My landing experience friends,
First of all i have to thank each and everyone in this forum to keep it as ocean of knowledge and issues resolution with valuable experience from the members.
1st day of landing:
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I have landed on 9th september 2015 in ottawa international airport. The landing has been very smooth without any hassles the way people may get scared for lot of things around.
I landed at 3:30PM as per the local time of ottawa. The whole process just took 2 hours in the airport including entry into the passport .
first entry into passport control, they looked at my COPR,VISA and the disembarkation card we will in the airport. Be sure to declare the amount of cash you are bringing this is a must if you are carrying more than 10000 dollars in cash or dd or traveler cheques. They will be friendly dudes if you are fine with respect to all of your documentation no need to be panic. There probably including waiting in the queue we have completed about 15 to 20 minutes.
Then the officer will ask you to collect the luggage and go to immigration section.
In immigration section officer asked me to submit the passports with visas and copr. Give the address in canada in printed form rather than dictating there itself so that there are no errors either end. I did the same and the officer was happy to see our preparedness. folks no need to be panic on address front if you don't have a friend,relative in canada to give. You can give any temporary address like hotel you are going to stay as afterwards you can submit the form to CIC by a fax or submit new address online using the address notifcation portal of CIC. I did the same initially i given my company address where i was joining. After a week i updated with my residence address on CIC portal and by faxing a new form. eitherway is fine.
The process at immigration took little longer may be 3o to 40minutes as the officer was checking something in his system before giving a grant of PR status. I don't know what he checked to grant it but we were panic at this moment why he is taking such a long time but it is natural guys. But anyhow no need to be panic as if our application is inline with all the requirements for PR and we had submitted all the proper documentation,there should not be any issues granting it.
Then the officer called one by one including myself,spouse and spouse again on behalf of children to sign the COPR copies and granted the landing. It was amazing experience folks to see that our dream came true.
Then we marched to customs. Here as you had seen in some earlier forum topics as well. we need to keep 2 sets of goods accompanying and goods to carry with photos of jewellery and items you will be bringing later. The officer will check them,enter into system and give a copy to us for future records so that we can bring the goods to follow alter without incurring any taxes. The officer didn't ask us good accompanying list and photos at all but it is better to keep it as some officers may and some may not. luckily she didn't open our bags also to see what we are carrying. But some other person the different customs officer asked to show the items not sure what he had why he has asked to open and show. Thats why be cautious on what you are bringing into canda. I think canda border or customs agency will give you more data on what data to be bring in or not.
Next we marched out of the airport with copr stamped. then got into a taxi van as we had 12 bags of luggage to hotel. we landed into hotel about 45 minutes. So from the moment we got out of the plane to by the time got into hotels it took about 3.5 hours.
relaxed in the hotel that day night with a sound sleep as it is indeed a tough jouney.
2nd day of landing:
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1. Went to near by service canda office (as service canda was not present in ottawa airport). we applied for SINs for all 4 of us myself,souse and children as well. It just took half-an hour to get them.
2. moved into TD canda trust bank just nearby and opened TD chequing account without any hassles and also was able to apply for credit card. What they needed was COPR,passports. It was good to see this as without any candian credit hostory getting credit card or even bank account was tough. But i guess nowadays canda has opened up very well ti support new immigrants.
3. Went into near by walmart store and took SIMs for mobiles bringing action in canada. As you know in a unknown place and country and that technology oriented country which largely resides on mobile internet for maps and google maps to search anything to move around. As not like india we can talk to anyone and get a help finding anything,so i can't tell more than this what is the importance of a mobile connection with internet facility. I was able to get the sims activated with connectivity just next day of landing. I was on completly to search anything be on my own.
Good thing about canada is we have very good transport facility not like usa. I was able to all these activities just travelling in a bus only so such a great connectivity.
3rd,4th,5hday of landing:
1. searched for houses near by locality with a indian community for better support and homeliness. i was able to get the house in 2days only. As i had the TD bank account, it was easy for me to get the land tenancy agreements done without any issue as they need some debit account as well. Usually many leasing companies won't accept the cash. So first important thing is to open a bank account and deposit cask into to use for any purpose. This is very important. canada they will take some time like 2 to 3 days for credit history clearance, security clearance from police dept which should not be an issue as we are new immigrants. So by 5th day i had my house ready and moved in.
Folks it is a pretty big story hope i didn't bored off anyone. Following things sailent points you can follow to keep yourself safe and be prepared to take up anything there.
1. Keep all your travel documents intact passports, coprs, children birth certificates,your professional certificates,degree certificates,ielts score copies,education credential assessment records. The bank statements of india, any other savings you have lie FDs,PFs which can be liquidated easily. These can be needed if the officer asks to show proof of funds. But in my case officer never asked any of the things.
2. keep 2 copies of documents of goods accompanying and following. with photographs of jewellery if at all.
3. No need to be panic on carrying settlement funds to canda. for you liquid funds you keep something like 1000 dollars in notes and rest in travel card. I was ICICI bank account holder, so i was able to take a travel card loaded in CAD. So it is like debit card and credit card as well, it was very convenient for me use. So other banks also have similar things better try that only. No need to go to any forex folks for these cards.
4. Children immunization records are very important without which school admissions can't be given.
I hope this post is useful for you folks.
