Landing Experience - Peace Bridge, Fort Erie, Buffalo
Sep 4th 2007 | 6:46 am
#1
Thread Starter
Forum Regular
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 34
From: Toronto, Canada
Landing Experience - Peace Bridge, Fort Erie, Buffalo
Hi all
As this site has been so helpful to me in my immigration process, I thought I'd share my landing experience this weekend in the hopes that it helps someone else out! I'm currently living in Toronto, have been doing so for almost three years on a work permit, and applied through Buffalo as a Skilled Worker.
A friend and I drove down early on Sunday morning to the Peace Bridge at Fort Erie where she had to renew her work permit and I was going to land. We approached the bridge via Duty Free, and were fully intending to go across to the States, and then return. However, as we were exiting the duty free lane to cross the bridge, we saw an offical looking guy to our left. We drove up to him, and told him that we were simply looking to do our immigration tasks, and so he said we didn't need to go into the States and allowed us to do a u-turn and head straight to Canadian immigration!
When we drove up, we handed over our passports and after asking a few questions - confirming addresses, asking who the car belonged to etc etc - he directed us across to some parking bays with a form indicating that we both needed to proceed to immigration. As we'd driven through the left most lane, we then had to cross 7 or 8 lanes of traffic to get to the parking bays - pretty scary! We made it alive, and then when we pulled in, another offical looked at the slip of paper and pointed us in the direction of the immigration and customs office.
(Aside: it's a great building, very high ceilings with interesting beams etc, lots and lots of light). We entered and were the only people in the hall. I went to immigration first and handed over my passport and COPR. The immigration lady looked everything over, confirmed my name, address, DOB, whether still worked for my current employer etc, and then after tapping a few things into her computer, handed me the COPR and asked me to initial and sign in a number of places. She then handed my documents back to me, advised me I was now a Permanent Resident and welcomed me to Canada. From the minute we walked in to the immgiration office to her handing my documents back to me took a grand total of 15 minutes. She didn't ask me for any proof of funds - although I had it all with me, just in case - and I can only assume that it's because I'd confirmed I still worked with my current employer, and she could see the work permits in my passport. She advised that my PR card would be with me in 4-6 weeks, that I now have all the rights of a Canadian Citizen, except voting rights, that I had to conform to the Residency requirements to maintain my status, and that in two years, I could apply for citizenship (my time working thus far counts for a year already).
My friend did her Work Permit renewal and that took twice as long as mine! When we had both been processed (one immigration officer does all the people in one car, so even though there were plenty of officers free, my friend had to wait until I'd been done), I then crossed over the hall to customs, advised that I had no goods to follow, handed over the original slip of paper given to us at the immigration post on the Bridge, got a stamp on the copy of the COPR that is now in my passport, and we were on our merry way.
The toughest part of the whole experience was the traffic from Toronto to the Bridge!
I was fully expecting it to be a longer process, not least because I thought it'd be really busy, given that it was a long weekend, but it was the most painless part of the process so far.
Good luck to everyone who is still waiting, and believe me, it's definitely worth the wait!!
Michelle
PS: For the pure cheese factor, I've attached the photo my friend took of me immediately after exiting the immigration building! Not sure if it will work or not.
As this site has been so helpful to me in my immigration process, I thought I'd share my landing experience this weekend in the hopes that it helps someone else out! I'm currently living in Toronto, have been doing so for almost three years on a work permit, and applied through Buffalo as a Skilled Worker.
A friend and I drove down early on Sunday morning to the Peace Bridge at Fort Erie where she had to renew her work permit and I was going to land. We approached the bridge via Duty Free, and were fully intending to go across to the States, and then return. However, as we were exiting the duty free lane to cross the bridge, we saw an offical looking guy to our left. We drove up to him, and told him that we were simply looking to do our immigration tasks, and so he said we didn't need to go into the States and allowed us to do a u-turn and head straight to Canadian immigration!
When we drove up, we handed over our passports and after asking a few questions - confirming addresses, asking who the car belonged to etc etc - he directed us across to some parking bays with a form indicating that we both needed to proceed to immigration. As we'd driven through the left most lane, we then had to cross 7 or 8 lanes of traffic to get to the parking bays - pretty scary! We made it alive, and then when we pulled in, another offical looked at the slip of paper and pointed us in the direction of the immigration and customs office.
