j4335

Hi guys,

I am currently living in Toronto on a 2 year IEC visa and have just finalized my PR and just need to activate it now.

I know that you can do flag-poling at a border, but the PR papers also say you can activate it by just going to one of their offices.

Has anyone had experience of doing it this way? or is it easier just to flagpole?

On a side note it also seems like they will start doing telephone activations soon too but they will contact you if you are eligible of that.

Former Lancastrian

You have to make an appointment at an Inland IRCC office.
Living in Toronto you wouldn't probably be eligible for the telephone reporting.
Most prefer to flag pole but the choice will be yours.

SchnookoLoly

As FL said, it's up to you what you want to do. Flagpoling will be quicker, and most do prefer to go in person. Especially being in Toronto, you can get to the border in Niagara in about an hour and make a day or weekend trip of it.

But if you prefer to do it at an office, then you just need to call and make an appt. I think wait times can be a few weeks, so it really just depends how desperate you are to switch from IEC to PR and how you feel about a road trip!

PMM

Hi

1, The OP should note that you can only "flagpole" at the Southern Ontario Bridges from Tuesday to Thursday. So you can expect long waits on those days, if you don't get turned away.

BristolUK

I'd never even heard of flagpoling until I joined BE.

I was living in Moncton when my PR came through and they gave me an appointment at the office in Moncton 10 minutes away on the bus

Siouxie

Likewise, albeit 7+ years ago. Because I needed urgent processing (my son's part of the application was via the London office and they couldn't finalise that until I 'landed' - and there was a time constraint) I sent a fax to the local office and got an appointment the following day. I do realise that that was unusual though!

It's a very simple process once you have an appointment - they should have included details in the letter they sent with your COPR on how to go about an 'inland' landing, but basically there is a number to call and they will give you a date and time. If you aren't in any rush then it's probably easier than going to the border.

j4335

Thanks for the advise everyone, if the wait times aren't long I will probably go with the appointment route as there is an office just 20mins away from me.