cov-canuck

This may seem like a ridiculous question...but will landing on a Sunday make any difference to the time it takes to "land" and get through immigration/customs?

Obviously taking into the account the fact that if 4 planes land with 50 families "landing" at once, there would understandably be a delay. I'm just wondering if they operate on a skeleton staff on Sundays (we'd be landing about 4:15pm).

Anyone have any knowledge/experience?

dbd33

That is prime time for flights from Europe. I don't know how many people have to go to secondary inspection but I think you should be prepared for the airport to be a zoo.

cov-canuck

Thanks. Right...packing extra sarnies then!

dbd33

Of course, it's always a zoo. They have this insane system whereby everyone fills in a customs form on the plane, the customs officer stamps it and hands it back to the passenger who, thinking it's like an American one, puts it in his pocket. The passenger then picks up all his wordly goods and heads for the exit where another customs person demands the card. The passenger then drops his worldly goods all over the floor directly in the path of a wave of passengers, all of whom are going to have to put down their stuff and rummage in their pockets.

I'm not kidding about driving to Buffalo, I do that specifically to avoid the shambles that is YYZ.


Oh, and they confiscate your sandwiches, eat them before landing!

Grah

You could call and ask

For Canada Immigration inquiries call:
General information - (416) 973-4444
Terminal 1 - (905) 676-3911
Terminal 2 - (905) 676-3690
Terminal 3 - (905) 676-5316
or visit the Citizenship and Immigration Canada web site at www.cic.gc.ca.

There is also a coupe of flights from Delhi in before you, as pointed out else where make sure you eat all fruit and meat on the plane.

Good luck

iaink

Gonna be slow going then I expect. Sunday in itself is not a problem, its what other flights are landing just ahead that makes a difference, and the number of people coming off them that immigration will be paying special attention to.

European flights dont seem as bad as ones from the subcontinent in my rather limited experience.

Tidge

We landed in Toronto last Sunday at about 7:45pm - an Air India flight had arrived at about the same time.

From getting off the plane to getting out, it took about one hour - the immigration lady was 5 minutes, the customs guy was 10 minutes (he loved those printed 'goods to follow' forms - probably shaved off a lot of time with those!). There were a couple from the Air India plane going through immigration - there was about three immigration officers around, so we didn't have to wait to see anyone.

The rest of the time was spent wrestling with trolleys, waiting for bags and trying to get everything into the elevators. I don't think you should have too many problems - just have your papers to hand, be cheerful and you should get through in no time.

Btw, I love Toronto, I feel at home already!

TrishP

Just make sure you get off the plane first!! We did and we cleared in no time at all - we literally ran from the plane to customs to get there before everyone else and because we had an ongoing flight to catch!! What a picture we must have made!!

agibson6

I've landed around that time on a Sunday in Toronto many times over the last year and never had a problem through Pearson. Once you get passed the long work from aircraft to customs everything else is quick.

Mans

Getting off the plane seems to take longer than time at customs and immigrations!

There are normally quite a few desks open at immigration so I shouldn't think thats a problem....careful with what you pack in your sannies tho....saw a recent thread with customs not happy with open chocolate

Good Luck for Sunday

Rgds
Mans

Canada Jane

We flew into YYZ a couple of weeks ago on a Sunday - landed about 7.30 in the evening. Although we were not landing we do have our visa so had to go through immigration to discuss why we were not landing on this occasion.

There was no queue for the initial immigration officer and when we went through to the separate immigration area we went straight to the officer and were processed in 5 minutes.

Very impressed indeed.

Jane