(Aside: it's a great building, very high ceilings with interesting beams etc, lots and lots of light). We entered and were the only people in the hall. I went to immigration first and handed over my passport and COPR. The immigration lady looked everything over, confirmed my name, address, DOB, whether still worked for my current employer etc, and then after tapping a few things into her computer, handed me the COPR and asked me to initial and sign in a number of places. She then handed my documents back to me, advised me I was now a Permanent Resident and welcomed me to Canada. From the minute we walked in to the immgiration office to her handing my documents back to me took a grand total of 15 minutes. She didn't ask me for any proof of funds - although I had it all with me, just in case - and I can only assume that it's because I'd confirmed I still worked with my current employer, and she could see the work permits in my passport. She advised that my PR card would be with me in 4-6 weeks, that I now have all the rights of a Canadian Citizen, except voting rights, that I had to conform to the Residency requirements to maintain my status, and that in two years, I could apply for citizenship (my time working thus far counts for a year already).
My friend did her Work Permit renewal and that took twice as long as mine! When we had both been processed (one immigration officer does all the people in one car, so even though there were plenty of officers free, my friend had to wait until I'd been done), I then crossed over the hall to customs, advised that I had no goods to follow, handed over the original slip of paper given to us at the immigration post on the Bridge, got a stamp on the copy of the COPR that is now in my passport, and we were on our merry way.
The toughest part of the whole experience was the traffic from Toronto to the Bridge!
I was fully expecting it to be a longer process, not least because I thought it'd be really busy, given that it was a long weekend, but it was the most painless part of the process so far.
Good luck to everyone who is still waiting, and believe me, it's definitely worth the wait!!
Michelle
PS: For the pure cheese factor, I've attached the photo my friend took of me immediately after exiting the immigration building! Not sure if it will work or not.
Sep 4th 2007 | 9:04 am
#2
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Jun 2007
Posts: 1,424
From: Back in Blighty!
Re: Landing Experience - Peace Bridge, Fort Erie, Buffalo
Congratulations Michelle, 
and thanks for taking the time to post a great landing experience story. 
Nice pic too!
Rob.
and thanks for taking the time to post a great landing experience story. Nice pic too!
Rob.
Sep 4th 2007 | 9:15 am
#3
BE Forum Addict
Joined: May 2007
Posts: 1,739
From: Okotoks and settled.
Re: Landing Experience - Peace Bridge, Fort Erie, Buffalo
Congratulations
Sep 4th 2007 | 10:18 am
#4
Forum Regular
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 153
From: Burlington
Re: Landing Experience - Peace Bridge, Fort Erie, Buffalo
Congratulations Michelle. Glad it all went so smoothly for you.
Out of interest how long did it take for your passport requests to come through after medicals as we are just waiting patiently now after completing meds in July (also Buffalo skilled worker application).
Sarah
Out of interest how long did it take for your passport requests to come through after medicals as we are just waiting patiently now after completing meds in July (also Buffalo skilled worker application).
Sarah
Sep 4th 2007 | 7:46 pm
#5
Forum Regular
Joined: Aug 2007
Posts: 44
From: Oakville Ontario
Re: Landing Experience - Peace Bridge, Fort Erie, Buffalo
Great Cheese
Congrats
Kevin
Congrats
Kevin
Sep 5th 2007 | 12:49 am
#6
Thread Starter
Forum Regular
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 34
From: Toronto, Canada
Re: Landing Experience - Peace Bridge, Fort Erie, Buffalo
Congratulations Michelle. Glad it all went so smoothly for you.
Out of interest how long did it take for your passport requests to come through after medicals as we are just waiting patiently now after completing meds in July (also Buffalo skilled worker application).
Sarah
Out of interest how long did it take for your passport requests to come through after medicals as we are just waiting patiently now after completing meds in July (also Buffalo skilled worker application).
Sarah
Hi Sarah
My med results were sent to on 5th June, and I got my PPR on 9th August so only a couple of months, which was fantastic. In fact, the whole process has been so painfree and smooth that I think I must be an anomaly!
Thanks to everyone for the good wishes!
Michelle
Sep 5th 2007 | 1:40 am
#7
Forum Regular
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 159
From: Somewhere in Prairie
Re: Landing Experience - Peace Bridge, Fort Erie, Buffalo
Hi all
As this site has been so helpful to me in my immigration process, I thought I'd share my landing experience this weekend in the hopes that it helps someone else out! I'm currently living in Toronto, have been doing so for almost three years on a work permit, and applied through Buffalo as a Skilled Worker.
A friend and I drove down early on Sunday morning to the Peace Bridge at Fort Erie where she had to renew her work permit and I was going to land. We approached the bridge via Duty Free, and were fully intending to go across to the States, and then return. However, as we were exiting the duty free lane to cross the bridge, we saw an offical looking guy to our left. We drove up to him, and told him that we were simply looking to do our immigration tasks, and so he said we didn't need to go into the States and allowed us to do a u-turn and head straight to Canadian immigration!
