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My landing experience (soft landing) - November 2019

yash91pathak

Star Member
Feb 10, 2019
91
58
My soft-landing experience at Toronto international airport on 11/03/2019. Landed at 05:04 PM and was done with the entire process by 05:45 pm.

Flew in from USA . No bags with me except my carry on and personal item.

Had a list of goods to follow (including my car which I will drive later)

Here is my experience -- the conversations are not verbatim but they do capture the gist of the whole process

Step 1 – Passport control at self-help kiosk
At YYZ, after deboarding the plane, you walk through a long corridor till you get to passport control. It is a huge room with lots of self help kiosks (I did not count but from the look of it, it seemed there were around 50 kisosks)
The First thing you do is Scan your passport, the machine then asks a few questions regarding your self and the purpose of the visit. It will then take your photo. A few additional steps later, it will print out a receipt.

You will then go to a line with everyone else and wait for your turn to go to the first CBSA officer for step 2.

Step 2 – Meet CBSA officer1 with the receipt

Officer1 - Receipt and passport

Officer1 – Reason for visit?

Me – establish residency

Office 1 - First time landing.

Me - Yes

He used a marker to check off my receipt and showed where to go next.

You walk towards baggage claim but right before baggage claim, there is a well-lit room on your left with a sign for immigrants and students. You go inside this room for step 3.

Step 3 – Meet CBSA officer2 to complete landing procedure (sign COPR and request PR Card)

Went inside the room, no one in front of me, had to wait for a minute or 2 as the agents where talking internally.

One agent called me to his booth, Very friendly and welcoming fellow.

Officer2 – are you here to establish residency

Me – Yes

Officer2 – first time landing?

Me – yes

Officer2 asked for receipt (from step1) COPR and passport

Officer2 – have you been charged of any crimes inside or outside of Canada

Me – no

Officer2 – do you have any dependents not listed on this COPR?

Me – no

Officer2 asked me to sign at 3 places on each copy of COPR and kept one copy (the one with the photograph) for himself and gave the second copy to me and asked me to keep it securely.

I had the address I was going to, written on a post-it notes on top of my folder and it was in bright color so the officer noticed it and asked if that was the address I was going to stay at? I responded yes, he was happy that I had written it down. He asked if he could use it to enter the address for the pr card to be delivered. I agreed.

He entered the information on the computer and said welcome to Canada.

Having been through US immigration before, I was surprised that it was this easy and so I exclaimed “that’s it?”, he smiled and said yes, and asked if I had goods to follow? I said yes, he asked me to collect my bags and go to the customs.

Since I did not have any bags I just started walking towards the exit where there was another officer collecting the receipts right before the exit.

He asked me for my receipt, before handing it to him, I told him I have goods to follow. He asked if I was landing for the first time and I agreed, and he smiled and asked me to go down a corridor where he said they will take care of it.

NOTE – Make sure you ask the officer regarding your goods to follow, if you don’t ask, you might just walk out of the airport!

I followed the corridor till it took me to a big room (not very well lit) with a lot of chairs and a lot of booths for officers for step 4 and officer3

Step 4 – Customs and Goods to Follow.

The place was pretty empty, stood in line with just one person in front of me

A young friendly officer called me to his booth.

Officer3 - How can I help you

Me - I am doing my landing and have a goods to follow.

Officer3 -Can I see your COPR, Passport and the receipt (from step1)?

While he was looking over the documents, I took out the copies of the Goods to follow and
goods with my (form BSF 186). I had made 2 copies of each as instructed by others on other threads and laid it out on the counter.

Officer turned towards me and saw that I had already made the copies and listed out the details and was extremely happy with the same. He clarified which document was which (goods to follow vs. goods with me) He took at look at the both and filled out the information I had left blank.

I explained him that I left the blank intentionally as I wasn’t very sure what goes where, and he was very sympathetic and re assured that it is good that you left it blank so that you don’t have to do the entire process from scratch. He signed where he needed to and stamped in the designated place and asked me to sign on each of the document.

