Voyager970

Hi there guys

We are heading to Toronto airport on the 16th July, family holiday and to also have a good look around the city on London.

This question has been asked before, many moons ago, but I wish to seek clarification again

My question is !!!

When we arrive at Toronto, will be stopped and asked any questions by the immigration chappies, i.e. about your visit, what sort of things will they ask, I have nothing to hide, but it would be nice to have some indication to the sort of questions they may, or may not ask.

If we are asked anything, will it be wise to tell them that you have a PR application lodged with London.

I am not to sure what will happen as the family have only ever visited Spain and they dont give a monkeys !!

I am sure it has been mentioned somewhere that they will have your details on their computer systems. so it is better to tell that about your permanent residency application.

Any ideas or pointers peeps !!!!

Eddie

willmore

Hey stranger - how's life with you? It's been ages! Can't believe your vacation is coming up so fast!

dingbat

Just say that you are on a fact finding mission and a holiday - that is all I said. No problems at all.

Voyager970

How are you my dear

Keeping a low profile just now, forum getting a bit repetitive these days

Yes holiday fast approaching, had a few probs with Canadian Affiar the other week, they really pissed me off.

Anyway I will try and give you the shortened version of events that happened with the airline.
I got a phone call from them the other week, you know that gut feeling when you know someone has bad news, well I had that feeling. We were supposed to flying out of the UK on the 17th July.
They had to cancel our flight out of the UK on the 17th July, they are blaming Toronto Airport, cancelling their landing slot, due to building work going on at a new terminal. As we are not there we do not know if there is any truth in this.
Friends of ours have just returned from London, Ontario a few weeks ago, they reckon they are talking bull. What my friend reckons is that they have allocated to many seats that they cannot fill, put on to many planes, so they have cancelled our flight and then put us in with the flight the day before, we will be crammed in like sardines !!!!!!

Anyway after a few, "You cant do this, this is going to cause us major problems etc etc etc", they came up with a few alternatives, Wait for it !!!!!!!!

No 1 , The family were to make our own way to Manchester airport for a flight out on the 17th. ( about 250 miles away )
No 2 , The family were to make our own way to Gatwick airport to get a flight out on the 17th ( about 450 miles away )
No 3 , Make our way to Edinburgh ( about 80 miles away ) to get a flight out on the 17th, wait for it, and make our own way back to Edinburgh when we return to the UK to pick up our car again, as the flight home was returning back to Glasgow. !!!!!!!!

I went off my head, they were not willing to offer any us any overnight accomodation or anything, as they said it was not their problem so they were not obliged to offer anything in the way of accomodation, train tickets etc.

Anyway we came up with a compromise.
We are now flying out of Glasgow on Saturday the 16th July, one day earlier
Head back to the UK on the 7th August, overnight flight.
They would not pay for our hotel on the evening of the 16th as our car, accomodation has all been booked from the 17th.
Anyway more phone calls to London, their head office, we have now met them half way with the hotel costs, they would not pay for any extra meals, we will have to pay for evening meals and breakfast the next day. We will be staying at the Hilton hotel on the evening of the 16th, get up in the morning and then pick up the hire car around lunchtime, then head down to London on the 17th July, hopefully be there for about 3 o'clockish.

So there you have my shitty time with Canadian Affair

Hope you are well and enjoying your good weather, we have had a few lovely days, loads of rain here

Speak later

Eddie

Biiiiink

Hi Eddie,

Slightly different in that it was family class but Mr B forgot to mention his PR app on a trip here last December. He was asked why he was here, he said for an interview at the dental school, the officer said "You're not going to work, are you?" - he said no, and he was admitted, that was that. We took the line of not walking up to the desk and saying "Hello, I have a PR app pending" but if the conversation had gone further than it did, he'd have mentioned it as there was no reason to hide anything. According to the people on here, the officer would have known when he scanned the passport...but he never mentioned it either.

Sorry to hear about Canadian Affair, they moved our flight but thankfully just the time of it, not the actual date. The perils of going with a charter... But we had an excellent flight, the crew were so kind to our little one, it was unbelievable service for the money. So, hope once you're finally up there you enjoy it too!

Having fun in Winnipeg, we get the new house on Thursday. Been pretty hot and sunny here so have been beaching it most weekends, am applying the aftersun liberally. Ouch.

