Hi everyone,

We finally received a letter from the embassy asking for the passports to be sent off to them for visas, Yay!!

The embassy gave us a deadline by which we have to submit our passport for the visas to be affixed. If we don¡¦t meet the deadline in submitting our passports, they will close our file and refuse our application.

Was wandering if anyone here could shed some light on the following as we seem to be in a situation where we have to choose between two evilsļ

My passport is full of various visas, stamps etc with only 4 empty pages left. And I am afraid I will have no empty pages left between the time when I receive the Canadian immigration visa and the time I enter Canada as a permanent resident. Getting a new passport now is not an option as I will not be able to get it before the deadline set by the embassy expires. Thus, no other choice but have the visa stamped in my old one and get the new passport afterwards.

If I have the visa stamped into my old passport and get a new one after that, will the authorities let me in when I arrive to Canada with two passports. One with the visa (and a stamp ¡§VOID¡¨) and the new one?

If anyone had similar experiences, please help. Any information or a link to the regulations will be highly appreciated. I searched the CIC site but don't seem to be able to find anything clarifying the situation there.

Thanks in advance,
Bud.

You can get extra pages put into your passport at Petit France. I've had to do that before and it was a breeze.

When I used to travel to the US on my B1-B2 it was in my old passport and I just took that with me when I travelled. I never had a problem.

Great news on the visa.

Thanks for the response, sibsie. Unfortunately additional pages are not an option either. My country's government (Russia) does not want to miss an opportunity of getting paid additional processing fees for passport renewal, thus instead of adding pages to my old passport, they'd want me to apply for the new one

Hence, I am really looking for information on this specific situation, whereby, one had to travel to Canada on immigrant visa with two passports with the visa in the old "void" passport.

I'd be very appreciative for any info/ideas

Are you saying that your passport will expire before you receive your Canadian visa, and that the Russian government will stamp your old passport VOID when you go to get a new one so you can travel to Canada? If this is the case, then why not travel to Canada with your old passport as soon as you receive it back from the Canadian consulate?

Are you saying that your passport will expire before you receive your Canadian visa, and that the Russian government will stamp your old passport VOID when you go to get a new one so you can travel to Canada? If this is the case, then why not travel to Canada with your old passport as soon as you receive it back from the Canadian consulate?

Yes, unfortunately this is what would happen (they'd stamp my passport VOID) and it appears that we will have to travel to Canada, land and then come back to finish things here.

Does anyone know how long it takes the immigration authorities in Canada to prepare the PR cards?

In case we have to leave Canada before the PR cards are ready....is it possible for a friend to pick them up in Canada (or have them mailed to his home address by the authorities) so he could then pass them onto me?

If anyone's been through landing and leaving Canada before the PR cards are ready, I'd apreciate any info/advice on this.

Thanks in advance for any info,

Cheers.


PS I thought that once we get the visas it'll all be straight forward, boy, was I wrong

We landed last October 3rd by car from the Lewiston Bridge in New York. The immigration officer emphasized to us that the landing document was not valid for travel, BUT, he said, that the officers at the border still let people in using the landing document as long as they are driving from the U.S. He also emphasized that we could not use the landing document to come back into Canada by air. So we left Canada and went back to the U.S. on October 21st by car and still without the PR cards. Then we came back in about less than 2 weeks ago. We had no problems coming back in. In fact, we never even had to go through immigration again. The customs officer simply asked us to stop by the Customs office since we were bringing in some of the goods listed in our goods to follow list. Then we went over to my wife's cousin's house (whose address we provided when we first landed) and both the PR cards and the SS cards were there waiting for us. HOWEVER, I disagree with the immigration officer in that I truly believe, after reading everything that can be read, that the landing document CAN be used to go back to Canada by air up to December 30th. Starting December 31st, however, you will need the PR card to fly into Canada. Hope this helps.

By the way, I don't see why you cannot use your friend's address, AS LONG AS it is the same address that you provide the immigration officer when you first land, just to make sure that it is mailed to that address where your friend lives. In other words, do not do a Change of Address later or anything like that to confuse them. Just give one address and one address alone. If you don't have a friend, I can provide an address for a fee.

Thanks nonong. I wasn't sure if they do send the cards by mail or one has to come and collect them in person. But from what you are saying, it appears that they do send them within Canada.

Do you know if Canadian authorities have any legal restrictions on the PR cards to be mailed outside of Canada? In other words is it legal to send PR cards from Canada to an address outside of Canada by mail.

May sound like a silly question, but just to be on the safe side. (I've read somewhere that it is illigal to make a Xerox copy of the American green card)

Thanks very much for offering help with the address. We have friends in Toronto who agreed to help. But thanks anyway.

Cheers
Bud.