Hi everyone,
Just wanted to share my experience with the PR thing so that people would know.
1) March 24, 2005, me and my wife went to HSBC(the tall building in Buffalo downtown). It is preety much a straightforward process. They took us up, collected our passports, the photographs and the letter that come requesting the passports. We were asked to come back later the same afternoon to collect our stamped passports.
2) We went back the same afternoon and collected our passports with stamped visas and the papers that are the landing papers. We were asked not to sign on the papers before we actually cross the border.
So the Buffalo part was done here. Extremely straight forward and hassle free.
3) My US, H1-B visa still holds good for another 1&1/2 years and so I wasnt in any immediate rush to start living in Canada. However, my Canadian medicals were expiring in a couple of weeks and so I was planning to land immediately, stay for 2 days in Canada and return back to the US.
4) Anyways, so we came out of the HSBC building and walked towards the Greyhound bus station. It is a 5 to 7 minutes walk. They have buses every 2 hours that go to Toronto.
5) Our plan was to do our immigration stuff at the border and then go to Toronto since our return flight was from Toronto into Houston.
6) The Greyhound trip works this way. You go to the bus station and buy tickets for the next bus to Toronto. Before boarding the conductor/driver would check your passports(any country) and your tickets.
The bus starts and the border is around 15 minutes from Buffalo. The bus stops at the border and every gets down. You get all your luggage with you and form a line.
7) We went in and a lady asked for our passports. She asked us the purpose of our visit and I said "We are landing". She sent us to the immigration counter escorted by a cop.
8) This is where the experience began. At the immigration counter we had a lady officer to whom I handed all the docs(mine and my wife's passports, our landing papers etc). She took a look at my passport and said " Are you landing" ? I said "Yes, maam". She said"well, I dont see much of luggage that you have brought. How long would you be staying " ? I said "For this particular trip, 2 days". She asked me "I see from your passport that you have almost quarter to 2 years on your H1. Do you even intend to come here anytime ? " I said "Yes, maam. I had to do a rushed landing since my medicals were expiring". She said " Well, lets see. Have you found a job here as yet ? Do you have a house here ? " I really didnt think these questions were relevant since the whole purpose of immigration is to go to a country and settle down. How many new immigrants come to Canada with jobs in their hands and houses that they own ?
Anyways, since I didnt want to spoil my case etc I decided to be very patient and not cross her by counter-logic etc.
I said "Maam, my long term plan is to come to Canada. As I did mention before, my medicals were expiring in 2 weeks and so I had to do a rushed landing".
She said "But, to me, I dont see any reason that you would come here or really interested in living here in Canada. You have applied since 2 years. All this time did you even try to find a job here ?". I said "Maam, I am in talks with a few people and when things materialise I would move here. Plus though I have around quarter to 2 years on my H1, my wife is on H4. She cannot legally work on H4 and she would really want to start working. Since we both would have P.Rs in Canada she can also work there. So I am really more interested in moving to Canada much before even my H1 expires so that my wife can find some gainful employment too".
Luckily I also had a couple of papers that had emails of people that I had from a tech-forum in Canada that I am subscribed to. I showed her that list and said "Maam, these are the people that I am in touch with who are into the same kind of work that I do back in the USA. Most of them ask me if I have already got my immigration papers for them to even consider me for a position in their organization. Now that I have my papers I can talk to them saying that I am ready to make a move".
9) I guess 2 things, my wife's H4 example(she wanting to work) and that list of people that I had from Canada did some work of onvincing that officer.
10) She said "Alright. But for your PR cards, I am not allowing you to give me your friend's home address etc. You will need to come to Canada(whenever I decide to come to stay) and at that time fill out the form for your actual cards. It seems for them to send the actual PR cards, the address that they need from us has to be residential address(not an office one) from Canada(not in the US).
11) So, finally she asked us to sign on the landing papers and gave us our "Letters of confirmation of P.R". She asked us to go for Customs.
Phew ! I think, once in a while one gets an officer that causes some tension. I have a feeling that finally she would have given it even without any proper explanation from me since her points didnt really make sense about me having a job/house in Canada etc. I guess she just wanted to see if I was prepared to answer her questions.
12) The Customs officer was very cool. Since I knew what they usually expect, I gave him 2 neatly organised printouts. One was "Goods in Possession" list and another was "Good to follow" list. I had also declared that later on I would be getting my car to Canada too and had my car title ready for him to note down the VIN #. He looked at all that and exclaimed "Excellent ! You have done your home work and saved a lot of my work".
Customs was done in 5 minutes.
We were done with our PR process.
13) The Greyhound bus usually waits till everyone that was in the bus returns to their seat. If one or more passengers have complex issues and if it looks like they are going to take time at the immigration, then the bus driver comes in and lets you know that he is leaving but you can board the next bus on your same ticket. So dont worry about the bus leaving etc in case you arent done.
Anyways, luckily from our bus everyone got it done on time and we were off to Toronto.
Toronto is at an hour's drive from the border.
I thought I would share the experience so that you all would know. It is always better to go prepared in case you get a quirky officer.
Usually the process is very smooth.
- Rahul
Just wanted to share my experience with the PR thing so that people would know.