Biiiiink

SANDRAPAUL

Hi Eddie

Firstly thanks for the emails. Great....how do you find the time?

As far as going through the airport we were asked nothing and said nothing as there is nothing to say. You are not applying for a work Visa so are like many of us at the beck and call of the CHC for our PR cards. And until you get the VIsa you are under no obligation anyway to say 'oute' unless asked - then you simply tell the truth.

Remember you are trying to join them - not leave them, so its a positive all the way.

Sorry to see your flight problems. Seem to be seeing a lot about Canadian Affair lately.

P

louisbourg

hi there
when we visited last time dec 2004 - march this year
we landed at halifax
were pointed in direction of immigration , and were there about 30 mins or so , only because we got a lovely girl , who was talking about her recent visit to scotland

she just asked us the usual , what was our purpose of visiting , etc , we weren't sure whether to mention that we had our pr application in , but the girl after looking on the computer , already knew that ...... she said oh you have your pr in , we said yeah and she asked how it was going ???
i asked jokingly if she could tell us anythink from the comp , but she laughed and said , that she couldn;t tell anything from the screen

asked where we would be stayin .......so we gave them the address , and said you can call anytime , because thats where we would be , and i also gave them the contact no

the girl was really really nice , and she finished up by saying that she hoped she would be the one to stamp our pasport on coming over for good , and wished us luck

just hope we get her again in july for our next visit

as said on here ...and it's true , JUST BE HONEST

have a great trip

acer rose

Hi there

It all seems to depend on the mood of the officer you get. We had lots of questions from the officer about where we were staying, purpose of visit, whether we had been to Canada before...all very standard questions. Unfortunately, although we were completely honest in our answers, we must have appeared too glib/weary (we have done these type of questions in lots of other countries we've visited before but had never been to Canada) as we were just bombarded with questions until one of them completely threw us (ie a WTF expression must have appeared on our faces). This happened to be, "Well, if you have never been to Canada before, how do you know you have got friends here?" - like the authorities don't know Canadians travel abroad, use the internet, have penpals, have immigrants...? As I said, although obviously we easily answered it very straightforwardly, she seemed to be pleased to have asked us a question we weren't expecting and then let us through immediately.

I guess the officers at Vancouver get a little bored with holidaymakers and like to mix it up a bit. When recounting this tale to several of my Canadian friends, they said that they have also had bizarre/lots of questions coming home through Vancouver, so maybe this is specifically a Vancouver "thing"?

PS We were not asked about the pending application at all.

Pretty Flowers

I travelled back from London on Sunday. I always get a little anxious at immigration these days as a Temporary Visa holder. Anyway. the officer was very nice and even said welcome back home to me after he'd stamped my passport and waived me on my way....


I travelled Canadian Affair, with an upgrade to the premium cabin. Drinks were free, and I really enjoyed the flight back...

Alberta_Rose

We had an almost identical flight change, about 2 weeks before we were due to fly. They DID give us overnight accomm tho, AND an upgrade to the car. Then when we got back, a snotty letter detailing every single expense and inconvenience it had caused and requesting compensation resulted (eventually) in a partial refund! This came with no letter of explanation or apology, but was never-the-less very welcome!

This was Easter last year tho, so maybe there have been so many cancellations since then that they cannot afford to pay for them?

In any event I think it is better to put your complaint in writing, as they have it there in front of them then (shredders aside) rather than a phone call alone, when you do not really know who you are talking to. Why not follow your trip up with a written complaint and see if that gets you anywhere? It's worth a stamp.

Voyager970

Morwenna

Thanks for you input

Yes a big, detailed complaint letter will be on its way when we get back, detailing all additional expenses that we have to fork out for

Thanks

Eddie

Alberta_Rose

Eddie!!

Thought you might be interested in this post from another site..

"Thanks for the heads up on My Travel. We're flying there and back with them. A bit worried about the flights, Canadian Affair called a week ago to say they lost their slot at Calgary Airport for our Glasgow flight and instead we're on the Gatwick flight. They're picking up the cost of flying to London and staying in a hotel overnight, so we really can't complain, it does save us a long drive to Glasgow!"

If they can do it for these guys how can they possibly deny any responsibilty in your case?????
You bloody well give'em hell !!!

Actually I will pm this to you as well in case you don't see it!

Morw