Soft Landing questions

[ratsalad]

Hi all

I received my CoPR recently and plan to do a soft landing at Vancouver to settle PR card, SIN, business registration (i'm on federal self employed stream), bank account, drivers license, etc.

I know PR card is taking ages to process at the moment. I may not be able to stay for 2 to 3 months after my landing, probably will have to return to my home country after 1 month or so to settle some work matters and return to my family who will land at a later date.

I know I can apply for PRTD to return to Canada later, but after my PR application has taken all of 3 years to complete I am a little phobic of sending PRTD application to IRCC and having to wait and wait again.

So my plan is to return to Canada again via US-Canada land border by walking across. I read that PRTD is not required at land border.

Questions:
1) Is it possible for me to walk across the US-Canada border at BC at all? I do not have private transport in the US to bring me into Canada.
2) To be honest I am a little confused about the concept of having PR card/PRTD in order to enter Canada again. I am holding a passport that allows me visa waiver to enter Canada. Can I not re-enter Canada using my passport (that has visa waiver) without a PR card?

 

[armoured]

Questions:
1) Is it possible for me to walk across the US-Canada border at BC at all? I do not have private transport in the US to bring me into Canada.
2) To be honest I am a little confused about the concept of having PR card/PRTD in order to enter Canada again. I am holding a passport that allows me visa waiver to enter Canada. Can I not re-enter Canada using my passport (that has visa waiver) without a PR card?

1) Taxi apparently works as well. (I don't know BC crossings personally)
2) In simple terms, as a PR you do not 'enter Canada' just as a citizen of visa waiver country. You enter as a PR now that you are a PR. Also in simple terms, PRTD or PR card is what you'll need to board a flight to Canada (because IRCC will not issue you an ETA as a PR). At land crossings, your passport as ID (to identify you as you) and supporting docs (COPR, UCI#, PR card, etc) to show you are a PR is sufficient.

(I'm simplifying by not getting into what kind of transport at land - same issue as planes for 'scheduled carriers' [I think is the term], which might extend to eg a greyhound bus. But a bus could at least hypothetically let you off at the border and most trains will stop before border somewhere, and then you walk across or get a taxi.)

 

[ratsalad]

1) Taxi apparently works as well. (I don't know BC crossings personally)
2) In simple terms, as a PR you do not 'enter Canada' just as a citizen of visa waiver country. You enter as a PR now that you are a PR. Also in simple terms, PRTD or PR card is what you'll need to board a flight to Canada (because IRCC will not issue you an ETA as a PR). At land crossings, your passport as ID (to identify you as you) and supporting docs (COPR, UCI#, PR card, etc) to show you are a PR is sufficient.

(I'm simplifying by not getting into what kind of transport at land - same issue as planes for 'scheduled carriers' [I think is the term], which might extend to eg a greyhound bus. But a bus could at least hypothetically let you off at the border and most trains will stop before border somewhere, and then you walk across or get a taxi.)

Many thanks for your detailed reply!

I understand better about the rationale for needing the PR card or PRTD to re-enter now. Also have to get used to the fact that I will no longer need to apply for ETA. But I suppose ArriveCAN is still required.

Ok so I guess a workable plan is to use whatever form of public transport to get to the US border, cross it on foot with CoPR and passport without needing a PRTD, and then continue rest of the journey to Vancouver with any form of transport.