"Landing" in Ottawa CIC office
May 12th 2014, 8:28 pm
#1
Finding my Canadian Feet
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2013
Location: Kanata, Ottawa, ON
Posts: 249
"Landing" in Ottawa CIC office
Taking hubbie downtown tomorrow to "land" at the Ottawa CIC office as we can't get down to the border ... anyone have any tips?
May 12th 2014, 10:05 pm
#2
Lost in BE Cyberspace
Joined: Nov 2011
Location: Somewhere between Vancouver & St Johns
Posts: 19,726
Re: "Landing" in Ottawa CIC office
Originally Posted by AnneMarieC
Taking hubbie downtown tomorrow to "land" at the Ottawa CIC office as we can't get down to the border ... anyone have any tips?
May 12th 2014, 11:13 pm
#3
Finding my Canadian Feet
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2013
Location: Kanata, Ottawa, ON
Posts: 249
Re: "Landing" in Ottawa CIC office
Originally Posted by Former Lancastrian
See if the CIC officer wants a double double while they do the landing
May 14th 2014, 7:52 pm
#4
Finding my Canadian Feet
Thread Starter
Joined: Jul 2013
Location: Kanata, Ottawa, ON
Posts: 249
Re: "Landing" in Ottawa CIC office
Just thought I'd share our experience for anyone interested.
So Ottawa CIC office apparently doesn't take appointments - its drop in on Tuesdays between 9-12.
We got there shortly after 8 and were out by 930 (about 7th in line).
It's a bit confusing as the door stays locked but there were a couple of people waiting outside at 8 so he just joined the queue. Then someone came in en famille and pressed the buzzer, said they were there for pr cards and then went in, followed by everyone else. Clearly that's the way forward, don't politely wait at a closed door, just buzz. It's not posted but you have to hand in your forms when you enter as you need to be seen by one person, and everyone else is there doing PR cards at different wickets. By the end of all the confusion hubby was pushed down the list and most unimpressed by the rudeness of the queue jumpers (very UNCanadian hehe but then I argued that they're new and will learn how to be Canadian in due time lol). But in the end we were out of there by 9.30 so it wasn't so bad really. The actual process with the CIC person took only about 15mins.
Hubby was asked for passport, copr docs and proof of address (with both our names on it - thank god we'd brought our whole "moving" file as it happened to have the lease in there) - as I was there she asked for my drivers license (I have an Ontario one now - presumably if I didn't then it'd be my passport for ID). He was asked whether he had another photo with him (not something that was requested in the letter fyi) but it wasn't a problem as she just took him into a back room and took his photo in there.
A couple of cursory formal questions - and then bish bash done - told to wait a couple of days before going to Service Ontario for a SIN number etc so that the systems could sync.
Then it was off to a celebratory breakfast at Eggspectations (nom!) which I highly recommend - in fact if you sit upstairs you can even have some Cdn flags flying in the background hehe.
Overall very painless and quick process.
So Ottawa CIC office apparently doesn't take appointments - its drop in on Tuesdays between 9-12.
We got there shortly after 8 and were out by 930 (about 7th in line).
It's a bit confusing as the door stays locked but there were a couple of people waiting outside at 8 so he just joined the queue. Then someone came in en famille and pressed the buzzer, said they were there for pr cards and then went in, followed by everyone else. Clearly that's the way forward, don't politely wait at a closed door, just buzz. It's not posted but you have to hand in your forms when you enter as you need to be seen by one person, and everyone else is there doing PR cards at different wickets. By the end of all the confusion hubby was pushed down the list and most unimpressed by the rudeness of the queue jumpers (very UNCanadian hehe but then I argued that they're new and will learn how to be Canadian in due time lol). But in the end we were out of there by 9.30 so it wasn't so bad really. The actual process with the CIC person took only about 15mins.
Hubby was asked for passport, copr docs and proof of address (with both our names on it - thank god we'd brought our whole "moving" file as it happened to have the lease in there) - as I was there she asked for my drivers license (I have an Ontario one now - presumably if I didn't then it'd be my passport for ID). He was asked whether he had another photo with him (not something that was requested in the letter fyi) but it wasn't a problem as she just took him into a back room and took his photo in there.
A couple of cursory formal questions - and then bish bash done - told to wait a couple of days before going to Service Ontario for a SIN number etc so that the systems could sync.
Then it was off to a celebratory breakfast at Eggspectations (nom!) which I highly recommend - in fact if you sit upstairs you can even have some Cdn flags flying in the background hehe.
Overall very painless and quick process.
