Congrats ! Glad went smoothI recently completed the whole process and it went super smoothly. Here is my experience:
My plan was to land, quarantine and come back to the US. Flew to Toronto from US on 18th July. The officer was very nice and polite. Asked for my passport and COPR. I hardly waited for 5 minutes while this process completed. Since my case was based on spousal sponsorship, one member here warned me not to travel alone and have my spouse travel with me from the US (which I felt was unnecessary burden so I decided not to risk the health of my wife and had her stay in US as I travelled by myself). After he stamped my COPR, I went to the next desk where I was asked questions about my health, my temperature was recorded and quarantine plans were fed into an iPad. That also went extremely well. The whole process took less than 30 mins (not very many immigrants were present there).
After quarantining for 14 days, I travelled back to the US today. Immigration happened at the Toronto airport and the CBP officer was again very polite (which I found surprising). He didn't even ask for anything other than my passport with the valid H1B stamp. I was out and about in 5 mins.
I hope this will help. All the best to everyone who is travelling.
PR Soft landing from US - After EO
- Thread starter praveen07cse
- Start date
Hi All,
Just adding my experience of landing to this thread.
My wife and I completed out landing by land at the Detroit Windsor Tunnel on August 01, 2020.
Our plan was to stay at an AirBnB for our 14-day quarantine and then return back to the US.
At the border, Canada Border patrol asked whether this is a permanent stay or temporary. Since we were under the assumption that temp. stay is no longer permitted, we said it is permanent.
They requested information regarding our quarantine plans and asked us to drive towards the secondary inspection.
There we ran into an issue with customs, since we said it is a permanent move, they said we have to import our car to Canada.
I said we are not ready for that yet and will return back to the US in the future to sell the car.
The officer said that a PR of Canada cannot drive a US plated car without importing. They said we would have to go back to US and drive a rental car back or any other vehicle but not my personal car.
So basically, they approved our landing, took down the address for delivery of PR cards in Canada, signed GTA/GTF forms and said you can enter but not the car.
We returned back to US and successfully used the AVR process.
Wife is on F1 visa but the Visa is expired, I am on H1B with an expired F1 visa in my passport.
I'll be happy to answer any questions.
Just adding my experience of landing to this thread.
My wife and I completed out landing by land at the Detroit Windsor Tunnel on August 01, 2020.
Our plan was to stay at an AirBnB for our 14-day quarantine and then return back to the US.
At the border, Canada Border patrol asked whether this is a permanent stay or temporary. Since we were under the assumption that temp. stay is no longer permitted, we said it is permanent.
They requested information regarding our quarantine plans and asked us to drive towards the secondary inspection.
There we ran into an issue with customs, since we said it is a permanent move, they said we have to import our car to Canada.
I said we are not ready for that yet and will return back to the US in the future to sell the car.
The officer said that a PR of Canada cannot drive a US plated car without importing. They said we would have to go back to US and drive a rental car back or any other vehicle but not my personal car.
So basically, they approved our landing, took down the address for delivery of PR cards in Canada, signed GTA/GTF forms and said you can enter but not the car.
We returned back to US and successfully used the AVR process.
Wife is on F1 visa but the Visa is expired, I am on H1B with an expired F1 visa in my passport.
I'll be happy to answer any questions.
Did you have to quarantine? Do they still approve PR if we say temporary? I was thinking of landing and taking a u turn
I had a quarantine plan in place and said that we are moving permanently, but will be going back at a future date to take care of unfinished business.
Some other posters on this thread have mentioned that they told the officers they were here to just complete the landing and then return.
I suggest you have a quarantine plan in place. They are very strict about you maintaining self isolation if entering the country
Is it ok to book a hotel/ Airbnb after crossing? Or should it be pre booked? Many are inflexible with cancellation
I would recommend booking something in advance as they ask very specific questions with regards to your quarantine plans.
In my opinion if you are allowed to travel back to US the same day, it is a very small price to pay as compared to not being allowed to complete your landing.
Again, that’s just my opinion.
Hi,
Wanted to share my experience.
Me and my wife flew to Toronto on July 16, 2020 from JFK, New York.
After landing basic questions were asked and signed our COPR's and officer informed us that PR cards will be delivered to given address within 6 to 8 weeks.
Next we were sent to Customs and they stamped goods to follow list as we are planning to move next year.
Process was really smooth and took less than 30 minutes.
Stayed in Hotel for 14 days and came back yesterday (August 02, 2020). My wife has valid H4 visa and i have expired stamped with I797.
US immigration was really good. Handed over the passport and I797. No questions asked. Took less than 5 minutes.
During quarantine we also applied for SIN online to deliver it to US address as Service Canada is closed.
Hope this helps.
Please feel free to ask question. I will be happy to help.
Wanted to share my experience.
Me and my wife flew to Toronto on July 16, 2020 from JFK, New York.
