Hello all, myself and my fiance landed at Toronto's Pearson Airport on Friday 24th.
Our plane from New York landed at about 7pm. We went through the initial customs check (the check that everyone goes through). The lines were short and it only took five minutes, and were directed into immigration. The customs inspector made some small talk about the job situation in Toronto.
There were only three people ahead of us within the section of immigration dedicated to landing, all looking nervous, and we took a seat to wait. While we were sitting there, another plane landed and about 100 more people joined us. It became a little chaotic and extremely noisy, there was nobody assigning who was next in line and some of the newcomers were rowdy and barging into the immigration inspectors' cubicles but we were firm about getting our initial group of four seen first.
The immigration officer was young and pleasant, she asked very few questions which was surprising to me - whether I have dependents, the address we want our permanent resident cards sent to, a couple of other things. As the primary applicant all the questions were directed to me. The officer asked how much money we had with us but didn't check it. She was VERY surprised that we had received our landing papers in 11 months and said most people she saw wait three years. She took photos for our permanent resident cards and that was that. It probably took ten minutes.
We were given two "Welcome to Canada" packages full of forms and information pamphlets, because I have rusty French, one in English and one in French. Some of the info is redundant to people familiar with Canada or with experience in North America, but the info about forms etc was concise and helpful.
Our airline had a delay getting baggage to the carousels, so while waiting I checked the proof of landing again. On re-inspection I couldn't tell if the immigration officer had transcribed my lawyer's address (to send our PR cards to) correctly, so I went back to immigration. The officer was perfectly lovely and accommodating and interrupted what she was doing to check the address again for me.
Then it was on to customs, the guy took our goods to follow list, stamped it and gave us some addtional documentation. He was nice but had his hands full with another person who was presenting some sort of false documents and then pretended to faint, so he dealt with us very quickly, within five or ten minutes.
That was it. We stayed at the fantastic Sheraton downtown for the weekend, which was relaxing and fun, and did some exploring and socializing, and asked people about real estate and the economy. We grinned every time we saw the maple leaf flag, and argued about whether we'll join the Liberal Party or the NDP when we move up permanently.
We returned to New York Monday morning and our lawyer will send on our PR cards. As the offices are closed for much of this week, next month we will take some time to come back to apply for our SIN numbers, and will continue to travel back and forth until we've found jobs.
Everyone within immigration and customs was extremely personable and helpful, and dealt with us as people, not numbers. Having lived as an immigrant in the US for six years and had regular dealings with the INS down here, this is decidedly NOT the norm for me, and it's a credit to Canada.
We have of course visited Toronto before, but again found the public transportation to be great, the people to be lovely and the sales taxes to be high. It feels familiar.
Good luck everyone! I am very relieved to have finally landed and will be happy to answer any questions anyone has. We are looking forward to moving up to Toronto, and cheering for the Blue Jays instead of the Yankees.
