Mailing Address for new Immigrants

[kami151]

Hi Everyone,

I got the Canadian Immigration recently, and planning to move from UAE to Toronto with my family of two with one child in month of July. the problem i am facing is that i don’t know anyone in Canada and i believe i have to provide Mailing address at the time of landing.
can anyone suggest me how i can get that address. ( by renting any Postal box if any or renting any safe flat)
i am also trying to find one bedroom apartment but its difficult to find the flat online without physically looking at it or without knowing the neighborhood.

Many thanks in advance.

Kamran

 

[Leon]

You do not have to give an address at the time of landing. You can tell them that you will give it later when you know.

 

[nashe_31]

Great reply

 

[kami151]

Hi Leon,

thanks for the quick response, but my lawyer has clearly mentioned that i have to provide my Canadian address at the time of landing because they will use this address for sending our PR cards.
Please let me know if there is something like I can provide any address (Address of my friends relative) and once i will have my own flat address i can update it by calling them.
Thanks

Regards,
Kamran

 

[Leon]

You really do not have to give them an address. You can tell them that you do not know where you will be staying at the time your PR card arrives and that you will give an address later. If you look at the processing time for PR cards, see http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/information/times/perm-card.asp you see:
"35 business days* (This time applies if you have provided a mailing address)"
That means that if you don't provide a mailing address, they will wait with the PR card until you update your address with them.

You can also give the address of a friend or a relative if you want to but sometimes they will ask you if you will be staying at this address when the PR card arrives and if you say no, they might refuse the address and put a hold on your PR card until you have an address of your own and update with them.

 

[kami151]

Many thanks for the information.

Regards,
Kamran

 

[New Ontarian]

Let me give you my experience...

The visa officer insisted that I have to give him an address before leaving the airport... I told him that I will be staying in a hotel and he said that's fine give me the hotel address and once you move out to a permanent place send a fax with the new address... I didn't want to give him the hotel address so I asked him if its ok to give a friend's address although I will not be staying in that address... He said that's fine and so it was.

My understanding is that you have to provide an address whether it's yours or a friend it doesn't really matter since you can update it once you settle as long as it is before you have your PR card sent throug mail.

Good luck...

 

[kami151]

Thanks a lot for sharing this information. it will help me to plan myself.