landing experience

Landing Process - help

Hi,
I am on study permit and am currently in Toronto. I have recieved passport request but since my medicals expire in April, I am planning to do as under:
- Travel by bus to Buffalo (I have US Visitor visa)
- Get immigration stamp from Canadian consulate
- Return back by bus to Toronto and finish up landing process. I will carry bank statement from a bank here in Toronto that has a balance of CAD 10000. My wife will be accompanying me.

Please let me know if there is any issue in what I am planning to finish up the landing process. I am planning to do it early next week.

Thanks
 
Successfully landed through thousand islands

We landed in March through Thousand islands.

The officer was very serious. He asked if we are moving in today, when will we move permanently, what do we do, when did we get landing paper. He had to take a picture of each of us because something was not good with our pictures. No charge for that.

When he asked if we have an address for PR card, we gave a friend's address, and he said this is not acceptable. We can apply by mail or online after we permanently move in Canada. He said he would enter the address in the computer so that they know this address would not be accepted.

He did not even check proof of funds, no welcome blah blah, no welcome package as other people mentioned.

We gave a goods to follow list.

The next day we went to Ottawa and got a visa stamp.

After we got passports back, we applied for SIN, they accepted friend's address.

My question is, anybody know if we can apply online and give an address of another friend? Your input is greatly appreciated.
 
StonedAnt,
AVR is still ON. Infact I just used AVR to return.
Here is my case:
Currently on H1B, with Masters from here, but expired visa stamp in passport. Valid I-797 and I-94. I got my PR papers and landed in Queenston, in early March. I had a visa appointment in Toronto for the next day.

But just one day before I was to leave for Canada, I saw some posts in the forum abt a guy, who also landed but was denied his US visa, as they had said that he will have to wait for some papers from Canada, before his US Visa could be processed. So he was stuck in Canada for weeks. I didnt want to take any such chance, so although I had all the reqd documents for the SU Visa, I decided that I will just land and come back using AVR.

Landing
=====
Landing was OK, a very strict looking officer. He told me that I should move permanently, and I told him that I havent found a job and would move once I find one, He asked me for my bank stmt. He then handed me the paper and asked me to go to customs. He didnt even ask me for an address for the PR card. When I asked him about this, he said that I should mail it to an address after I get a permanent address. I told him I had a colleagues address and he reluctantly took that address. Its been abt 3 weeks and havent recvd the card yet. lets see. Customs was smooth nothing big.

I spent a day in Canda, applied for SIN card the next day and basically since I had decided not to attend my H1 interview came back.

Rentry
=====
No problems. The officer asked me my Nationality. Then asked for my passport. Along with the passport I gave him my I797 and I94. He asked to see an old passport of mine which would have any expired US visa. He also asked for the left hand side of the I-94 card(one which says is for our records). I fortunately had it.

He looked at it and gave it all back and I was all set. Less than 2 minutes.

So AVR does work. My suggestion to anyone will be to take a printout from the state deptmts website which talks about AVR. Remember, if you applied for a visa while you were in Canada, AVR wouldnt work. Thats why I didnt apply for a visa.

Hope this helps
Thanks
 
Planning to land by air, advice pls

Friends here:

I plan to land by air at Toronto Intl Airport, and come back to the USA in 2 days. I am on h4 visa status, I797 and I94 valid. I know it is safer to travel by car, but I have a job interview with a Canadian company in Toronto, they are willing to buy me the air tickets.

Question: do I have to surrender my I94 form to the US Immigration authority at the airport? or I can explain to them that I will be coming back in a couple of days? Anyone with landing by air experience please help! Will I have problem entering the USA without applying for a new visa?

thanks a bunch.
 
Hello tamizhan,

I am so glad to hear that AVR is still on. I would guess my company’s lousy attorney did not do their homework or maybe did not want to be bothered and thus provided incorrect information.

I remember you were from India, correct? Just wanted to ask you one question:

You mentioned that your expired stamp was on an old passport. Did that stamp mention your current company’s name or some older company’s? I know you said “any expired” stamp, but just wanted to make sure.

If you do not want to provide this info in the forum, you can email me at thestonedant@yahoo.com or send me a private message.

Thank you for the good news and welcome back!


Stoned!
 
