julietaba

Hi there,
We are landing in 2 weeks and are trying to make things as easy as possible as we have 2 small children who are not likely to be in the best of moods after an 8 hour flight! I noticed that there are two forms entitled 'Application for Permanent Residence Card:IMM5444 and Supplementary Identification Form: IMM5455'. Does anyone know if these as the correct forms that we will need to complete on landing and is it ok to complete them beforehand? The supplementary identification form is asking for photos again but there is no mention of this on the letter with our CORP. I hope these questions don't come across as silly, we just want to make sure that things go as smoothly as possible.
Many thanks
Julie

MapleSauce

Hi,

We landed in November and did not fill out any forms. We took our proof of funds and COPR.

On the plane before we landed we got the customs form, which we filled out. When we got to the front desk, i stated we were landing. We were then sent to a room directly behind customs at Pearson.

Once in the room, the Customs officer checked our COPR's and passports and then proof of funds. We said we didn't have a 'goods to follow' list as we were going back to UK in 7 days. We were then told that the PR cards would be sent to our nominated address (it took 7 weeks to deliver) and that was that. Whole process took about 35mins - including queuing. We got a nice tote bag on our way out with a welcome to Canada pack, and then the next day opened a bank account at TD and went to City Hall and applied for our SIN cards - took 20mins.

That's all we did. No forms required as you have stipulated. Not sure if that has changed now. I'm sure someone will correct me if i'm wrong.

Good luck with the landing.

MS.

julietaba

Thanks alot MapleSauce. Thats extremely reassuring - I hope our experience is that straight forward. I'm still a little nervous that our kids behave like monkeys and they change their mind about giving us PR

Bucks_Family

We landed on Christmas Day in Vancouver. The formalities were pretty quick once we were seen by an immigration officer, our problem was that once in the immigration office (after passport control) there was quite a queue of people waiting, and we would have missed our connecting flight to Calgary. We had 2 kids with us (5 year old and 10 month old) and the senior officer took pity on us and had us processed before others in the queue (we were asked to meet him in another part of the baggage hall!). The actual form filling part was done by the officer, we weren't asked for proof of funds (only asked how much cash we were bringing in that day), we gave the address and phone number of our friend where the PR cards would be sent, and that was it. Took about 10 minutes once we started being processed. Our 5 year old was fine, even after a 10 hour flight from Amsterdam. The 9 month old got a bit hungry, we hadn't banked on the queue in immigration and had presumed we would find a cafe where we could get some hot water to make up his food.

Former Lancastrian

No need to fill out those forms. Even if the pictures arent conforming a retake will be done and any forms are filled out by CBSA. PR cards will be sent to a Canadian address only.

julietaba

Thanks guys - I'm not so nervous now. Just compiling the goods to follow list! Our girls are 3 & 6 and once off the flight they won't sit still for long. All I can imagine is them running circles around each other while we are trying to talk to the immigration officer. Hopefully someone will take pity on us!
The thought of these things is usually worse that they actually turn out to be.

Thanks again britishexpats! We wouldn't have got this far without the help of this forum - whatever did people do before the internet...

sandsfamily

Hi Julietaba,

We landed in Calgary two years ago with our 5 and 8 yr old and shared all your concerns. As described by all the other posts the process was easy and everyone was incredibly friendly. I was a nervous wreck as I had completed All the paperwork myself and this was the final hurdle. After the initial passport control we went through to immigration, our kids were tired and we were stressed And when we started talking to the immigration officer our son whispered "mummy I'm going to be sick" I just said take some deep breaths and then he said again ..."mummy I really am going to be sick", the immigration officer just smiled and said " take him to the bathroom ma'am". When I returned,( my son was't sick) my husband was laughing with the immigration officer and after I signed my paper we got a big "welcome to Canada" and proceeded through to customs. We finally moved here, Cochrane AB on 28th Nov 2012, the kids are in school and we love it. The landing part is stressful but you will get through it. Good luck

SchnookoLoly

We landed in December at Pearson, though through the spousal/common-law route, not FSW. We only had our Goods to Follow and my husband's COPR, didn't fill out any other forms beforehand. The immigration officer filled out one form and my husband just had to answer/confirm a few details, and sign a few forms, then at Customs, the Customs officer did our other form and stamped our Goods to Follow and Goods Accompanying list (which we did in Excel - the Wiki on here was a huge help in getting that together, I can elaborate more if you want more detail!). I saw someone further up stated that they didn't do their lists because they weren't moving yet - this was also the case for us, that we aren't moving until this summer, but we figured better to be safe than sorry, and then we were asked for the lists in the end!

