In the hope that it might be useful to new arrivals, I'm going to post my landing experience here.
I applied under the Business/Self-Employed category. We landed at Vancouver (YVR) in June 2016.
At immigration, we were asked to show our COPRs and passports. There were no questions asked and we were not asked to show proof of funds. For reference, all I had was a printout of my online account statement, showing sufficient settlement funds. I was prepared to log into my account in the presence of the inspector to show that the funds were there and accessible, but in the event, this was not necessary.
The immigration inspector directed us to the New Arrivals center. The kindly man there directed us to leave our luggage trolley outside the New Arrivals center. We went in and they processed us rather quickly. I'd estimate that we were in the New Arrivals center for less than an hour. The only questions I was asked was whether or not I had been convicted of a crime and whether or not I had been deported from a country. The answers to both were No. I signed my own COPR and those of my children. My wife signed hers.
We then went back out into the general immigration area and took our luggage trolley. Oddly, at no point were we asked to show our customs form. We passed through the customs check for onward flights (they didn't check anything) and we went to our domestic boarding gate.
It was all much easier than we had expected, but perhaps we just got lucky with things.
We were a little puzzled about what would happen with the goods we had shipped over. A few weeks after we arrived, we got a call from DHL, who was acting as the local agent for the shipping agent we had used. They were able to clear our goods through customs without us having to turn up in person. DHL used a local shipper to send the goods to our local BC address. I must say that DHL was rather confused and inefficient, but they eventually got the job done. Since they act as local agents for many international shippers, you might not have a choice but to deal with DHL.
Shortly before arriving, I called Scotiabank's international number to speak with someone about their Start Right program. They made an appointment for me at the local branch of Scotiabank for shortly after we arrived. The people at Scotiabank were super helpful and they gave me an unsecured credit card with a $2,000 limit, so that I can start building my credit rating here in Canada. I would highly recommend Scotiabank to any new arrival.
We also applied for our SIN numbers and our BC MSP cards, which we expect to arrive soon. We also expect to receive our PR cards shortly.
Anyway, I hope that this is useful to you. Good luck!
I applied under the Business/Self-Employed category. We landed at Vancouver (YVR) in June 2016.
At immigration, we were asked to show our COPRs and passports. There were no questions asked and we were not asked to show proof of funds. For reference, all I had was a printout of my online account statement, showing sufficient settlement funds. I was prepared to log into my account in the presence of the inspector to show that the funds were there and accessible, but in the event, this was not necessary.
The immigration inspector directed us to the New Arrivals center. The kindly man there directed us to leave our luggage trolley outside the New Arrivals center. We went in and they processed us rather quickly. I'd estimate that we were in the New Arrivals center for less than an hour. The only questions I was asked was whether or not I had been convicted of a crime and whether or not I had been deported from a country. The answers to both were No. I signed my own COPR and those of my children. My wife signed hers.
We then went back out into the general immigration area and took our luggage trolley. Oddly, at no point were we asked to show our customs form. We passed through the customs check for onward flights (they didn't check anything) and we went to our domestic boarding gate.
It was all much easier than we had expected, but perhaps we just got lucky with things.
We were a little puzzled about what would happen with the goods we had shipped over. A few weeks after we arrived, we got a call from DHL, who was acting as the local agent for the shipping agent we had used. They were able to clear our goods through customs without us having to turn up in person. DHL used a local shipper to send the goods to our local BC address. I must say that DHL was rather confused and inefficient, but they eventually got the job done. Since they act as local agents for many international shippers, you might not have a choice but to deal with DHL.
Shortly before arriving, I called Scotiabank's international number to speak with someone about their Start Right program. They made an appointment for me at the local branch of Scotiabank for shortly after we arrived. The people at Scotiabank were super helpful and they gave me an unsecured credit card with a $2,000 limit, so that I can start building my credit rating here in Canada. I would highly recommend Scotiabank to any new arrival.
We also applied for our SIN numbers and our BC MSP cards, which we expect to arrive soon. We also expect to receive our PR cards shortly.
Anyway, I hope that this is useful to you. Good luck!