He then crossed off everything on my “goods with me form” and explained that every time I bring these things in, the officer will cross off everything that you have with you at that point on the form.

He asked me if I had a calculator and asked me to tally up the total for my goods to follow. I did and gave him the number. He entered it on his workstation and asked me to go the cashier at the end of the hall with a copy of my goods with me and goods to follow forms. I went to the desk, there was friendly lady there who took a print out and stapled my forms and the receipt that she took out and gave it back to me

I took it to the officer, he looked at it and told me to keep it safely and to bring it with me the next time when I import all the goods on the list, gave me back my list and said welcome to Canada.

I left the room and I was out in the general waiting area! That was it!

Since it was a sunday the SIN office was closed.

Link to BSF 186 document - https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/forms-formulaires/bsf186a-eng.html

I got my SIN outside at a service Canada center and if you have any questions regarding the same, please drop a comment below.
Thank you
 

mbaleine

Hero Member
Mar 13, 2019
275
166
Step 1 applies only if you take an airline like American that arrives at Terminal 3. If you take Air Canada, you get off at Terminal 1, at which there is currently no automatic kiosk; so you join the crowd in line to wait to talk to an actual person. Terminal 1 also seems to be slower, at least for me — for Step 3, I stood in line for almost 2 hours before reaching the front of the line :S
 

yash91pathak

Star Member
Feb 10, 2019
91
58
Step 1 applies only if you take an airline like American that arrives at Terminal 3. If you take Air Canada, you get off at Terminal 1, at which there is currently no automatic kiosk; so you join the crowd in line to wait to talk to an actual person. Terminal 1 also seems to be slower, at least for me — for Step 3, I stood in line for almost 2 hours before reaching the front of the line :S
Thank you for the input. I did have American Airlines and I guess that why I landed on T3. Good to know for future and also for other members..
 
Oct 18, 2019
4
1
Hi - Thank you for sharing you experience and congratulations. I am planning to do my soft landing and have some follow up questions regarding that and if you can answer those it would be a great help.

1. Did any of the officers asked you about how long are you going to stay? If not, what would have you said if asked?
2. After how many days did you return to the US after completing your soft landing?
3. I'm planning to do my soft landing on Saturday morning and have a flight to India on Sunday. Do I have enough time to complete the process?
4. Did they ask you about the address like is it a friends address or relatives address?
5. Once I have landed in Canada and signed my PR my status is considered to be PR even tough I haven't received my PR card. Correct?

Thanks!
 
  • Like
Reactions: yash91pathak

yash91pathak

Star Member
Feb 10, 2019
91
58
Hi - Thank you for sharing you experience and congratulations. I am planning to do my soft landing and have some follow up questions regarding that and if you can answer those it would be a great help.

1. Did any of the officers asked you about how long are you going to stay? If not, what would have you said if asked?
2. After how many days did you return to the US after completing your soft landing?
3. I'm planning to do my soft landing on Saturday morning and have a flight to India on Sunday. Do I have enough time to complete the process?
4. Did they ask you about the address like is it a friends address or relatives address?
5. Once I have landed in Canada and signed my PR my status is considered to be PR even tough I haven't received my PR card. Correct?

Thanks!
First of all , sorry for the late response as I was busy with some personal work,
Secondly congratulations on receiving your COPR!!

Please see my response below

1 - They did not ask me that question, I dont believe they ask this question to anyone as you are technically a PR on landing and so you can stay indefinetly or for a short time, it is completely within your right. When you travel to a country on visitor visa (or any other temp status visa) they ask you that question as they have provide you a limited amount of time for which you can stay in that country, the same does not apply for Permanent Residents.