Overall wasn't that long - the guy at Customs was a bit slow but overall the whole process took about 20 extra minutes from what it would have done if we had entered "normally".

Granma Nessie

I am landing in March at Pearson but after a month am coming home to try and sell my house. It is not clear , however, if they will ask for Goods to Follow list in March. Former Lancastrian has told me I won't need the lists in March but reading your experience shows that this is not always true and it maybe depends on the official you get at immigration. I think I shall do the list just in case as it would be a nightmare to try and jot down all the items at such short notice in the airport itself!

However how did you estimate how much , say clothing, would fit into a box the movers would use at a future date?
Did you wildly over estimate everything?
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Granma Nessie

MillieF

I landed in October 2011, but wasn't coming back until the following August 2012 permanently. I did have lists ready, but they didn't want them, but I had them just in case. I gave my lists in when I came in August. I did wildly overestimate, I put 20 boxes of books, whereas we maybe only had 15. I went round room by room and wrote down everything I saw. In the end though we gave in the list but also had the shippers list. You can always cross stuff off the list, but can't add it. Best of luck.

clay

Its very straight forward, as long as you have all the relevant paperwork, they didn't even check most of ours, they I would imagine know what paperwork to see, we took a folder full..lol.. good luck and don't panic, its a walk in the paark... welcome to canada..

graham and george

Some good information there,one day we will be in that position and will be able to add to this.

julietaba

Thank you everyone - so much!! You have all really put my mind at ease. That said, I'm really looking forward to getting it all over and done with.
Thanks again
Julie

SchnookoLoly

Hello!

When we were preparing, we read that some people are asked for it and some are not, so we decided not to take the chance just in case we were. We told both immigration and customs that we were only entering as visitors (I filled out my landing card as "visitor to Canada", and not "returning resident") and customs still wanted our Goods to Follow list.

We didn't put number of boxes, we just listed the items and the approximate value - lord knows how many actual boxes it will be and, as you said, the size of said boxes, so we just put everything in Excel, separated it by category (Clothing, Household and Kitchen, Electronics, etc) and just put approximate values - and generally yes, rounded everything up. We followed the Wiki instructions, so we did Goods Accompanying and Goods to Follow. Under Accompanying we put everything we had with us - engagement and wedding rings, watches, jewellery, clothes, phones, electronics, etc - and generally rounded up. Then in Goods to Follow we thought of as much as we could that was "big ticket" to list individually (furniture, other electronics, my wedding dress, etc) and everything else just left them in as broad categories as possible - for example, "Kitchen" we just stuck an approximate value on everything in the kitchen that we thought there was even a chance of bringing - pots, pans, utensils, cooking trays, baking stuff, etc etc etc. Under "Linens" we just included all our linens - bedsheets, towels, duvets, etc, and just assigned an approximate value. We tried not to overthink it while still trying to be thorough.

My suggestion would be to go with the list just in case you're asked. Be clear that you aren't planning on moving on this trip, just landing and staying for [a week or whatever], and moving [in the summer / later in the year / etc]. From there I think it will just depend on which Customs officer you get! NOt saying that Former Lancastrian is wrong - he definitely knows his stuff and he works at the border! - but we didn't want to risk being asked for the form and then not having it! Which, in retrospect, was the right call!!!

I made a post earlier this month on our landing experience at Pearson if you want the blow-by-blow account, it's in my post history.

Happy to answer any other questions - or at least try to!

MarkG

Landing seems like a big deal right now, but as you walk out of the airport in Canada afterwards you'll wonder why you were so worried beforehand .

Ultimately, CIC have checked you out before issuing the visa, so landing is largely a formality unless you raise a red flag somewhere.