I almost never had a chance to post my landing experience but it was super. The Canadian immigration at POE were all very friendly. I had less than 3000 dollars but no hard time was given. They joked with me for all the time I was there. I basically felt at home. Now, I consider myself a proud Canadian.
 
sanchi7 said:
Hi,
I am on study permit and am currently in Toronto. I have recieved passport request but since my medicals expire in April, I am planning to do as under:
- Travel by bus to Buffalo (I have US Visitor visa)
- Get immigration stamp from Canadian consulate
- Return back by bus to Toronto and finish up landing process. I will carry bank statement from a bank here in Toronto that has a balance of CAD 10000. My wife will be accompanying me.

Please let me know if there is any issue in what I am planning to finish up the landing process. I am planning to do it early next week.

Thanks
Click to expand...
if you are just making the trip for the stamp then I suggest the following:
Go to the post office and mail in your passport overnight..
 
Not yet, you still have to live in Canada for 3 years to be eligible to apply for the "proud cdn" citizenship...:)

Johar Ali said:
I almost never had a chance to post my landing experience but it was super. The Canadian immigration at POE were all very friendly. I had less than 3000 dollars but no hard time was given. They joked with me for all the time I was there. I basically felt at home. Now, I consider myself a proud Canadian.
Click to expand...
 
Exit registration at US post

tamizhan24 said:
Hi,
Yes I am from India. And the expired stamp was from a different company.

Good Luck with your landing
Click to expand...

tamizhan24 --
Did you do Exit registration at US post?
Does people from India needs to do Exit registration with security clearance?
 
Help Lost Change Ofaddress Form

I lost my change of address form to notify them where to send PR . Does anyone have a copy so I can fax it in.
 
yes I do have a copy of Change Of address Form

you could send me a PM with your address, I could send you the form if you want.
 
bigboy00 said:
Not yet, you still have to live in Canada for 3 years to be eligible to apply for the "proud cdn" citizenship...:)

Click to expand...
I was not saying I am a citizen. I am a proud Canadian (could be a proud Canadian which means anything, proud Canadian resident as well). :). Overall, I meant to imply in short words that Canada feels like home already and feel being welcomed.
 
Own car v/s Rental car

I can drive to Canada from where I live currently, but I'd like to know if there is any reason other then personal choice for driving either my personal car or a rental car to land in Canada.

I am going only for landing purposes.

Thanks.
 
Preference to Land from

I will be landing in next week. Can anyone comment or suggest if there is a preference of landing from Peace Bridge or Rainbow Bridge?
 
Landing thru Lewiston bridge

From: New York City
Car: Rental - Budget $400 / one week
Route: 87 to 90
Leave NYC: Apr 3rd 9:40AM
Arrive - Microtel Inn - Williamsville (on I90 exit 49) - 6:00PM
Leave hotel Apr 4th 9:00AM
Arrive - Lewiston bridge 9:30AM

Pass US customs without stop.

Canada border check, checking passport then stop at the building on left side for immigration process. Asked a few questions and stamp on documents. Then move to next door for customs process with good to follow list. Go to a small building for currency change.

The whole process took about 30 min. No wait.

Thanks to all!
 
Successful Landing & Stamping Vancouver

A lot of thanks to the members and moderators, of this forum for the information regarding immigration procedures and experiences.

Am on H1B/H4 in the US for the last 5 years. Had to do my Canadian immigration and at the same time get the new H1/H4 stamped.

We drove from Oregon to Bellingham WA (Used our own car) and halted at Bellingham, WA for the night. The plan was to cross over at Blaine WA through the Peace Arch crossing between 9 am – 10 am when the traffic was at the minimum.

9.30 am Before crossing went to the US customs office to declare the currency. All paperwork was completed before hand. The officer checked the docs signed it and gave us a copy.
9.45 am Drove to the Canadian border. Informed them that we were here to process our landing formalities. The officer asked us to park the car and meet the Immigration and Customs officers.
Immigration officer: Was a nice lady and there was absolutely no rush. She completed the paper work and asked our plans. I informed her that my wife will be staying back to get enrolled in some courses and look for a job while I will go back to the US and finish my contract. I emphasized that being on H1/H4 the spouse is not allowed to work, hence there is only one earning member for which I cannot afford to loose. Informed me that the PRC card will be mailed in 4-6 weeks time to the address provided.
She then directed us to the Customs office another good chap. All the B4/B4A papers were already prepared along with the Customs declaration for the funds. He was happy about it and informed me of a couple of changes.

