Landing - my experience
Nov 14th 2009, 12:55 am
#1
Beep
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2009
Location: Here
Posts: 8,311
Landing - my experience
Not sure if this is the correct place for this (Mods please feel free to move) but hopefully it'll give a summarised insight into my experience of "Landing".
Venue: Calgary
So first off i would advise people who are travelling to "land" to make every effort to pre book (if you're unlucky enough to fly charter) or select when checking in (scheduled flight) a seat as far forward as possible so as to be able to get out of the aircraft before everybody else.
The landing experience:
We arrived at passport control with no queue, handed our passports over, and told the officer that we're here to activate our PR visa. He wrote on our landing card and directed us to to the immigration desks.
Walked around the corner to immigration and found no queue at all so headed straight to one of the check-outs. Told the guy we were landing and handed over our passports and paperwork. We signed some stuff in front of him and he welcomed us to Canada. This all happened within a space of about 5 minutes.
We then walked to grab our luggage and was then directed to customs. We spent a total of 5 minutes signing some forms and handed over our goods accompanying and good following lists and that was that. We left the airport
So in total, from leaving the plane to walking out of the airport an immigrant took us a total of 35 minutes. Awesome!!!!!
We then drove from Calgary to have a lovely Chinese meal in Okotoks before heading to Cranbrook for a good nights sleep in preparation for a celebratory bit quad biking.
Thanks to everybody who's offered advice and good luck to all who're going through the process.
Venue: Calgary
So first off i would advise people who are travelling to "land" to make every effort to pre book (if you're unlucky enough to fly charter) or select when checking in (scheduled flight) a seat as far forward as possible so as to be able to get out of the aircraft before everybody else.
The landing experience:
We arrived at passport control with no queue, handed our passports over, and told the officer that we're here to activate our PR visa. He wrote on our landing card and directed us to to the immigration desks.
Walked around the corner to immigration and found no queue at all so headed straight to one of the check-outs. Told the guy we were landing and handed over our passports and paperwork. We signed some stuff in front of him and he welcomed us to Canada. This all happened within a space of about 5 minutes.
We then walked to grab our luggage and was then directed to customs. We spent a total of 5 minutes signing some forms and handed over our goods accompanying and good following lists and that was that. We left the airport
So in total, from leaving the plane to walking out of the airport an immigrant took us a total of 35 minutes. Awesome!!!!!
We then drove from Calgary to have a lovely Chinese meal in Okotoks before heading to Cranbrook for a good nights sleep in preparation for a celebratory bit quad biking.
Thanks to everybody who's offered advice and good luck to all who're going through the process.
Nov 14th 2009, 8:00 am
#2
BE Forum Addict
Joined: Sep 2008
Location: Rural AB
Posts: 1,209
Re: Landing - my experience
Hi el_richo
Many thanks for the most informative post & all the best for the future
regards
Joinerboy
Many thanks for the most informative post & all the best for the future
regards
Joinerboy
Nov 14th 2009, 8:31 am
#3
.........................
Joined: Aug 2009
Posts: 1,615
Re: Landing - my experience
Great that it was so straight-forward.
Congrats.
Congrats.
Nov 14th 2009, 8:57 am
#4
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Nov 2007
Location: back in Cambs
Posts: 7,157
Re: Landing - my experience
Not sure if this is the correct place for this (Mods please feel free to move) but hopefully it'll give a summarised insight into my experience of "Landing".
Venue: Calgary
So first off i would advise people who are travelling to "land" to make every effort to pre book (if you're unlucky enough to fly charter) or select when checking in (scheduled flight) a seat as far forward as possible so as to be able to get out of the aircraft before everybody else.
The landing experience:
We arrived at passport control with no queue, handed our passports over, and told the officer that we're here to activate our PR visa. He wrote on our landing card and directed us to to the immigration desks.
Walked around the corner to immigration and found no queue at all so headed straight to one of the check-outs. Told the guy we were landing and handed over our passports and paperwork. We signed some stuff in front of him and he welcomed us to Canada. This all happened within a space of about 5 minutes.
We then walked to grab our luggage and was then directed to customs. We spent a total of 5 minutes signing some forms and handed over our goods accompanying and good following lists and that was that. We left the airport
So in total, from leaving the plane to walking out of the airport an immigrant took us a total of 35 minutes. Awesome!!!!!
We then drove from Calgary to have a lovely Chinese meal in Okotoks before heading to Cranbrook for a good nights sleep in preparation for a celebratory bit quad biking.
Thanks to everybody who's offered advice and good luck to all who're going through the process.
Venue: Calgary
So first off i would advise people who are travelling to "land" to make every effort to pre book (if you're unlucky enough to fly charter) or select when checking in (scheduled flight) a seat as far forward as possible so as to be able to get out of the aircraft before everybody else.
The landing experience:
We arrived at passport control with no queue, handed our passports over, and told the officer that we're here to activate our PR visa. He wrote on our landing card and directed us to to the immigration desks.
Walked around the corner to immigration and found no queue at all so headed straight to one of the check-outs. Told the guy we were landing and handed over our passports and paperwork. We signed some stuff in front of him and he welcomed us to Canada. This all happened within a space of about 5 minutes.
We then walked to grab our luggage and was then directed to customs. We spent a total of 5 minutes signing some forms and handed over our goods accompanying and good following lists and that was that. We left the airport
So in total, from leaving the plane to walking out of the airport an immigrant took us a total of 35 minutes. Awesome!!!!!
We then drove from Calgary to have a lovely Chinese meal in Okotoks before heading to Cranbrook for a good nights sleep in preparation for a celebratory bit quad biking.
Thanks to everybody who's offered advice and good luck to all who're going through the process.
enjoy your time there esp the quad biking 
Nov 14th 2009, 1:13 pm
#5
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jun 2008
Location: Sherwood Park - Alberta
Posts: 761
Re: Landing - my experience
Seems all so painless.