When we drove up, we handed over our passports and after asking a few questions - confirming addresses, asking who the car belonged to etc etc - he directed us across to some parking bays with a form indicating that we both needed to proceed to immigration. As we'd driven through the left most lane, we then had to cross 7 or 8 lanes of traffic to get to the parking bays - pretty scary! We made it alive, and then when we pulled in, another offical looked at the slip of paper and pointed us in the direction of the immigration and customs office.
(Aside: it's a great building, very high ceilings with interesting beams etc, lots and lots of light). We entered and were the only people in the hall. I went to immigration first and handed over my passport and COPR. The immigration lady looked everything over, confirmed my name, address, DOB, whether still worked for my current employer etc, and then after tapping a few things into her computer, handed me the COPR and asked me to initial and sign in a number of places. She then handed my documents back to me, advised me I was now a Permanent Resident and welcomed me to Canada. From the minute we walked in to the immgiration office to her handing my documents back to me took a grand total of 15 minutes. She didn't ask me for any proof of funds - although I had it all with me, just in case - and I can only assume that it's because I'd confirmed I still worked with my current employer, and she could see the work permits in my passport. She advised that my PR card would be with me in 4-6 weeks, that I now have all the rights of a Canadian Citizen, except voting rights, that I had to conform to the Residency requirements to maintain my status, and that in two years, I could apply for citizenship (my time working thus far counts for a year already).
My friend did her Work Permit renewal and that took twice as long as mine! When we had both been processed (one immigration officer does all the people in one car, so even though there were plenty of officers free, my friend had to wait until I'd been done), I then crossed over the hall to customs, advised that I had no goods to follow, handed over the original slip of paper given to us at the immigration post on the Bridge, got a stamp on the copy of the COPR that is now in my passport, and we were on our merry way.
The toughest part of the whole experience was the traffic from Toronto to the Bridge!
I was fully expecting it to be a longer process, not least because I thought it'd be really busy, given that it was a long weekend, but it was the most painless part of the process so far.
Good luck to everyone who is still waiting, and believe me, it's definitely worth the wait!!
Michelle
PS: For the pure cheese factor, I've attached the photo my friend took of me immediately after exiting the immigration building! Not sure if it will work or not.
As this site has been so helpful to me in my immigration process, I thought I'd share my landing experience this weekend in the hopes that it helps someone else out! I'm currently living in Toronto, have been doing so for almost three years on a work permit, and applied through Buffalo as a Skilled Worker.
A friend and I drove down early on Sunday morning to the Peace Bridge at Fort Erie where she had to renew her work permit and I was going to land. We approached the bridge via Duty Free, and were fully intending to go across to the States, and then return. However, as we were exiting the duty free lane to cross the bridge, we saw an offical looking guy to our left. We drove up to him, and told him that we were simply looking to do our immigration tasks, and so he said we didn't need to go into the States and allowed us to do a u-turn and head straight to Canadian immigration!
When we drove up, we handed over our passports and after asking a few questions - confirming addresses, asking who the car belonged to etc etc - he directed us across to some parking bays with a form indicating that we both needed to proceed to immigration. As we'd driven through the left most lane, we then had to cross 7 or 8 lanes of traffic to get to the parking bays - pretty scary! We made it alive, and then when we pulled in, another offical looked at the slip of paper and pointed us in the direction of the immigration and customs office.
(Aside: it's a great building, very high ceilings with interesting beams etc, lots and lots of light). We entered and were the only people in the hall. I went to immigration first and handed over my passport and COPR. The immigration lady looked everything over, confirmed my name, address, DOB, whether still worked for my current employer etc, and then after tapping a few things into her computer, handed me the COPR and asked me to initial and sign in a number of places. She then handed my documents back to me, advised me I was now a Permanent Resident and welcomed me to Canada. From the minute we walked in to the immgiration office to her handing my documents back to me took a grand total of 15 minutes. She didn't ask me for any proof of funds - although I had it all with me, just in case - and I can only assume that it's because I'd confirmed I still worked with my current employer, and she could see the work permits in my passport. She advised that my PR card would be with me in 4-6 weeks, that I now have all the rights of a Canadian Citizen, except voting rights, that I had to conform to the Residency requirements to maintain my status, and that in two years, I could apply for citizenship (my time working thus far counts for a year already).
