My Landing experience

Thomas_Varghese

Registered Users (C)
Hello All,
I landed in Toronto Pearson Airport last Saturday. From US, you just need to show ur passport (which has the 1 time stamping). Landed in Toronto. Went to a counter. Officer asked me the purpose of landing. I said "first time landing towards permenant residency". He said OK. Checked our (me & wife) passports and asked to proceed to immigration.
Immigration was a long queue. Lots of people. Probably for different purposes (transit, visiti, students, immigrants etc). We were called. Officer was old, little bit cranky. We gave the landing doc, passports. He checked the data. Asked where we are going to stay. I started telling the address from a paper. He took that and typed it in his computer.
Asked what is my current job. I said IT analyst. He changed the job # from something I gave intially to different code. Asked the amount we are carrying. I said 15K US dollars. I carried only bank statement. He didnt even checked it.
My last name had a spelling mistake throughout my applciation process. Whenever they sent me any letters, they kept making that mistake. I pointed this to the officer and he corrected it in his system. I was happy that I told him abt this at this point. Otherwise later on it will be an issue to change your PR card etc.
Told us that we will get the PR card in max 3 months and we can work and go to school with the landing document stamped by him.
Proceeded to customs. Gave the B4 form. Actually there are 2 forms, B4A and B4. We have to write the B4 form with whatever we have and planning to bring later and B4A with our details (like address, etc). When we take B4A print from our printer, it exceeds the standard A4 size paper. It will cut the bttom portion. I didnt want to change the size and print or tke it in a different paper format. So he wrote those information on a form he had and gave me a new B4 form to fill. He was also a cool guy and asked me to write wahtever I want and it is not necessary to bring everything. But if I dont write and bring something, I will be charged.
I wrote whatever I have and some things I am going to buy soon... :)
Everything went fine there also. Went outside. My sister and family stays there. They picked us from there and happily left airport.
Came back on Monday. Didnt have time to apply for social security and health. Will do at a later trip to toronto. Overall the experience was smooth and happy to be a PR.
Now whether I want to go there and settle later? I am not so sure. Taxes are too high (15 instead 7 or 6 here)... Income tax cuts higher for higher salaried people. Making almost everyone equal. As much as I like that, I feel bad to work hard and still earn less money. I met a lot of people and almost everyone is thinking to become a citizen and come back to US. Thats a great advantage. You can become citizen in 3 yrs. And medicals is free. But there is a long wait to see specialized doctors. Automobile insurance is high. And funnything I heard, the newer your car is, the higher you will pay insurance. I am not talking abt the comprehensive coverage we take, which is higher. But really higher. I will have to research this. But otherwise, family life is far better than its here. job security, health etc is good.
I guess I have 3 more years to think abt all these and make an informed decision. Ok guys, great to have all you guys here and all the help you guys provided. I really appreciate all that. I will check this forum regularly and try to answer any doubts anybody has with my little knowldge.
Good luck to all who applied, waiting for decision and are abt to land.
 
Hi Thomas,

Congrats on the successful landing. Really nice of u to come back here and share it with us. Thanks for the same. They were very helpful.

Don't know if u remember me but I got my PR around the same time as u. We are yet to complete our landing. We have time till end of Apr. Was planning to go this weekend but decided against it as we're driving fm NJ and the weather/roads have been bad lately with all the ice/snow.

Good luck with ur decision on whether to move to CA permanently or not. U are right, we still have some time to decide.

NTom
 
Hi Thomas,

Congrats on the successful landing. Really nice of u to come back here and share it with us. Thanks for the same. They were very helpful.

Don't know if u remember me but I got my PR around the same time as u. We are yet to complete our landing. We have time till end of Apr. Was planning to go this weekend but decided against it as we're driving fm NJ and the weather/roads have been bad lately with all the ice/snow.

Good luck with ur decision on whether to move to CA permanently or not. U are right, we still have some time to decide.

NTom

Is there a stipulated time window for one to "land"? Is it 6 months or 1 year?
 
Your medicals is valid only for 1 year. So from the time you get your passport stamped and the expiration of your medicals, is the "time" to land. This is not true if your passport expires before that.
 
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