1) March 24, 2005, me and my wife went to HSBC(the tall building in Buffalo downtown). It is preety much a straightforward process. They took us up, collected our passports, the photographs and the letter that come requesting the passports. We were asked to come back later the same afternoon to collect our stamped passports.
2) We went back the same afternoon and collected our passports with stamped visas and the papers that are the landing papers. We were asked not to sign on the papers before we actually cross the border.
So the Buffalo part was done here. Extremely straight forward and hassle free.
3) My US, H1-B visa still holds good for another 1&1/2 years and so I wasnt in any immediate rush to start living in Canada. However, my Canadian medicals were expiring in a couple of weeks and so I was planning to land immediately, stay for 2 days in Canada and return back to the US.
4) Anyways, so we came out of the HSBC building and walked towards the Greyhound bus station. It is a 5 to 7 minutes walk. They have buses every 2 hours that go to Toronto.
5) Our plan was to do our immigration stuff at the border and then go to Toronto since our return flight was from Toronto into Houston.
6) The Greyhound trip works this way. You go to the bus station and buy tickets for the next bus to Toronto. Before boarding the conductor/driver would check your passports(any country) and your tickets.
The bus starts and the border is around 15 minutes from Buffalo. The bus stops at the border and every gets down. You get all your luggage with you and form a line.
7) We went in and a lady asked for our passports. She asked us the purpose of our visit and I said "We are landing". She sent us to the immigration counter escorted by a cop.
8) This is where the experience began. At the immigration counter we had a lady officer to whom I handed all the docs(mine and my wife's passports, our landing papers etc). She took a look at my passport and said " Are you landing" ? I said "Yes, maam". She said"well, I dont see much of luggage that you have brought. How long would you be staying " ? I said "For this particular trip, 2 days". She asked me "I see from your passport that you have almost quarter to 2 years on your H1. Do you even intend to come here anytime ? " I said "Yes, maam. I had to do a rushed landing since my medicals were expiring". She said " Well, lets see. Have you found a job here as yet ? Do you have a house here ? " I really didnt think these questions were relevant since the whole purpose of immigration is to go to a country and settle down. How many new immigrants come to Canada with jobs in their hands and houses that they own ?
Anyways, since I didnt want to spoil my case etc I decided to be very patient and not cross her by counter-logic etc.
I said "Maam, my long term plan is to come to Canada. As I did mention before, my medicals were expiring in 2 weeks and so I had to do a rushed landing".
She said "But, to me, I dont see any reason that you would come here or really interested in living here in Canada. You have applied since 2 years. All this time did you even try to find a job here ?". I said "Maam, I am in talks with a few people and when things materialise I would move here. Plus though I have around quarter to 2 years on my H1, my wife is on H4. She cannot legally work on H4 and she would really want to start working. Since we both would have P.Rs in Canada she can also work there. So I am really more interested in moving to Canada much before even my H1 expires so that my wife can find some gainful employment too".
Luckily I also had a couple of papers that had emails of people that I had from a tech-forum in Canada that I am subscribed to. I showed her that list and said "Maam, these are the people that I am in touch with who are into the same kind of work that I do back in the USA. Most of them ask me if I have already got my immigration papers for them to even consider me for a position in their organization. Now that I have my papers I can talk to them saying that I am ready to make a move".
9) I guess 2 things, my wife's H4 example(she wanting to work) and that list of people that I had from Canada did some work of onvincing that officer.
10) She said "Alright. But for your PR cards, I am not allowing you to give me your friend's home address etc. You will need to come to Canada(whenever I decide to come to stay) and at that time fill out the form for your actual cards. It seems for them to send the actual PR cards, the address that they need from us has to be residential address(not an office one) from Canada(not in the US).
11) So, finally she asked us to sign on the landing papers and gave us our "Letters of confirmation of P.R". She asked us to go for Customs.
Phew ! I think, once in a while one gets an officer that causes some tension. I have a feeling that finally she would have given it even without any proper explanation from me since her points didnt really make sense about me having a job/house in Canada etc. I guess she just wanted to see if I was prepared to answer her questions.
12) The Customs officer was very cool. Since I knew what they usually expect, I gave him 2 neatly organised printouts. One was "Goods in Possession" list and another was "Good to follow" list. I had also declared that later on I would be getting my car to Canada too and had my car title ready for him to note down the VIN #. He looked at all that and exclaimed "Excellent ! You have done your home work and saved a lot of my work".
Customs was done in 5 minutes.
We were done with our PR process.
13) The Greyhound bus usually waits till everyone that was in the bus returns to their seat. If one or more passengers have complex issues and if it looks like they are going to take time at the immigration, then the bus driver comes in and lets you know that he is leaving but you can board the next bus on your same ticket. So dont worry about the bus leaving etc in case you arent done.
Anyways, luckily from our bus everyone got it done on time and we were off to Toronto.
Toronto is at an hour's drive from the border.
I thought I would share the experience so that you all would know. It is always better to go prepared in case you get a quirky officer.
Usually the process is very smooth.
- Rahul
. Hotel accommodation too seemed a little on the higher side after adding the taxes(Holiday Inn Toronto suburbs worked out to about 60-70$ US per night).