Hi Everyone! I've seen people share their landing experience which helped me with mine and so I thought I would share my experience now.
We are moving to Halifax, Nova Scotia on the 29th. My husband is Canadian, we have a toddler who is 4 yrs old and a dual citizen as well as a teen who received his confirmation of PR with me. In order to make our transition more smooth, I listened to everyone else and I decided to go early to do my soft landing to get it out of the way.
Yesterday, I flew from Denver, Colorado to Detroit, MI and picked up a rental and drove to the Windsor border. I ended up taking the tunnel and when I got to the booth, I informed the gal that I was there for my landing. She took my PP asked a couple of questions such as the vehicle I was in, goods coming in and if I had goods to follow. She then pointed me to the building, gave me a yellow slip and I parked. Once parked, the border patrol checked my vehicle then sent me inside.
I made the trip alone and did not need my son with me who will do his landing when we fly to Halifax next week. I had printed off the Personal Goods forms, but I did not fill them out because honestly they were just confusing so I planned on asking them when I arrived.
I did however, make a spreadsheet for my home inventory of goods to follow and printed each of them out.
My categories were something like, Kitchen, Furniture, Clothing/Personal/Kids, Garage/Tools, Sports, Linen/Bedding & Electronics. My spreadsheet was fairly simple and listed Item, Description, Manufacture/Brand (if Applicable) Qty, Value. Now, most of the "value" listed was more like $0 or $1. Frankly they want you to put what it would be worth if you tried to sell it now. For items which I have had for over 10 yrs, I put $0. Clothes, I put $1. Honestly, I don't think I had a value over like $15. When it came to clothes, smaller kitchen items, office supplies, tools.. I more so marked it like this.
Item - Women Clothes, Description - shirts, pants, dresses, Qty, 3 - Value $5
Item - Utensils, Description - plates, bowls, silverware, Qty - 1, Value - $1
Item - Twin Bed - Description - (5th Generation)Family Heirloom, Qty 1, Value -$0
Large tools, bikes, electronics.. I would add the brand or Manufacture
When I arrived (at 11:30am) I went straight to the counter which was open. I informed him I didn't know how to fill out the forms, but showed him the spreadsheets and he giggled and said this was great! He was very pleased to see everything itemized. He asked a handful of questions about when we were moving, I gave him my in-laws address to mail the PR card so that it wouldn't get lost in route to our new address or arrive before we moved in and it get sent back. He actually filled out the Goods to follow form himself and just wrote in the line items - See attached documents. When he was done, he made a copy for him, he gave me the original and he made a 3rd copy for me to give to POD (since we are shipping all of our stuff) All in all, I was there for maybe 30-45 min doing paperwork at the counter.
When I was done, I wanted to apply for my SIN and open a bank account. He walked me out the door and pointed me in the direction I needed to go. I walked 2 blocks to the SIN office. They told me there was just under a 2 hour wait (ugh.... so I left for coffee and lunch and came back) I actually only waited 1 hour before I was called! The gal was great and that took maybe 15 min or so.
When I left there, I walked maybe 5 blocks to the bank of choice and opened my first Canadian account! YAY
As far as my experience... It was WAY better than I anticipated and each person was beyond helpful and welcoming. I couldn't have asked for it to go more smooth than it did. Now, when we arrive in Halifax next week, we will only have to do the landing for our son which was told that will go much quicker since I've already done all the other paperwork with goods to follow and such.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask... Good luck!
We are moving to Halifax, Nova Scotia on the 29th. My husband is Canadian, we have a toddler who is 4 yrs old and a dual citizen as well as a teen who received his confirmation of PR with me. In order to make our transition more smooth, I listened to everyone else and I decided to go early to do my soft landing to get it out of the way.
Yesterday, I flew from Denver, Colorado to Detroit, MI and picked up a rental and drove to the Windsor border. I ended up taking the tunnel and when I got to the booth, I informed the gal that I was there for my landing. She took my PP asked a couple of questions such as the vehicle I was in, goods coming in and if I had goods to follow. She then pointed me to the building, gave me a yellow slip and I parked. Once parked, the border patrol checked my vehicle then sent me inside.
I made the trip alone and did not need my son with me who will do his landing when we fly to Halifax next week. I had printed off the Personal Goods forms, but I did not fill them out because honestly they were just confusing so I planned on asking them when I arrived.
I did however, make a spreadsheet for my home inventory of goods to follow and printed each of them out.
My categories were something like, Kitchen, Furniture, Clothing/Personal/Kids, Garage/Tools, Sports, Linen/Bedding & Electronics. My spreadsheet was fairly simple and listed Item, Description, Manufacture/Brand (if Applicable) Qty, Value. Now, most of the "value" listed was more like $0 or $1. Frankly they want you to put what it would be worth if you tried to sell it now. For items which I have had for over 10 yrs, I put $0. Clothes, I put $1. Honestly, I don't think I had a value over like $15. When it came to clothes, smaller kitchen items, office supplies, tools.. I more so marked it like this.
Item - Women Clothes, Description - shirts, pants, dresses, Qty, 3 - Value $5
Item - Utensils, Description - plates, bowls, silverware, Qty - 1, Value - $1
Item - Twin Bed - Description - (5th Generation)Family Heirloom, Qty 1, Value -$0
Large tools, bikes, electronics.. I would add the brand or Manufacture
When I arrived (at 11:30am) I went straight to the counter which was open. I informed him I didn't know how to fill out the forms, but showed him the spreadsheets and he giggled and said this was great! He was very pleased to see everything itemized. He asked a handful of questions about when we were moving, I gave him my in-laws address to mail the PR card so that it wouldn't get lost in route to our new address or arrive before we moved in and it get sent back. He actually filled out the Goods to follow form himself and just wrote in the line items - See attached documents. When he was done, he made a copy for him, he gave me the original and he made a 3rd copy for me to give to POD (since we are shipping all of our stuff) All in all, I was there for maybe 30-45 min doing paperwork at the counter.
When I was done, I wanted to apply for my SIN and open a bank account. He walked me out the door and pointed me in the direction I needed to go. I walked 2 blocks to the SIN office. They told me there was just under a 2 hour wait (ugh.... so I left for coffee and lunch and came back) I actually only waited 1 hour before I was called! The gal was great and that took maybe 15 min or so.
When I left there, I walked maybe 5 blocks to the bank of choice and opened my first Canadian account! YAY
As far as my experience... It was WAY better than I anticipated and each person was beyond helpful and welcoming. I couldn't have asked for it to go more smooth than it did. Now, when we arrive in Halifax next week, we will only have to do the landing for our son which was told that will go much quicker since I've already done all the other paperwork with goods to follow and such.
If you have any questions, don't hesitate to ask... Good luck!