2. I landed on the 3rd and returned on 5th evening

3) Once you land and complete your process, you are technically done with everything you need to do. In my case i wanted to apply for SIN (which is provided to you at the service canada center) and those offices are only open on M-F, so if you want to get your SIN before you leave, I would recommend you either land on a weekday , and finish your SIN related work right at the airport, or if you land on weekend, stay till monday and get your SIN and then leave. I also got a bank account created in Canada when I landed, that is something that I would recommend you do as well so that you can get your funds transferred to Canada before you actually decide to move there.

4) The officer who signed my COPR asked for an address and I gave it to him and told him it is my friends address where I will be staying temporarily. they arent overly concerned whose address it is, as long as it in Canada

5) I am not qualified enough to answer this question from a legal stand point, but generally, yes you would be called a Permanent Resident of Canada. Please do some additional research on this.

hope this helps
 

lampbreaker

Champion Member
Apr 7, 2015
1,733
376
Hi - Thank you for sharing you experience and congratulations. I am planning to do my soft landing and have some follow up questions regarding that and if you can answer those it would be a great help.

1. Did any of the officers asked you about how long are you going to stay? If not, what would have you said if asked?
2. After how many days did you return to the US after completing your soft landing?
3. I'm planning to do my soft landing on Saturday morning and have a flight to India on Sunday. Do I have enough time to complete the process?
4. Did they ask you about the address like is it a friends address or relatives address?
5. Once I have landed in Canada and signed my PR my status is considered to be PR even tough I haven't received my PR card. Correct?

Thanks!
3. That's fine
5. Yes, PR card is not mandatory. However, it is good to have it for traveling and applying for SIN.
 

mbattle95

Full Member
Jul 5, 2019
45
29
U.S.A.
Category........
FAM
App. Filed.......
11-07-2019
AOR Received.
31-08-2019
File Transfer...
15-10-2019
Med's Request
03-10-2019
Med's Done....
29-10-2019
Passport Req..
25-11-2019
LANDED..........
26-12-2019
My soft-landing experience at Toronto international airport on 11/03/2019. Landed at 05:04 PM and was done with the entire process by 05:45 pm.

Flew in from USA . No bags with me except my carry on and personal item.

Had a list of goods to follow (including my car which I will drive later)

Here is my experience -- the conversations are not verbatim but they do capture the gist of the whole process

Step 1 – Passport control at self-help kiosk
At YYZ, after deboarding the plane, you walk through a long corridor till you get to passport control. It is a huge room with lots of self help kiosks (I did not count but from the look of it, it seemed there were around 50 kisosks)
The First thing you do is Scan your passport, the machine then asks a few questions regarding your self and the purpose of the visit. It will then take your photo. A few additional steps later, it will print out a receipt.

You will then go to a line with everyone else and wait for your turn to go to the first CBSA officer for step 2.

Step 2 – Meet CBSA officer1 with the receipt

Officer1 - Receipt and passport

Officer1 – Reason for visit?

Me – establish residency

Office 1 - First time landing.

Me - Yes

He used a marker to check off my receipt and showed where to go next.

You walk towards baggage claim but right before baggage claim, there is a well-lit room on your left with a sign for immigrants and students. You go inside this room for step 3.

Step 3 – Meet CBSA officer2 to complete landing procedure (sign COPR and request PR Card)

Went inside the room, no one in front of me, had to wait for a minute or 2 as the agents where talking internally.

One agent called me to his booth, Very friendly and welcoming fellow.

Officer2 – are you here to establish residency

Me – Yes

Officer2 – first time landing?

Me – yes

Officer2 asked for receipt (from step1) COPR and passport

Officer2 – have you been charged of any crimes inside or outside of Canada

Me – no

Officer2 – do you have any dependents not listed on this COPR?

Me – no

Officer2 asked me to sign at 3 places on each copy of COPR and kept one copy (the one with the photograph) for himself and gave the second copy to me and asked me to keep it securely.

I had the address I was going to, written on a post-it notes on top of my folder and it was in bright color so the officer noticed it and asked if that was the address I was going to stay at? I responded yes, he was happy that I had written it down. He asked if he could use it to enter the address for the pr card to be delivered. I agreed.

