What to have prepared upon landing?!

[charloux]

Hello!
So, my husband has finally been requested his passport for Visa issue! Yippeeee ;D
We should be getting his Visa soon as they want to issue it so he can land before his medical expires in early October.
What kind of documents should my husband have at hand upon landing (other than the COPR - certificate of PR)? What questions should he be prepared to answer?

Thanks in advance

 

[AllisonVSC]

Congrats on your approval. When your husband lands he will need, beyond his passport and COPR, a completed B4 form for declaring and importing his personal goods duty free. I've attached a link below. When he lands the IO will fill some data into the computer and he will answer some questions like as anything changed in his status (new marriage, children etc), what Canadian address to send the PR card, whether that same address will be his permanent mailing address. They will check his identity documents, ask him to sign a few things and then he is done at the immigration desk. Then he moves on to customs to declare his belongings and any goods to follow, he gets a receipt and if he is lucky someone will say "Welcome to Canada."

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/E/pbg/cf/b4a/b4a-05b.pdf
It should take about 15 mins if the office is not busy. I could not tell from your post where he is coming from, but if he is importing a car as well, let me know. That is a whole other ball of wax, and I can give advice based on my experience. Hope that helps. Allison

 

[plumosa]

do you know if there is a time limit on when you can bring things back in? Or is it ok as long as its listed on the form? I ask because I have the vast majority of my stuff already here, except for furniture and some 350 pounds of books. I honestly have no idea when we'll be able to bring the rest of it up, and its being stored at my mom's so there's no hurry.

 

[AlanWales]

As long as it is listed, there is no real time limit and it can be brought in bit by bit, just getting it ticked off whenever bring stuff. Ensure they don't stamp it, to finalise it, until you have all your stuff though.

 

[charloux]

Thanks for the info Allison.
My husband is coming from Jakarta, Indonesia. He won't be bringing a car, or a lot of stuff (he's 22 and a light packer.. well for the most part ). Should he print out that form in advance and fill it in? Or will he just get one when he gets there?
Hmmm, I am getting excited- so far his ticket is reserved for the 22 of sept!

 

[charloux]

I have another question... They requested his passport, and asked for it to be sent in ASAP as his medicals expire soon. He sent in his passport a few days ago, as we are figuring he will get it back (hopefully with the visa) in a couple of weeks. My question is, on the CIC website under 'application status' it says (and has said since Jan 27th) application is still "in process". Just now I checked it and it said "medicals received". Do you think they are still checking through his application, and requested his passport before they were actually done just because they were in a hurry to finish it up before his medical expires? I don't really want any negative surprises when his passport returns.

 

[AlanWales]

It would be better to have the forms written out in advance as that will save time at the customs.

Regarding the second question, sometimes ECAS is late being updated, they wouldn't request your passport until they had finalised checking through the application.