My friend did her Work Permit renewal and that took twice as long as mine! When we had both been processed (one immigration officer does all the people in one car, so even though there were plenty of officers free, my friend had to wait until I'd been done), I then crossed over the hall to customs, advised that I had no goods to follow, handed over the original slip of paper given to us at the immigration post on the Bridge, got a stamp on the copy of the COPR that is now in my passport, and we were on our merry way.
The toughest part of the whole experience was the traffic from Toronto to the Bridge!
I was fully expecting it to be a longer process, not least because I thought it'd be really busy, given that it was a long weekend, but it was the most painless part of the process so far.
Good luck to everyone who is still waiting, and believe me, it's definitely worth the wait!!
Michelle
PS: For the pure cheese factor, I've attached the photo my friend took of me immediately after exiting the immigration building! Not sure if it will work or not.
I wish I did the same thing too (picture)
Congratulations!!!
Sep 5th 2007 | 10:38 am
#8
Forum Regular
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 153
From: Burlington
Re: Landing Experience - Peace Bridge, Fort Erie, Buffalo
Hi Sarah
My med results were sent to on 5th June, and I got my PPR on 9th August so only a couple of months, which was fantastic. In fact, the whole process has been so painfree and smooth that I think I must be an anomaly!
Thanks to everyone for the good wishes!
Michelle
My med results were sent to on 5th June, and I got my PPR on 9th August so only a couple of months, which was fantastic. In fact, the whole process has been so painfree and smooth that I think I must be an anomaly!
Thanks to everyone for the good wishes!
Michelle
We should hear something by the end of this month then hopefully. And things have been much faster than we first thought at the beginning as it will have taken less than a year from start to finish!
Sarah
Sep 5th 2007 | 11:58 am
#9
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 6,713
From: Windsor, ON; Chicago, IL
Re: Landing Experience - Peace Bridge, Fort Erie, Buffalo
well done Michelle, great pic too 
Sep 7th 2007 | 5:29 am
#10
Forum Regular
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 46
Re: Landing Experience - Peace Bridge, Fort Erie, Buffalo
Hi all
As this site has been so helpful to me in my immigration process, I thought I'd share my landing experience this weekend in the hopes that it helps someone else out! I'm currently living in Toronto, have been doing so for almost three years on a work permit, and applied through Buffalo as a Skilled Worker.
A friend and I drove down early on Sunday morning to the Peace Bridge at Fort Erie where she had to renew her work permit and I was going to land. We approached the bridge via Duty Free, and were fully intending to go across to the States, and then return. However, as we were exiting the duty free lane to cross the bridge, we saw an offical looking guy to our left. We drove up to him, and told him that we were simply looking to do our immigration tasks, and so he said we didn't need to go into the States and allowed us to do a u-turn and head straight to Canadian immigration!
When we drove up, we handed over our passports and after asking a few questions - confirming addresses, asking who the car belonged to etc etc - he directed us across to some parking bays with a form indicating that we both needed to proceed to immigration. As we'd driven through the left most lane, we then had to cross 7 or 8 lanes of traffic to get to the parking bays - pretty scary! We made it alive, and then when we pulled in, another offical looked at the slip of paper and pointed us in the direction of the immigration and customs office.
(Aside: it's a great building, very high ceilings with interesting beams etc, lots and lots of light). We entered and were the only people in the hall. I went to immigration first and handed over my passport and COPR. The immigration lady looked everything over, confirmed my name, address, DOB, whether still worked for my current employer etc, and then after tapping a few things into her computer, handed me the COPR and asked me to initial and sign in a number of places. She then handed my documents back to me, advised me I was now a Permanent Resident and welcomed me to Canada. From the minute we walked in to the immgiration office to her handing my documents back to me took a grand total of 15 minutes. She didn't ask me for any proof of funds - although I had it all with me, just in case - and I can only assume that it's because I'd confirmed I still worked with my current employer, and she could see the work permits in my passport. She advised that my PR card would be with me in 4-6 weeks, that I now have all the rights of a Canadian Citizen, except voting rights, that I had to conform to the Residency requirements to maintain my status, and that in two years, I could apply for citizenship (my time working thus far counts for a year already).
My friend did her Work Permit renewal and that took twice as long as mine! When we had both been processed (one immigration officer does all the people in one car, so even though there were plenty of officers free, my friend had to wait until I'd been done), I then crossed over the hall to customs, advised that I had no goods to follow, handed over the original slip of paper given to us at the immigration post on the Bridge, got a stamp on the copy of the COPR that is now in my passport, and we were on our merry way.
