PR Landing in Quebec on the way to Ontario

[WM510]

Hi

I couldn't find a recent, conclusive answer to this question here even though there are threads about it, so I thought I'd ask:

I'm going to be landing in Canada to claim PR(General EE), but I've elected to fly to Montreal rather than to Ottawa (where I intend to stay) because the flight was significantly (like $1000) cheaper.

I won't have a permanent rental arranged, but my intention is basically to land in Montreal and go through the PR process there (since as I understand it you have to do this at the point of entry), then stay overnight before taking a train through to Ottawa, where I'll have an AirBnB booked for about a month or so. So what I'm worried about is a) Can I land in Quebec, with the intention of passing through to Ottawa, and therefore without CSQ (my understanding is that this should be possible), and then b) Will my AirBnB and train ticket booking be sufficient evidence that I don't intend to stay in Quebec, and can I still delay claiming my PR card until I have a permanent address?

While I guess speculation would be better than nothing, I'd prefer if someone has an actual concrete answer to this from experience. I'm sure I'm not the first person wanting to do this, given the proximity of the 2 cities and the greater number of flights to Montreal in general.

 

[armoured]

I'm going to be landing in Canada to claim PR(General EE), but I've elected to fly to Montreal rather than to Ottawa (where I intend to stay) because the flight was significantly (like $1000) cheaper.

I won't have a permanent rental arranged, but my intention is basically to land in Montreal and go through the PR process there (since as I understand it you have to do this at the point of entry), then stay overnight before taking a train through to Ottawa, where I'll have an AirBnB booked for about a month or so. So what I'm worried about is a) Can I land in Quebec, with the intention of passing through to Ottawa, and therefore without CSQ (my understanding is that this should be possible), and then b) Will my AirBnB and train ticket booking be sufficient evidence that I don't intend to stay in Quebec, and can I still delay claiming my PR card until I have a permanent address?

a) Yes.
b) Yes.
c) Don't know about the 'delaying.' Probably you can but you risk delays. Far better would be to have some address where you can receive mail after you leave the AirBNB - or arrange with the AirBNB to hold mail for you.

I lived in Ottawa for years, lots of travel was done through Montreal, everyone in Ottawa and certainly passport control officers understand well that Montreal is the main airport for intl arrivals to Ottawa.

 

[WM510]

a) Yes.
b) Yes.
c) Don't know about the 'delaying.' Probably you can but you risk delays. Far better would be to have some address where you can receive mail after you leave the AirBNB - or arrange with the AirBNB to hold mail for you.

I lived in Ottawa for years, lots of travel was done through Montreal, everyone in Ottawa and certainly passport control officers understand well that Montreal is the main airport for intl arrivals to Ottawa.

Cool, thanks for your response. I'll see what I can do about the address - I don't have friends/family there so if I can't use the AirBnB address I'm probably out of luck, but I'm much less worried about the PR card than the landing/PR approval itself, so it's not a big deal. I'm just glad to know that passport control likely won't be an issue.

 

[armoured]

Cool, thanks for your response. I'll see what I can do about the address - I don't have friends/family there so if I can't use the AirBnB address I'm probably out of luck, but I'm much less worried about the PR card than the landing/PR approval itself, so it's not a big deal. I'm just glad to know that passport control likely won't be an issue.

Just be clear you're only transiting through montreal, and staying overnight to leave yourself time to get through formalities and get the train in the morning. It's not an unusual case at all. Perfectly fine to say you wanted to get a good night's sleep before dealing with your new city and all that.