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I landed last month at Ft. Erie (by car) and it was very simple. The entire process took less than 30 minutes for 2 people. We are already living in Canada so there was no need to bring money, and had no goods-to-accompany so that may have made customs slightly faster. Here's what I brought:
- passports
- confirmation of permanent residence (COPR) documents
- settlement funds (in my case, Canadian bank statements which were not needed, but more usually a bank cheque)
- Goods-to-accompany list (Form B4E) (in my case, empty)
- Goods-to-follow list (Form B4A)
The process went very smoothly. Once across the bridge and at the booth, I hand over our passports and tell the officer we are there to land. He asked if we had any goods with us and I said "no". He wrote "landing no goods" on a piece of paper, handed it all back to me and directed me to park and go into the building. Once inside we got on line for the immigration desk and waited there approximately 10 minutes.
The immigration officer who landed us was very pleasant and polite, and the entire process took only around 10 minutes. She asked for our passports and COPR documents, and began typing into her computer. She asked if we were here on work permits and I said yes (I have been in Canada on a work permit for 2 1/2 years). She asked if we were still at our old address and I said no and gave her the new one. I asked if it was possible to send the PR cards to the immigration advisers rather than my home and she said it was fine, so I gave her that address. She asked for our phone number as well.
She checked the size of the photos attached to the COPR; I believe these are the ones which will be used for our PR cards. She then asked us if we had ever been arrested (no!) and had us initial and sign the COPR documents in a couple of places. She drew a line through our immigrant visas and attached a copy of the COPR to our passports, explaining that we could remove them after we got the PR cards but to keep them in a safe place as we would need them later to apply for citizenship. She also drew a line across our work and study permits, but let us keep them. She explained a bit about SIN numbers and health insurance as well, as I recall. That was all, then just "welcome to Canada"! She never asked about money, clearly she knew that it did not apply to us since we were already here in Canada (I've heard stories that some ask you anyway, which is why I brought along bank statements).
Then last it was over to the customs desk to process my goods. I had prepared an empty sheet for the "goods to accompany" and 4 pages of "goods to follow", which they stamp. Three minutes later it's all done, paid the bridge toll ($1.50 I think?) and drove into Fort Erie for lunch. :)
TOB |
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