The toughest part of the whole experience was the traffic from Toronto to the Bridge!
I was fully expecting it to be a longer process, not least because I thought it'd be really busy, given that it was a long weekend, but it was the most painless part of the process so far.
Good luck to everyone who is still waiting, and believe me, it's definitely worth the wait!!
Michelle
PS: For the pure cheese factor, I've attached the photo my friend took of me immediately after exiting the immigration building! Not sure if it will work or not.
As this site has been so helpful to me in my immigration process, I thought I'd share my landing experience this weekend in the hopes that it helps someone else out! I'm currently living in Toronto, have been doing so for almost three years on a work permit, and applied through Buffalo as a Skilled Worker.
A friend and I drove down early on Sunday morning to the Peace Bridge at Fort Erie where she had to renew her work permit and I was going to land. We approached the bridge via Duty Free, and were fully intending to go across to the States, and then return. However, as we were exiting the duty free lane to cross the bridge, we saw an offical looking guy to our left. We drove up to him, and told him that we were simply looking to do our immigration tasks, and so he said we didn't need to go into the States and allowed us to do a u-turn and head straight to Canadian immigration!
When we drove up, we handed over our passports and after asking a few questions - confirming addresses, asking who the car belonged to etc etc - he directed us across to some parking bays with a form indicating that we both needed to proceed to immigration. As we'd driven through the left most lane, we then had to cross 7 or 8 lanes of traffic to get to the parking bays - pretty scary! We made it alive, and then when we pulled in, another offical looked at the slip of paper and pointed us in the direction of the immigration and customs office.
(Aside: it's a great building, very high ceilings with interesting beams etc, lots and lots of light). We entered and were the only people in the hall. I went to immigration first and handed over my passport and COPR. The immigration lady looked everything over, confirmed my name, address, DOB, whether still worked for my current employer etc, and then after tapping a few things into her computer, handed me the COPR and asked me to initial and sign in a number of places. She then handed my documents back to me, advised me I was now a Permanent Resident and welcomed me to Canada. From the minute we walked in to the immgiration office to her handing my documents back to me took a grand total of 15 minutes. She didn't ask me for any proof of funds - although I had it all with me, just in case - and I can only assume that it's because I'd confirmed I still worked with my current employer, and she could see the work permits in my passport. She advised that my PR card would be with me in 4-6 weeks, that I now have all the rights of a Canadian Citizen, except voting rights, that I had to conform to the Residency requirements to maintain my status, and that in two years, I could apply for citizenship (my time working thus far counts for a year already).
My friend did her Work Permit renewal and that took twice as long as mine! When we had both been processed (one immigration officer does all the people in one car, so even though there were plenty of officers free, my friend had to wait until I'd been done), I then crossed over the hall to customs, advised that I had no goods to follow, handed over the original slip of paper given to us at the immigration post on the Bridge, got a stamp on the copy of the COPR that is now in my passport, and we were on our merry way.
The toughest part of the whole experience was the traffic from Toronto to the Bridge!
I was fully expecting it to be a longer process, not least because I thought it'd be really busy, given that it was a long weekend, but it was the most painless part of the process so far.
Good luck to everyone who is still waiting, and believe me, it's definitely worth the wait!!
Michelle
PS: For the pure cheese factor, I've attached the photo my friend took of me immediately after exiting the immigration building! Not sure if it will work or not.
Sep 7th 2007 | 7:09 am
#11
Thread Starter
Forum Regular
Joined: Jan 2005
Posts: 34
From: Toronto, Canada
Re: Landing Experience - Peace Bridge, Fort Erie, Buffalo
Cody - yup, she put a line through the immigration visa, and the stamp that is in my passport is the same, or very similar, to the stamp that I got when my work permit was issued (don't have my passport with me right now, so can't remember exactly) - looks different than the entry stamp that you get when you've been out of the country and re-enter, e.g. after vacation. She did write an 'I' underneath it, followed by my COPR number though, I remember that.
Both those things were done by the Immigration official. The Customs official also stamped my COPR copy that's currently in my passport - again, I can't remember what the stamp looks like exactly, but I think it had the date on it? I was told to remove the COPR copy when my PR card comes through, but to keep it in a safe place as I would need it if I were to ever apply for citizenship.
HTH
M
Both those things were done by the Immigration official. The Customs official also stamped my COPR copy that's currently in my passport - again, I can't remember what the stamp looks like exactly, but I think it had the date on it? I was told to remove the COPR copy when my PR card comes through, but to keep it in a safe place as I would need it if I were to ever apply for citizenship.
HTH
M