Congratulations and hope you enjoy your quad biking.
JET
Congratulations and hope you enjoy your quad biking.
JET
Nov 14th 2009, 1:43 pm
#6
Forum Regular
Joined: Jul 2009
Posts: 156
Re: Landing - my experience
Congrats El Richo !
Good luck for the future
Good luck for the future
Nov 14th 2009, 2:05 pm
#7
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Dec 2008
Location: Cochrane, Alberta
Posts: 602
Re: Landing - my experience
Congrats El Richo - I hope our landing next month goes as smoothly as yours.
Poppit
Poppit
Nov 14th 2009, 2:58 pm
#8
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jul 2009
Location: Vancouver Island
Posts: 768
Re: Landing - my experience
Not sure if this is the correct place for this (Mods please feel free to move) but hopefully it'll give a summarised insight into my experience of "Landing".
Venue: Calgary
So first off i would advise people who are travelling to "land" to make every effort to pre book (if you're unlucky enough to fly charter) or select when checking in (scheduled flight) a seat as far forward as possible so as to be able to get out of the aircraft before everybody else.
The landing experience:
We arrived at passport control with no queue, handed our passports over, and told the officer that we're here to activate our PR visa. He wrote on our landing card and directed us to to the immigration desks.
Walked around the corner to immigration and found no queue at all so headed straight to one of the check-outs. Told the guy we were landing and handed over our passports and paperwork. We signed some stuff in front of him and he welcomed us to Canada. This all happened within a space of about 5 minutes.
We then walked to grab our luggage and was then directed to customs. We spent a total of 5 minutes signing some forms and handed over our goods accompanying and good following lists and that was that. We left the airport
So in total, from leaving the plane to walking out of the airport an immigrant took us a total of 35 minutes. Awesome!!!!!
We then drove from Calgary to have a lovely Chinese meal in Okotoks before heading to Cranbrook for a good nights sleep in preparation for a celebratory bit quad biking.
Thanks to everybody who's offered advice and good luck to all who're going through the process.
Venue: Calgary
So first off i would advise people who are travelling to "land" to make every effort to pre book (if you're unlucky enough to fly charter) or select when checking in (scheduled flight) a seat as far forward as possible so as to be able to get out of the aircraft before everybody else.
The landing experience:
We arrived at passport control with no queue, handed our passports over, and told the officer that we're here to activate our PR visa. He wrote on our landing card and directed us to to the immigration desks.
Walked around the corner to immigration and found no queue at all so headed straight to one of the check-outs. Told the guy we were landing and handed over our passports and paperwork. We signed some stuff in front of him and he welcomed us to Canada. This all happened within a space of about 5 minutes.
We then walked to grab our luggage and was then directed to customs. We spent a total of 5 minutes signing some forms and handed over our goods accompanying and good following lists and that was that. We left the airport
So in total, from leaving the plane to walking out of the airport an immigrant took us a total of 35 minutes. Awesome!!!!!
We then drove from Calgary to have a lovely Chinese meal in Okotoks before heading to Cranbrook for a good nights sleep in preparation for a celebratory bit quad biking.
Thanks to everybody who's offered advice and good luck to all who're going through the process.
Cheers
Martin
Nov 15th 2009, 5:20 pm
#9
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 715
Re: Landing - my experience
congrats..........im glad it went well.........all the best with your new life in Canada.......
Nov 15th 2009, 6:14 pm
#10
Beep
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2009
Location: Here
Posts: 8,311
Re: Landing - my experience
Thanks guys.
Y'know, it really was much much easier than i expected. Especially with sitting so close to the front of the plane, i can't stress enough how much difference it made being one of the first off and the first to immigration.
It was a painless experience and i just wanted to reassure the folks who have it coming up that it's dead easy and so very straight forward. We chose Calgary as to its smaller and more relaxed airport so couldn't tell you what it's like in Vancouver or Toronto, for example.
I've attached a couple of pictures to share. One of my post immigration celebratory quad biking session and the view from my deck on the first morning as an official PR
Y'know, it really was much much easier than i expected. Especially with sitting so close to the front of the plane, i can't stress enough how much difference it made being one of the first off and the first to immigration.
It was a painless experience and i just wanted to reassure the folks who have it coming up that it's dead easy and so very straight forward. We chose Calgary as to its smaller and more relaxed airport so couldn't tell you what it's like in Vancouver or Toronto, for example.
I've attached a couple of pictures to share. One of my post immigration celebratory quad biking session and the view from my deck on the first morning as an official PR
Nov 15th 2009, 6:23 pm
#11
Beep
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2009
Location: Here
Posts: 8,311
Re: Landing - my experience
Ooops, pics attached
Nov 15th 2009, 7:05 pm
#14
BE Enthusiast
Joined: Jan 2009
Posts: 715
Re: Landing - my experience
hey,
glad it went well....
just quickly how did you compile the goods to follow and accompany goods in the end?
glad it went well....
just quickly how did you compile the goods to follow and accompany goods in the end?
Nov 15th 2009, 7:24 pm
#15
Beep
Thread Starter
Joined: Jan 2009
Location: Here
Posts: 8,311
Re: Landing - my experience
I created an Excel Spreadsheet for Accompanying Goods and Goods to Follow. They each had only 2 columns, titled Description and Value in $. That was it. we just summarised the items we had with us for Accompanying goods (Jewelery = $xxxx, Clothing = $xxxx, Suitcases x2 = $xxxx, and so on). Same for the Goods to Follow.
That was it. After we grabbed our luggage, the customs lady just scanned through the lists (without checking anything) and stapled it to the official documents and that was that.
Very very easy, pleasant, and quick.