First of all, I want to thank everyone on this forum for providing every bit of information possible on the topic of landing in Canada as immigrants.
My husband and I decided to fly to Toronto on Thu, Nov. 30th for our 'landing' and fly back to the U.S. on Sunday, Dec 3rd.
Needless to say, we were a little uncertain about how to go about it; but with the help of all the various posts on this forum, I was able to clarify pretty much all the thousand or so doubts I had, in just a couple of days.
Our landing experience was smooth but could have been smoother were it not for our messed-up travel plans.
Our connecting flight from JFK was delayed for two whole hours!! We were supposed to have landed in Toronto by 10 in the night, but we ended up stuck inside the plane from 9:15 to 11:15!! We finally got to Toronto by 12:30, and were extremely exhausted as we entered the airport and headed to the lines at immigration.
As our turn came up, we showed the officer our passports and the set of landing papers. He politely directed us to a large glass-walled Immigration department behind him. We walked into the Immigration Department which was quiet and almost deserted (I'm assuming due to the late hour) and waited to be called. Seeing as there were only 2 officers and 1 other passenger, we were called in a matter of few seconds.
The immigration officer was a tall, extremely pleasant man who cracked jokes almost the entire time. He took our passports, examined our landing papers and wrote down the addresses to where the PR cards would be posted. (We gave him the address of a good friend of ours in Toronto). He kept jotting down more things, all the while talking to us amiably.
On our landing papers, my husband's photo was the right dimension but mine wasn't so the officer told me he would take a photo of me again, after he was done.
After he finished writing, he told us each to sign in the green box on the bottom of the form. Apparently, as I've read somewhere in these forums, it's very important that your signature doesn't slip outside that box. The officer even joked about it, saying that if we don't sign inside the box, he'll have to send us back!!
I almost half-believed him!
He took print-outs for us, SIN applications (which we didn't need because we had already printed them out and filled them up previously - again, thanks to the forum), job info, etc.
Then he asked me to come with him to a little alcove where there was a camera set-up, he took my picture, said "Welcome to Canada" to me, and then to my husband, and that was it!! Phew. All in less than 15 minutes.
We headed from there to Baggage Claim (we lost an hour there because our bag was delayed from JFK) and then we finally got out.
When we got to customs and asked about the Customs Office, a man told us that the office opens at 5:30 every morning up until 10:30 at night. So we decided to come back earlier on Sunday (before our return flight) and hand in the B4 and B4A forms then.
We spent Friday getting our SIN numbers (a mere 20 minute wait at the office, and the numbers were given to us within 5 minutes - the cards will be mailed within 3-4 weeks), and opening a bank account. We tried to apply for Health Insurance (OHIP) too but were told that coverage would only begin 3 months after landing plus we would need proof of residence to register. (TIP : The lady at the bank mentioned that when we get the bank statement mailed to the Toronto address, we can use that as proof to register for OHIP). Saturday and half of Sunday we did some sightseeing in Toronto with our friends (the CN Tower is magnificent!) and then returned to the airport on Sunday 3 hours before our flight.
Here's a word of advice, if any of you are ever in the same situation as we were, DO NOT check in for your flight before going to customs. Luckily, as we were going to check-in my husband happened to ask the attendant where the customs office was and was told it was on the ground floor, all the way at the other end. He also said that we can't check-in and then go, because once we're checked in, we cannot leave the secured area. So he held onto the tag for us, we took back our bag and went downstairs to the end of the building, near Arrivals.
We saw the sign for the Customs Office and went in. There was only one lady officer there, and we told her we had recently landed and wanted to hand in the forms and the photos of the jewellery. She took them from us, looked over them and didn't ask us a single question. Nothing about serial nos., appraisals, nothing. (We'd only entered the serial numbers for
some of the items). As per info from the forum, we had entered details of the cars in the "Goods in Possession" form, because the table to enter car info was only in that particular form. She asked us to wait, she got some forms for us to sign, and then she handed back all our paperwork. And that was that.
We went back up, checked-in, got new I-94s at the U.S. immigration check, and then went through security. THE END
As per our experience, the officers we dealt with were polite and helpful, fussed over nothing and hardly wasted any time. And I hope that anyone else who's about to land soon, enjoys a similar experience.
Good luck all!
