Hi. We are landing in Vancouver tomorrow, Thurs 21st for a weeks recce before returning to the UK. We understand that Vancouver will be our port of entry but found out over the weekend that our PR Cards need to be delivered to an address in Canada, is this the case?

Many thanks for any assitance in this matter.

Helen

yes.

and frankly, if you want to do something like have your PR cards sent to a 'middle man' who would then forward them onto you in the UK, you will have to lie.

the only concession i could get from CIC officials, is to get the cards sent to an address that is not your permanent address ONLY if you can then go and collect them in person.

they want to mail them to where you are living for the mid to long term. although some in these forums might tell you that you could nevertheless get someone to courier the docs over to where ever you like.

we went for a reccie in march and came back to the UK as we failed to land a job out there. we are 'theoretically' permanent residents of BC now, even though in reality we're not. the PR card would only really allow you to remain out there and work etc.... which you can anyways with your status being activated when landing.

the sole benefit of actually possessing your PR card is a neglible one.... as it simply allows you to fly on a one way ticket into canada from a foreign country. however, many countries, including the UK operate on a tourist visa waiver scheme and so airlines such as Air Canada do not require you to hold a PR card anyways.

other than that..... the use of a PR card outside of living in Canada permanently, is that (apparently) it looks quite nice and it reassures you that you have succeeded in your applying for PR status!

to be honest, sorting out jobs and houses etc are far more important than this bureaucratic process.

Hi, we landed at the beginning of May and only planned to stay for a week but gave my sister in laws address in Maple Ridge to get the cards sent to who will then fed ex them over to us. There was not problem when we told the immigration guy this but you will need to give a Canadian address to get them sent to.

I am sure there is information about this on the forum but I also think that I may have read either here or on the CIC website that you can apply for your PR cards at a later date but there is a cost involved if you do not get them when you first land. You will have to check this as I am not 100% certain about this.

We did find the immigration officials very helpful and friendly at Vancouver airport and they even took additional photos for the PR cards as they thought the background colour may not have been white enough. They normally use the photos on the COPR form that you have but we took additional photos, to be safe, and even these may not have been ok. The only drawback was the wait, it was about 2.5 hours to see the immigration official and I think that was because there was a plane from the far east that landed just before us so there was quite a high number of people waiting.

When I arrived in Canada last year I only had a month's accomodation arranged and the PR cards take a bit longer to arrive I think. At immigration at the airport I just gave them my Canadian friends address, the card turned up sometime later and I collected it from her. You just need an address and someone to send them to you. You don't need to discuss the ins and outs with immigration.

Thank you to all - the information will be useful and we will be through OK sometime tomorrow afternoon Vancouver time.

Just saying thank you to all again as this polite and also will count as our third post and then maybe we can pick up the inbound pm that is showing as unread

damn it! why did we have to be sorted out by (seemingly) the only miserable and unco-operative immigration officer at YVR!!?

he refused to check our goods accompanying / following docs; he said we needed to provide expert quotations regarding jewellery items and refused to accept anything, other than what we swore would be our permanent residential address, for delivery of our PR cards!

and then even afterwards, i phoned CIC and they said the only concession was an address to which i could visit to get the cards. all of this was underscored with "ah don't worry, you'll just have to pay 50 bucks later on"

i am almost as confused as i am disappointed!

Hi, with regards to the goods accompanying/to follow forms the immigration officer told us they do not deal with them as it is dealt with by customs now. Although we had prepared all these forms in triplicate and tried to think of everything as we were not shipping yet!!! Apparently we just need the forms when we ship our goods over, however, there was no mention of goods accompanying so I am not sure when these need to be declared as we have officially landed now.

All we need to do now is sell the house (we have accepted an offer but these days that is no guarantee) and find a job - and I thought the PR application was the hard part.

Hi

There are no longer separate Immigration officers as such, they all work for CBSA since 2005 at Ports of Entry. Others should note that expensive jewelry in goods to follow usually requires a picture and evaluation.

Hi,

Many thanks to all who posted - thought we would update with our own experiences.

Maybe we were just lucky but there was very little in the way of a queue at immigration - just 3 or 4 familes already being seen to so we were next in the queue. There were more in the students/workers queue but they are dealt with separately. Sorry to add to Paolosmythe's chagrin but they could not have been more polite and helpful. It started with queue for passport control where we were escorted through the barriers direct to the next available passport control officer as we had small children with us. Another family behind us had the same treatment. The woman at immigration reception was very helpful and guided us to the right line, through to the woman at C.A.N.N., who gave us loads of information and even put a DVD on for the children to watch whilst we waited. Also informed us of the place where all the UK tend to end up outside Vancouver (whose name escapes me!) The Border Service Officer who dealt with our case could not have been more polite and helpful and the whole process was over in under 30 minutes from start to finish.

They asked for an address to send to PR cards to but as we did not have one and the only other address we could give them was out of BC, the guy just simply said, OK, when you have an address, fill out this form and fax it to this number and we will forward the cards in 6-8 weeks. No fuss no drama. They gave us part of our documentation back that acts as our confirmation of permanent residence, signed by the Officer so we are in!

He did not ask for proof of savings, all he asked was if we were bringning in more than 30,000 CAD and we stated not this time so that was the end of that subject.

With regard to the shipping list of goods, as we had ticked 'no' to the landing goods question on the customs form he did not want to see our packing list (frankly, it would have been all lies anyway) and the indication he gave us was that when we came in again having packed and shipped the goods we would just tick yes to that question next time in and then it would be dealt with by the customs and excise people.

In all a much easier process than we thought it would be and all happy to be here. The only downside so far is that it is 04:00 and we are dealing with 2 small children with jetlag

Regards
Helen & Mike