After landing basic questions were asked and signed our COPR's and officer informed us that PR cards will be delivered to given address within 6 to 8 weeks.
Next we were sent to Customs and they stamped goods to follow list as we are planning to move next year.
Process was really smooth and took less than 30 minutes.
Stayed in Hotel for 14 days and came back yesterday (August 02, 2020). My wife has valid H4 visa and i have expired stamped with I797.
US immigration was really good. Handed over the passport and I797. No questions asked. Took less than 5 minutes.
During quarantine we also applied for SIN online to deliver it to US address as Service Canada is closed.
Hope this helps.
Please feel free to ask question. I will be happy to help.
so far based on my experience and others who have entered via land border(most used Detroit,Seattle,Buffalo) had no issues making U turn.
it helps if we give them our intent of U turn on the first port of entry and based on their response you can make your call to enter or come back immediately.
for the quarantine you need to be prepared with bookings. They will be asking for your address of stay.
if your friend/relative lives in Canada and if they give you an isolated space with no contact, you can give their address For quarantine. Or else it has to be Airbnb or a hotel. If you have kids Airbnb might be better than hotel.
hope all goes well for you.
Hi, congrats on the landing. What kind of questions were you asked? Did they explicitly ask if you were settling permanently? If so, did they ask for any proof of this?
No, they just asked how much money you are bringing today and address where PR cards needs to be delivered.
Sorry for the delayed post.. but here is my experience.
First of all, I wanted to thank everyone from this forum for your valuable inputs. it helped me a lot to plan my landing procedure
below was my experience.
Cananda POE -
I traveled from Buffalo, NY Peace bridge border on 07/30/2020 (Thursday). At entry point the officer asked me the reason for entering Canada for which I told him that I want to complete my landing procedure and hoping return back immediately but planning to permanently return back soon. ( I also did have quarentine plan just in case ). He gave yellow slip and directed me to the CBSA office. I have not recieved any pushback for going back on the same day. They processed my PR application and sent me to customs. Having fully completed BSF forms will save you a lot of time and confusion so i recommend everyone to have this prefilled. After completing customs, one of the nice officer escorted me to my car and showed me how i can make a U-turn.
It was a very straight forward and peaceful experience on the canadian side.
US POE -
While returning back to US, officer at the booth found my visa was expired, and said he cannot allow me to enter US since my visa was expired and asked me to return back to canada and have my visa stamped. After some convincing and explaining about AVR process, he finally asked me to park my car and some other officers came and checked my car and asked me to wait at a designated parking spot but not to get out of the car. After about 2 hours another immigration officer came to me and asked me for some more general questions about why i was there and what i do in america and went back in, after about 15 mins she came back and told me i was good to go and allowed me to enter US.
I would recommend everyone to have a copy of AVR proclamation document printed out from the CBP/Travel State dept website so that you have something to show them incase they ask you to return back to canada. My $0.02! That said, please DO NOT SHOW the document unless they ask you to return back as most officers would already know about AVR process and will get annoyed if you tell them what to do.
I am not sure whether you can follow the same path as it depends on the border officers on both sides, but I hope my experience will help you plan a little better when you land.
Wishing you all goodluck.
First of all, I wanted to thank everyone from this forum for your valuable inputs. it helped me a lot to plan my landing procedure
below was my experience.
Cananda POE -
I traveled from Buffalo, NY Peace bridge border on 07/30/2020 (Thursday). At entry point the officer asked me the reason for entering Canada for which I told him that I want to complete my landing procedure and hoping return back immediately but planning to permanently return back soon. ( I also did have quarentine plan just in case ). He gave yellow slip and directed me to the CBSA office. I have not recieved any pushback for going back on the same day. They processed my PR application and sent me to customs. Having fully completed BSF forms will save you a lot of time and confusion so i recommend everyone to have this prefilled. After completing customs, one of the nice officer escorted me to my car and showed me how i can make a U-turn.
It was a very straight forward and peaceful experience on the canadian side.
US POE -
While returning back to US, officer at the booth found my visa was expired, and said he cannot allow me to enter US since my visa was expired and asked me to return back to canada and have my visa stamped. After some convincing and explaining about AVR process, he finally asked me to park my car and some other officers came and checked my car and asked me to wait at a designated parking spot but not to get out of the car. After about 2 hours another immigration officer came to me and asked me for some more general questions about why i was there and what i do in america and went back in, after about 15 mins she came back and told me i was good to go and allowed me to enter US.
I would recommend everyone to have a copy of AVR proclamation document printed out from the CBP/Travel State dept website so that you have something to show them incase they ask you to return back to canada. My $0.02! That said, please DO NOT SHOW the document unless they ask you to return back as most officers would already know about AVR process and will get annoyed if you tell them what to do.
I am not sure whether you can follow the same path as it depends on the border officers on both sides, but I hope my experience will help you plan a little better when you land.
Wishing you all goodluck.