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URGENT: HELP! Need to fly Seattle-YVR-Japan tomorrow but no PR Card

J

JPNPR

Newbie
Nov 18, 2016
5
0
I'm flying tomorrow from Seattle to YVR and goes on to Japan. I'm Japanese and applied for eTA but my application got rejected because I'm still considered a Permanent Resident (I moved to US 14 yrs ago and never returned to Canada since). I'm not interested in keeping my Canadian residency.

Will the YVR immigration allow me to transit to a flight to Japan? Will it be very difficult?

Any help will be greatly appreciated!
 
The issue isn't boarding your flight to Japan once you're in Canada. The issue is boarding your flight from the US to Canada.

Technically, your airline should refuse you boarding without a PR card or valid PR Travel Document. In order to get an ETA, you would have to formally cancel your PR status - which you don't have enough time to do by tomorrow.

There's really two choices: (1) Try flying and see what happens. This rule is very new and I supposed the airline could make a mistake and let you board the plane without holding one of the required documents. If you do this, please come back and let us know what happens. Again, the rule is so new that we haven't really seen it applied and don't know what people have experienced; (2) Change your flight route to bypass Canada.
 
"the airline could make a mistake and let you board the plane without holding one of the required documents"

A travel agent told me that check-in counter agents only asked her if you have applied for eTA and never needed for a paper or anything. Do the check-in counter agents have a way of checking if you have an approved eTA?
 
JPNPR said:
"the airline could make a mistake and let you board the plane without holding one of the required documents"

A travel agent told me that check-in counter agents only asked her if you have applied for eTA and never needed for a paper or anything. Do the check-in counter agents have a way of checking if you have an approved eTA?
Click to expand...

eTA is electronic, there is no paper involved. When airline swipes your passport, whether or not you have an active eTA approved is shown to the airline automatically.

There is a strong chance you'll be denied boarding without an eTA, even if just transiting. See here: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=420&top=16
 
I see. So do Airlines swipe passport these days? I thought that they just look at it to make sure that it has valid dates. I didn't realize they scan them. Is this a new thing?
 
JPNPR said:
I see. So do Airlines swipe passport these days? I thought that they just look at it to make sure that it has valid dates. I didn't realize they scan them. Is this a new thing?
Click to expand...

If you're flying to Canada, they will check that a valid eTA is associated with your passport number. Whether they swipe, scan or enter the numbers manually, one way or another your passport info will be entered and verified before you'll be allowed to check into your flight.
 
Has anyone succeeded or know some one who did to board a plane w/o a PR Card or eTA? I have a medical (surgery) appointment in Japan next week. I left Canada 14 yrs ago and even didn't know that they started issuing a PR card in 2002 until this morning.....
 
JPNPR said:
Has anyone succeeded or know some one who did to board a plane w/o a PR Card or eTA? I have a medical (surgery) appointment in Japan next week. I left Canada 14 yrs ago and even didn't know that they started issuing a PR card in 2002 until this morning.....
Click to expand...

We haven't heard of any such cases here. But again - ETA is very new and just kicked in last week. So not a lot of experiences yet...

If you try to get on without the ETA / PR card - please let us know how things turn out. This will help us help future people in your situation.

Good luck.
 
Right, eTA policy just came into full force (meaning it's now 100% mandatory) on Nov 9. So no anecdotal reports I've seen on people attempting to fly without a valid eTA.

If I were you, I'd reroute your flight to go USA - Japan directly with no Canada stopover. Much safer then you finding out at the airport you've been denied boarding when you try to check in.
 
I've always traveled directly from US to JPN over the last 15yrs. Just that I had an imminent medical trip and couldn't get a ticket. Just didn't know all about this until after. The travel agent must not have realized that the rule went into full force just recently. I cannot change the ticket.... Oh, boy....
 
Good luck...
 
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