He entered the information on the computer and said welcome to Canada.

Having been through US immigration before, I was surprised that it was this easy and so I exclaimed “that’s it?”, he smiled and said yes, and asked if I had goods to follow? I said yes, he asked me to collect my bags and go to the customs.

Since I did not have any bags I just started walking towards the exit where there was another officer collecting the receipts right before the exit.

He asked me for my receipt, before handing it to him, I told him I have goods to follow. He asked if I was landing for the first time and I agreed, and he smiled and asked me to go down a corridor where he said they will take care of it.

NOTE – Make sure you ask the officer regarding your goods to follow, if you don’t ask, you might just walk out of the airport!

I followed the corridor till it took me to a big room (not very well lit) with a lot of chairs and a lot of booths for officers for step 4 and officer3

Step 4 – Customs and Goods to Follow.

The place was pretty empty, stood in line with just one person in front of me

A young friendly officer called me to his booth.

Officer3 - How can I help you

Me - I am doing my landing and have a goods to follow.

Officer3 -Can I see your COPR, Passport and the receipt (from step1)?

While he was looking over the documents, I took out the copies of the Goods to follow and
goods with my (form BSF 186). I had made 2 copies of each as instructed by others on other threads and laid it out on the counter.

Officer turned towards me and saw that I had already made the copies and listed out the details and was extremely happy with the same. He clarified which document was which (goods to follow vs. goods with me) He took at look at the both and filled out the information I had left blank.

I explained him that I left the blank intentionally as I wasn’t very sure what goes where, and he was very sympathetic and re assured that it is good that you left it blank so that you don’t have to do the entire process from scratch. He signed where he needed to and stamped in the designated place and asked me to sign on each of the document.

He then crossed off everything on my “goods with me form” and explained that every time I bring these things in, the officer will cross off everything that you have with you at that point on the form.

He asked me if I had a calculator and asked me to tally up the total for my goods to follow. I did and gave him the number. He entered it on his workstation and asked me to go the cashier at the end of the hall with a copy of my goods with me and goods to follow forms. I went to the desk, there was friendly lady there who took a print out and stapled my forms and the receipt that she took out and gave it back to me

I took it to the officer, he looked at it and told me to keep it safely and to bring it with me the next time when I import all the goods on the list, gave me back my list and said welcome to Canada.

I left the room and I was out in the general waiting area! That was it!

Since it was a sunday the SIN office was closed.

Link to BSF 186 document - https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/forms-formulaires/bsf186a-eng.html

I got my SIN outside at a service Canada center and if you have any questions regarding the same, please drop a comment below.
Thank you
Super helpful! I'm about to go through this process this Thursday so I have some questions! When you did the automated kiosks, what did you say the purpose of your visit was? To immigrate or visit (since it was a soft landing)?

Also, you had a goods accompanying list? Since I'm just visiting I'm planning on bringing all my stuff back that I bring on this trip, but the officers don't technically know you're soft landing or not bc they may or may not ask you so I'm just wondering if I just make that list regardless. And like, did you have some of the same things on both lists since you were going to be going back and then bringing back some of the same stuff you'd brought on this trip? I plan on making a goods to follow list even though it's not technically needed at a soft landing, but I've seen people on this forum talk about the trouble they've ran into not having it so I have between now and Thursday to get that ready lol.
 

mbattle95

Full Member
Jul 5, 2019
45
29
U.S.A.
Category........
FAM
App. Filed.......
11-07-2019
AOR Received.
31-08-2019
File Transfer...
15-10-2019
Med's Request
03-10-2019
Med's Done....
29-10-2019
Passport Req..
25-11-2019
LANDED..........
26-12-2019
ALSO, I forgot to ask this last night....
How did you fill out the BSF186A form, the link to the PDF on their official website won't let me type on it and I have to pay for an Adobe membership to get access to type on the document :/ The shorter form lets me type on it though... is that what you had to do or am I missing a step ?