canadian_bacon_boy

I had spent the whole of 2010 investigating the landing process in preparation for when we were to land in Vancouver on the 7th March. However there were a number of small things I was not prepared for that I wanted to share with you.

We arrived at YVR at about 6:30pm and took till 9pm to get through immigration. It was a long, boring and seemingly meaningless experience of which I wish I had known so that I could have avoided the endless hours I spent in preparation.

This is pretty much what happened...

On the plane we were given customs forms to fill in. On these forms it asks if you have any goods to declare and any that are following you. You are meant to tick yes if you plan to present a goods to follow/goods accompanying list to immigration/customs. We made the mistake of ticking no to goods following as we have not made any arrangement to do so.

We made our way off the plane with the other passengers toward passport control. We saw queues of people lining up, one for Canadians and one for others. To the right before these queues was a sign that read "immigration" to which we followed through a set of double doors and down a corridor which entered into a medium size room adjacent to the baggage reclaim area.

On the right is a long row of about 30 counters behind glass screens with a snake long walk-way leading to them. This is the main queue for immigration processing and at 6:45pm when we entered there were only two people manning it.

You are told via signs to first queue up at the "welcome to canada" desk on the left of the room which delays you entering the main queue but there seems to be no choice. The lady smiled and talked in such a thick south american accent we struggled to understand her. But we were given books on what benefits to claim and loads of other stuff that seemed irrelavant.

We then got to join the main queue which many people had just joined without going to the welcome desk. Be warned you will be stood here for hours while the immigration officers talk at a snails pace because the rest of the line cannot speak english.

There are rows of seats and a few vending machines (only take coins) inside the room but If you have children it will be a challenge to keep them calm after such a long flight. My advice is one of the adults to queue up (we choose the least tired) while I went through the double doors to the left into baggage reclaim and grabbed our cases. Also out there are a better selection of vending machines which take notes as well. If you ask whoever is manning the welcome desk nicely they will put a DVD on for the kids.

Once we got to the front of the queue all of us had to be present. You get asked for your immigration PR forms you got from CIC (ones with the photos on), the custom forms you filled out on the plane and and your passports (if they are in covers you will have to take them out). They ask you who each of you are and then ask you to take a seat for about 30 mins whilst they look at the forms (this takes alot longer for non-english speakers).

Then you get called back so make sure you don't go anywhere which many others did delaying things further. You get asked standard questions (are you a criminal?, do you want to start a war here? are you carrying a disease etc) and then you are asked to sign the same documents you got from CIC. If you have children with you 13 years or below the principal applicant will have to sign for them. My 14 year old son had to sign himself.

If you do not have an address for your PR cards you will be given a form to send to the embassy in the UK once you have. The immigration officer said that this is a better option then coming to Canada without it as you will have to queue up and go through this process all over again (trust me you don't).

Many non-english speakers queue up despite already having a PR card, you do not have to, just go through passport control with the other Canadians. This poor chinese young chap waited for hours to then be told he didn't have to, he looked gutted and confused.

You can then proceed with your bags onto customs (you do not go through passport control at all) to which is just before the airport exit. We were confused as to whether we needed to show our goods to follow list and spoke to a customs officer who was not interested unless our goods were coming in the next month or so.

My overall advice is be prepared to wait around if landing in the evening, choose to land at somewhere were the demographic of immigration is heavy toward english and french speaking countries which will speed things up.

We found the two immigration officers very rude and seemed to give almost no regard to those they were dealing with. They spent more time chatting and joking with each other than their job. This might be because they were both around early 20's but I have no idea if this is true.

The customs officer was even worse, coming off as a grumpy night porter in a dodgy spanish (he was south american too) hotel.

I don't have an issue with the colour of peoples skin. I am mixed race and so is my wife (in fact she is half spanish) but rude people whatever country just piss me off.

I think CIC need to do more to either ensure people can speak the languages that Canada speaks (english and french) or provide them in immigration with some translation support service to take the stress out of trying to understand an immigration officer who insists on repeating everything slower and slower, louder and louder in english.

All the documentation we put together was a waste of time, no one asked for proof of funds from anyone, no one is interested in your goods to follow unless they are actually following you now.

All I can say is we got to the hotel feeling very tired and very down. Not exactly the welcome we were hoping for from Canada.

el_richo

You mean you didn't get a brass band playing the Canadian National Anthem for you, as a thank you?

I'm shocked

Atlantic Xpat

The moral of this story is land at a smaller aiport. 'Landing" at St. John's those many years ago, took about 30 minutes & was an entirely pleasant experience.

el_richo

Agreed. Also pre-book a seat on the aircraft as close to the front as possible, then haul ass to immigration if you must land at the higher volume airports.

Finally, don't expect the authorities to give a turd that you're an English speaking European immigrant, cos you're nothing special and no different from those non English speaking heathens.

singingringingtree

We ran like idiots to immigration and then sent the kids out to get the bags. As it happend, we only had to wait 15 mins as there was no queue. If you land behind a plane from China or Hong Kong you are there for the long-haul (pardon the pun ).

Again, didn't want proof of funds or goods to follow as we were returning to UK. Found everyone very helpful, but it seems to be very hit and miss with Vancouver immigration officers.

Souvy

I'm trying to figure out how he managed to get into baggage reclaim without, apparently, going through any sort of passport control. Maybe I read his essay wrong.

singingringingtree

You go through to immigration and there is a side door to the baggage reclaim hall. People pop out, get their bags and bring them back in.

Souvy

That's not how it read to me.

JonboyE

You are supposed to line up and go through passport control before you head off to the immigration office. I wonder if (apparently) bypassing passport control was part of the OH's problem.

It seems a shame that all those bloody immigrants spoiled the OP's landing experience.

We landed just after midnight on a Saturday morning. I was looking forward to a long and protracted immigration process as we had nothing to do till we picked up the rental car at 7.30am. We were through passport control, immigration and customs in about 20 minutes.

brizzle

If immigration at YVR, don't have Mandarin/Cantonese/Korean/Japanese translators available at all times, then they need their asses kicked, given the demographics of visitors/immigrants

Good luck with that. Last time I was at YVR, about 80% of international arrivals were from the far east. The only guaranteed way to avoid that is to be the very first arrival in the morning !!

Anyway, good luck with it all. If this is the worst thing that happens to you here then you'll be alright !!

canadian_bacon_boy

I know, they could have at least a little chinese kid with casio keyboard

canadian_bacon_boy

No you are right, the passageway to immigration bypasses passport control. You have to ask what is stopping anyone just walking out of the airport illegally.

Might explain a few things?

brizzle

The immigration officer marks your customs card and I assume without that customs would stop you. But it's hardly hi-tech or hard to bypass. Unless I'm missing something too, it does seem a bit easy.

canadian_bacon_boy

Yep!

Souvy

I thought about that after I posted but I must agree with you. The immigration officer does mark the card but it wouldn't be beyond the wit of a half-decent people smuggler to discover what the marks mean. The customs people, in my experience, look at the card very briefly.

That's a wide-open door.