What's the best way to complete the PR landing process?

[erencie]

My PR application has come to the stage of PPR. And I'm looking forward to receive my Confirmation with Permanent Residence (CoPR) document. The next step is then to look for an immigration officer and sign the CoPR in front of them. There are two options: Book an appointment with a local immigration office, or go to a Port of Entry to do flag-polling.

I did some research online and find that both options have their own disadvantages:

1. Booking an appointment is not a straightforward/pleasant process. You need to call a number and then WAIT for them to contact you with a date/time and the date/time is not your own choice. Looking at this thread (https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/landing-appointments-inland.194806/) I can already see the frustration I'm going to undergo. I'm in Kitchener so I guess it takes 4 weeks to get an appointment and that is an optimistic guess as the officers are allowed up to 90 days to not respond to your request of appointment.

2. Flag-polling. Both my husband and I can legally enter USA. The nearest port of entry is rainbow bridge at Niagara Falls. But I've also saw some threads saying that after 2 hours of driving + several hours of waiting at the queue, they are refused to get the PR landing process complete because they go in the wrong time. With the recent change as stated here (http://immigration.hrandequity.utoronto.ca/2017/05/03/immigration-alert-changes-application-process-ports-entry/), I can guess that the wait time on Tue/Wed/Thu is going to be extremely long. We have a small baby with us and it is very inconvenient if the waiting time is super long.

I am thinking of a third option. That is to just fly out of Canada to a nearby country and fly back and do the landing process at the airport. In that way, we can enjoy some pleasant vacation at the beach of a Caribbean country for a few days and then come back at the Toronto airport to sign the CoPR. I am not sure how many people choose this option. There are quite a few questions lingering around:

1) As long as the CoPR is not signed, and our current work permits have not expired, we can always be allowed to enter Canada by air, right?

2) Is the waiting time at the airport going to be shorter, and more pleasant, than that at the POE? I have not been to rainbow bridge before and not sure if "a few hours of waiting" is supposed to be standing there at an ourdoor environment. With such a low temperature outside it is definitely very hard.

Is there anybody doing this third option to complete the PR landing process? How are your experiences?

 

[gowthamp]

My PR application has come to the stage of PPR. And I'm looking forward to receive my Confirmation with Permanent Residence (CoPR) document. The next step is then to look for an immigration officer and sign the CoPR in front of them. There are two options: Book an appointment with a local immigration office, or go to a Port of Entry to do flag-polling.

I did some research online and find that both options have their own disadvantages:

1. Booking an appointment is not a straightforward/pleasant process. You need to call a number and then WAIT for them to contact you with a date/time and the date/time is not your own choice. Looking at this thread (https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/landing-appointments-inland.194806/) I can already see the frustration I'm going to undergo. I'm in Kitchener so I guess it takes 4 weeks to get an appointment and that is an optimistic guess as the officers are allowed up to 90 days to not respond to your request of appointment.

2. Flag-polling. Both my husband and I can legally enter USA. The nearest port of entry is rainbow bridge at Niagara Falls. But I've also saw some threads saying that after 2 hours of driving + several hours of waiting at the queue, they are refused to get the PR landing process complete because they go in the wrong time. With the recent change as stated here (http://immigration.hrandequity.utoronto.ca/2017/05/03/immigration-alert-changes-application-process-ports-entry/), I can guess that the wait time on Tue/Wed/Thu is going to be extremely long. We have a small baby with us and it is very inconvenient if the waiting time is super long.

I am thinking of a third option. That is to just fly out of Canada to a nearby country and fly back and do the landing process at the airport. In that way, we can enjoy some pleasant vacation at the beach of a Caribbean country for a few days and then come back at the Toronto airport to sign the CoPR. I am not sure how many people choose this option. There are quite a few questions lingering around:

You can do this.

1) As long as the CoPR is not signed, and our current work permits have not expired, we can always be allowed to enter Canada by air, right?

2) Is the waiting time at the airport going to be shorter, and more pleasant, than that at the POE? I have not been to rainbow bridge before and not sure if "a few hours of waiting" is supposed to be standing there at an ourdoor environment. With such a low temperature outside it is definitely very hard.
Mostly, It takes around 10-15 mins to finish the process at airport.

Is there anybody doing this third option to complete the PR landing process? How are your experiences?