Regarding the vehicle I informed him that I will be importing it at a later date since I still have a loan on it and the financers would like to have all the payments cleared before I import the car. He was satisfied with the answer and did not make much of a fuss. Both the officers welcomed us to Canada.

US Consulate: Reached the consulate 30 mins before the appointment. PLEASE follow the rules regarding what not to take to the consulate. Like cell phones, bags, etc as instructed in the appointment letter. They are very strict about it. They did the security check and sent us to the 1 floor where we gave our PP and papers and $100 each . As per the instructions for H1 case only hand over the passport, I797 and appropriate DS forms at that time along with the fees. They handed us a number. In 40-45 mins they called our number and we lined up for the lift to the 20th floor. At the 20th floor there was another security check after which we had to take a seat in a narrow corridor just facing the VO cabin.
When our number was called: The version here is a condensed version as most of the time the VO and I were talking about other stuff.
Me: Hello and good afternoon officer:
VO: Hi
Looked at the passport and DS forms. Did something on the computer.
VO: So you were in Kenya, How did u get to that place?
Me. Actually I was born there and my Dad blah blah…..
VO. I was also there in such a such year.
Me: Oh really….. I think that was around the time they had a terrorist attack.
We again talked about it for a min or so. As I have traveled a lot of countries he was interested and asked me some info about it and the coincidence was that he had been to all those countries.
VO: so what do you do at your company?
Me: Blah blah blah……Blah blah blah….. and again some blah blah blah
VO: Do you like Oregon or NJ (My company is based in NJ while I have been working in OR for the last couple of years).
Me: I love Oregon… Life is a little slow and it is a very beautiful state.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Again we went back to talking about other places We have visited. At this point I just could not stop from cracking a joke and told him that “Either I am following you or you are following me to all these places and of all the places we are now meeting in Vancouver , so which is it ? and we all started laughing.
But the VO was pretty smart and somewhere he threw me a curve and asked me my wife’s birth date. As I was a bit tensed I gave the correct date but the wrong month and I goofed up big time. Then he asked me about our anniversary. I looked into his eyes and told him “ I always advice my friends never to ask me my anniversary date when my wife is around because after 10 years of marriage most of the husbands get selective memory loss” and again he got a good laugh.
Well it was strike 2 and I goofed up again correct date wrong month since I was so focused on myself I kept giving the month I was born in.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Vo: Can I have your pay stubs ?
Me. Yes here you go ?
VO: looking at my wife … Is he taking good care of you
Wife: Definitely… he is a little forgetful which I can’t change but takes really good care of me.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
again we started talking about some non related stuff….
For a couple of seconds there was a pause and he jokingly told me to take very good care of my wife as she is the reason he is giving me the visa. He gave me the red slip and asked me to pay the fees and pick up the passport the next day.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Me: thank you very much and lets hope we meet again in future in some other country!

Next day we picked up the passport and drove back to the US

Folks: some advice I would give is to have your paper work straight. Don’t be tensed and have an answer or all the possible questions. Take your time … and try to have a jovial mood.

Kali
 
kalibp said:
Immigration officer: Was a nice lady and there was absolutely no rush. She completed the paper work and asked our plans. I informed her that my wife will be staying back to get enrolled in some courses and look for a job while I will go back to the US and finish my contract. I emphasized that being on H1/H4 the spouse is not allowed to work, hence there is only one earning member for which I cannot afford to loose. Informed me that the PRC card will be mailed in 4-6 weeks time to the address provided.
She then directed us to the Customs office another good chap. All the B4/B4A papers were already prepared along with the Customs declaration for the funds. He was happy about it and informed me of a couple of changes.

Kali
Click to expand...

Hi Kali,
May I please know what B4 /B4A forms are ? The Goods to follow , Goods In Possession forms ? What does the customs declaration for the funds look like ?
Is it in this that we enter details of the bankers cheque / cash to be shown as proof of funds ?

I plan to land in May and might as well have them ready like you did.
Thanks in advance
Nijil.
 
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