Hi all, hope everyone has a good day.
I am going to share my landing experience through the Canadian Land border in Peace Arch Vancouver. It seems that not a lot of people shared their experiences while driving to US and do a flagpole.
On 2020-01-10. Friday, I got my COPR from the post office in afternoon. After a few hours, I checked the border waiting time online. It said "No Delay" and I planned to head down to the border to do my landing. While I drove through HWY99 and noticed that the wait time became 20 minutes.
I arrived at US border around 5:00 pm, and the line up is long. I ended up waiting for 40 minutes. When it was my turn, I gave my passport to the US border officer and told him I want to make a flagpole to obtain Canadian PR. He than put a small traffic cone on my vehicle's hood and passed me a written orange paper. He also directed me to the US border office to complete the paper work.
The US border agent directed me to a designated parking spot. After I parked my car, I headed to the US border office. There was no lineup inside and I was served immediately. The border agent asked me what was my purpose for going to US. I answered her I wanted to make a flagpole for my Canadian PR. She said congratulations and kept on working on my passport. Side note here is I am holding a valid US visitor visa. Therefore, she gave me the US visa white paper for the US visa (ie, the white paper that last for six months and costs 6 USD). After that is done, she gave me back my passport, orange paper. I walked back to my car and drove to the gate. I gave the orange paper to the officer sitting in the gate and I was officially in US.
I exited in the first exit 276 and drove back to Canadian border. There was no vehicle line up in the Canadian side. I told the Canadian officer I just turn around from US and wanted to complete the PR landing process. I gave him my COPR, as well as my passport. He wrote an orange paper and asked me to drive to the left side and followed instructions from another officer for where to parked my vehicle.
After I parked my vehicle, the same officer told me to walk into the Canadian border office and go to Line B on the left side for PR landing. There was no one waiting for line B as well. Another officer greeted me and asked for my COPR, passport. She passed me a sheet of paper to read which is about the requirement of maintaining the PR status, SIN number, etc.
While I was reading that, she asked me a few questions such as did I have criminal record in other country, Canada, what did I bring to come to Canada, etc. Then she asked me to sign the COPR. She gave me the COPR without the photo back to me and she kept the one with photo. After I finished reading the paper, she said "Congratulations". Now I am a Canadian PR.
The only regret I had during the landing was she asked me if I wanted to keep the working permit I had and I said no. I should have keep it as a memory of coming to Canada. But other than that, the process is fast (Except the wait time on the US border side). It took me about 40 minutes to drive to the border and the actual wait time of completing the PR process is less than 30 minutes.
I am going to share my landing experience through the Canadian Land border in Peace Arch Vancouver. It seems that not a lot of people shared their experiences while driving to US and do a flagpole.
On 2020-01-10. Friday, I got my COPR from the post office in afternoon. After a few hours, I checked the border waiting time online. It said "No Delay" and I planned to head down to the border to do my landing. While I drove through HWY99 and noticed that the wait time became 20 minutes.
I arrived at US border around 5:00 pm, and the line up is long. I ended up waiting for 40 minutes. When it was my turn, I gave my passport to the US border officer and told him I want to make a flagpole to obtain Canadian PR. He than put a small traffic cone on my vehicle's hood and passed me a written orange paper. He also directed me to the US border office to complete the paper work.
The US border agent directed me to a designated parking spot. After I parked my car, I headed to the US border office. There was no lineup inside and I was served immediately. The border agent asked me what was my purpose for going to US. I answered her I wanted to make a flagpole for my Canadian PR. She said congratulations and kept on working on my passport. Side note here is I am holding a valid US visitor visa. Therefore, she gave me the US visa white paper for the US visa (ie, the white paper that last for six months and costs 6 USD). After that is done, she gave me back my passport, orange paper. I walked back to my car and drove to the gate. I gave the orange paper to the officer sitting in the gate and I was officially in US.
I exited in the first exit 276 and drove back to Canadian border. There was no vehicle line up in the Canadian side. I told the Canadian officer I just turn around from US and wanted to complete the PR landing process. I gave him my COPR, as well as my passport. He wrote an orange paper and asked me to drive to the left side and followed instructions from another officer for where to parked my vehicle.
After I parked my vehicle, the same officer told me to walk into the Canadian border office and go to Line B on the left side for PR landing. There was no one waiting for line B as well. Another officer greeted me and asked for my COPR, passport. She passed me a sheet of paper to read which is about the requirement of maintaining the PR status, SIN number, etc.
While I was reading that, she asked me a few questions such as did I have criminal record in other country, Canada, what did I bring to come to Canada, etc. Then she asked me to sign the COPR. She gave me the COPR without the photo back to me and she kept the one with photo. After I finished reading the paper, she said "Congratulations". Now I am a Canadian PR.
The only regret I had during the landing was she asked me if I wanted to keep the working permit I had and I said no. I should have keep it as a memory of coming to Canada. But other than that, the process is fast (Except the wait time on the US border side). It took me about 40 minutes to drive to the border and the actual wait time of completing the PR process is less than 30 minutes.
