Sarah 1234

Hello,

We’re about to fly to Vancouver to do the landing trip for my husband’s permanent residency. Still need to do our goods to follow list which I’ve really been procrastinating on. But my question is how long will we be dealing with the paperwork once we land at the airport? Hours?
Thanks

Former Lancastrian

See the How Long To Authorize TWP at POE thread.

It will depend on the airport at which you land at, time of day, how many flights just arrived or landing and how many if front of you waiting to see Immigration and then off to Customs for their bit. It could be minutes or hours but definitely not days or months.

Mattc24

Hi,

I did my landing trip in early Feb into Vancouver. My flight arrived around 7:30 in the evening if i remember correctly, on a Friday.

For me the process was very quick. I did the landing card bit as normal like all visitors do (this is now electronic but it wouldn't work for me so i still had to fill out a card in the airport). I told the immigration officer i needed to land as a PR and i was directed to another immigration area. Here I was welcomed by a lady who gave me a welcome to Canada booklet with some helpful info. I was then told to take a seat and wait for a CBSA officer but this wait was only a couple of minutes. The officer took my paperwork asked me a couple of questions, took my Canadian address and that was pretty much it. I had a goods to follow list and a goods accompanying list but the officer wasn't even remotely interested, so i just left. I think from the first immigration officer to leaving as a new PR was maybe 30 to 45 mins

Of course i may have just got lucky with a quiet evening.

Matt.

Sarah 1234

Thanks very much Matt! That’s been really helpful. Did you get your good to follow list stamped? We’re likely to ship the entire contents of our house so it’s a rather large list we need to put together. Still procrastinating on that one..... 😬

Mattc24

I didn't because I wasn't settling on this trip. I was only there for a couple of days just to land. Back in the UK now preparing to move later this year, so i was not surprised that they were not interested in the list. I was more surprised about my goods accompanying list on which i had listed what was with me on my trip, few clothes, electronics etc. But the CBSA lady just said 'you're ok, we don't need that from you'. Fair enough i thought and left it at that.

We will however take a full list when we return later.

Sarah 1234

That’s interesting. We’re in a similar situation. Just landing for a week and likely not moving for a year or so. We’re landing in Vancouver but my Mom lives outside of Ottawa. I was planning on using her address for them to send my husband’s card. Out of curiosity what did you do about an address? And were they happy with that?

Mattc24

I just gave my father-in-laws address over on Vancouver Island which is where will be staying initially when we return. There wasn't any issues.

scilly

Sarah ......

I can't help you with time it will take, but I do live in Vancouver and know the airport well.

Vancouver tends to have several overseas planes arriving all at the same time, so the immigration and customs area can be incredibly crowded.

Determine the time that your plane is due to arrive, then go to the following site to see if you can work out how many overseas flights will be arriving at that time.

I would guess that the more overseas planes, the longer it might take you to get through customs and officialdom


Arriving Flights | YVR

Sarah 1234

I’ll take a look. Thanks for the help.

MelVan

This was very similar to my experience landing at YVR in last December. My flight landed at around 5pm. Immigration clearance (at the machines and desks) took moments, and I was directed to collect my bags (which took about 20 mins to reach the carousel) and head to the immigration office on the right hand side (looking towards the exit of the baggage hall). Once in there, a nice lady wearing a uniform of some sort gave me the Welcome to Canada kit and BC Health registration form, and then directed me to sit on the chairs in the waiting line. There were 3 people ahead of me, and they were processed fairly quickly.

The Immigration Officer was very nice and whizzed me through in a couple of minutes. She wasn't interested in my goods accompanying / goods to follow either and said she didn't need to see them. This turned out not to be an issue as when we do finally settle, my spouse (the Canadian citizen returning) will handle the goods being imported (very small beer and all well used stuff - some manchester, kitchen utensils, ski gear and a bike). Such clothing as we're bringing will be coming with us. Electronic equipment will be minimal as well - it's mostly all old and we'll get new computers when we come to Canada.

I'd say it took 30 minutes from the time we entered the immigration office. The queue behind me grew quite a lot though and it would have taken those folks longer to be processed.