 

[canuck_in_uk]

My PR application has come to the stage of PPR. And I'm looking forward to receive my Confirmation with Permanent Residence (CoPR) document. The next step is then to look for an immigration officer and sign the CoPR in front of them. There are two options: Book an appointment with a local immigration office, or go to a Port of Entry to do flag-polling.

I did some research online and find that both options have their own disadvantages:

1. Booking an appointment is not a straightforward/pleasant process. You need to call a number and then WAIT for them to contact you with a date/time and the date/time is not your own choice. Looking at this thread (https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/landing-appointments-inland.194806/) I can already see the frustration I'm going to undergo. I'm in Kitchener so I guess it takes 4 weeks to get an appointment and that is an optimistic guess as the officers are allowed up to 90 days to not respond to your request of appointment.

2. Flag-polling. Both my husband and I can legally enter USA. The nearest port of entry is rainbow bridge at Niagara Falls. But I've also saw some threads saying that after 2 hours of driving + several hours of waiting at the queue, they are refused to get the PR landing process complete because they go in the wrong time. With the recent change as stated here (http://immigration.hrandequity.utoronto.ca/2017/05/03/immigration-alert-changes-application-process-ports-entry/), I can guess that the wait time on Tue/Wed/Thu is going to be extremely long. We have a small baby with us and it is very inconvenient if the waiting time is super long.

I am thinking of a third option. That is to just fly out of Canada to a nearby country and fly back and do the landing process at the airport. In that way, we can enjoy some pleasant vacation at the beach of a Caribbean country for a few days and then come back at the Toronto airport to sign the CoPR. I am not sure how many people choose this option. There are quite a few questions lingering around:

1) As long as the CoPR is not signed, and our current work permits have not expired, we can always be allowed to enter Canada by air, right?

2) Is the waiting time at the airport going to be shorter, and more pleasant, than that at the POE? I have not been to rainbow bridge before and not sure if "a few hours of waiting" is supposed to be standing there at an ourdoor environment. With such a low temperature outside it is definitely very hard.

Is there anybody doing this third option to complete the PR landing process? How are your experiences?

1. As long as you have valid visas, you will be able to board a plane to Canada.

2. No one can tell you how long you will wait at the airport. It can be quick or it can be several hours depending on the queue. If you are waiting a land border, you can wait inside.

 

[postGradWorker2017]

I think I would strongly recommend #1. I went through that process recently, and it took me 8 working days for me to get the appointment (i.e. from the day I called them to the day I got the appointment). It took me 10 mins to do the landing at Etobicoke

I try to do the PR landing at Sarnia (as I had to go to MI for work), but they didn't process my landing on my way back. My situation was slightly different - I had made an appointment, but then had to travel to Michigan for work. I was hoping to do the PR landing on the way back and just cancel my Etobicoke appointment but I got some very rude comments from a border agent who absolutely refused to process my landing. I was told that I had to do the appointment first. You may have a different experience but this option is definitely YMMV (will depend on individual border agent).

Yes, you can return with current work permit w/o doing the landing. That's what I did when the border agent didn't do PR landing.

Here would be my suggestion (I wish I had done that). I would call the right after you see the COPR details online (you need the copr document number). It takes 3-5 days more for the passport to reach you. This way you can save the time a little bit.

 

[erencie]

I think I would strongly recommend #1. I went through that process recently, and it took me 8 working days for me to get the appointment (i.e. from the day I called them to the day I got the appointment). It took me 10 mins to do the landing at Etobicoke

I try to do the PR landing at Sarnia (as I had to go to MI for work), but they didn't process my landing on my way back. My situation was slightly different - I had made an appointment, but then had to travel to Michigan for work. I was hoping to do the PR landing on the way back and just cancel my Etobicoke appointment but I got some very rude comments from a border agent who absolutely refused to process my landing. I was told that I had to do the appointment first. You may have a different experience but this option is definitely YMMV (will depend on individual border agent).

Yes, you can return with current work permit w/o doing the landing. That's what I did when the border agent didn't do PR landing.

Here would be my suggestion (I wish I had done that). I would call the right after you see the COPR details online (you need the copr document number). It takes 3-5 days more for the passport to reach you. This way you can save the time a little bit.

Thanks a lot for sharing your experience. Yah that is the thing I really hope to avoid--spending a lot of time/money going to the border and then get refused to do the landing thing.

 

[thinkshady]

If you are lucky enough, you could part of Telephonic Landing Pilot program. Check out this.

https://www.canadavisa.com/canada-immigration-discussion-board/threads/telephonic-landing-for-inland-folks.531937/