284
154
Thanks so much for sharing. Just to be clear, you are saying that your wife entered the US with an expired visa? I have to land in Canada from the US shortly but my visa has expired and I do not know if I'll be allowed back in the US once I enter Canada.
Sorry for the late reply. Not sure if you have already done with the landing.
But yes my wife had expired H1B visa but valid i94.
 
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Reactions: Mat_M

sidroy09

Hero Member
Jul 26, 2013
284
154
Hi,

Can you please tell me what all questions did they ask while coming back to US?
Apologies for the late reply. hope you are already done with the landing and safe return to US.

They will just ask simple questions (if any) what they usually ask at the Airport. So no worries with that.