lof

here we go then... in person passport stamping in seattle

some explanations beforehand:

* although european and from a visa waiver country i'm not a british citizen.

* i came to canada in november 2005 on a young workers exchange program. my employer bound wp was limited to 18 months. applying for bcpnp in february 2007 there was no chance that my ppr would have arrived before i went back to europe to tie up some loose ends in may 2007. since i wasn't sure about a) how vegreville would handle my new wp-application (i know a guy in a very similar situation who got his wp-renewal refused because the io wouldn't accept the bcpnp-lettre as lmo-substitute...) and b) wether the wp at poe is only valid for uk citizens or not i went in person to the cic office in seattle to apply for a new wp mid march 2007.

* i live on vancouver island. so unlike for you lower mainlanders the easiest way for me to travel to seattle is the seattle-victoria clipper ferry. i therefore am not able to tell you about the car journey to downtown seattle.
if memory serves me right tolga did that last summer and found a) rush hour in seattle stressful and b) parking for several hours quite expensive. it might be worth to start in vancouver at a time that allows you to arrive in seattle before 7.30 am and find a parking lot with a discount for early birds. or go the other way round and arrive around 10 am when everybody is at work???

* since early 2007 the canadian consulate general in seattle is located right downtown at the corner 4th ave and pike street, directly across the westlake plaza.



my ppr stated the following:

my ppr arrived on september 13th, 2007. having the possibility to do it the fastest and safest way i decided to schedule my visit to cic seattle for tuesday, september 18th, 2007.


from my previous visit i knew that it was wise to be at the consulate shortly before 8 am. coming out of the elevator (this time i knew that suite 600 is on the fifth floor – there hasn't been an indication about that, and i'm not really used to the north american numeration of floors) there was something that wasn't there in march: a security guard and one of this scanning arches similar to the ones at the airport. he didn't confiscate the gadgets but made it clear to the one guy whose cell went off in the waiting room that he would get removed from the consulate if it happened again.

although being early the waiting room was already half full. and it seems that they don't really have a special order or "fast tracking" for the different categories. with my ticket as “general enquiries 020” i did wait for about a half an hour before being called to one of the windows. the friendly lady on the other side of the security glass took my passport and my ppr and told me to sit down until my number was called again. about a quarter to nine i was called to one of the interview boots where the officer told me that everything was ok with my documents and that i should come back at 2.30 pm to pick up my passport.


coming back at 2.25 pm the security guard smiled. no need to take a number anymore - they would call us by name. waiting and watching the wall clock i was surprised that our pr-group (the consulate closes at 2.30 pm for general enquiries and work / study permits are done with around noon) grew to more than twenty people. i guess it was because they started to go back to full steam after the vacation season and issued a whole bunch of pprs the two or three weeks before. the security guard told me in a pleasant chat before i went back to the elevators that that was a unusually long line-up. sometimes even nobody would show up for pp-stamping, most of the times there were just a handful of people.

finally, well after 3.00 pm one counter opened and the officer – instead of telling everything (about checking the details on the visa and the copr before leaving) 20 times she told it once to the whole nervous audience. then i got the passport with this shiny visa in it, the copr and the standard information sheet about the landing procedure – the rule about having to activate the pr-status at a poe, and the only exemption from that (which of course doesn't make that much sense if you are already out of canada).
i waited until the end of the handing out of the precious documents to everyone and went back to the counter to make sure that i wouldn't have problems at the poe because my middle name was cut on the copr. what did my parents think when they gave me a 8 lettre surname and a 9 lettre middle name to my 8 lettre family name the official computerised canadian forms allow only 15 caracters for surname and middle name together... so in a way the canadians renamed me on the pr-card.



i had my copr celebration on top of the space needle – with a really nice dinner and an marvelous sunset over the olympia moutains.

the other morning i took the clipper back to victoria, told the cbsa officer that i wanted to see his colleagues in immigration. confirming the data on the copr, signing it, having the visa crossed, getting a nice stamp without expiry date (the copr number is there instead) and giving them my actual mailing address was a matter of a few minutes and the officer sent me with a “welcome to canada” to the customs officer. my two sets of goods to follow list got stamped, the further procedure explained and after another “congratulations” pr lof was out in victorias sun.




i hope this helps a bit and wish every one who does it in person a pleasant passport stamping experience and happy landings.

L'il Bear

Yay Thank you so much for sharing this with us - it's always good to have inside info and know what to expect...takes the edge of it a little
It's encouraging that everything went so smoothly
Congrats on your PR I am all giddy now at the thought of getting mine...fingers crossed


Thanks again lof

live to ski

Thanks also lof - as L'il Bear says, it takes the edge off the nerves brought about by the unknown.

Well obviously, Seattle have found our Police Certificates as we got our PPR today!!!!!

Only problem is that there is no-way we can feasibly get both of us to Seattle on a Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday for the next few weeks, so I'll be couriering off our passports first thing tomorrow morning, then counting down the 15 working days it will take them to return them!!!!!!

L'il Bear

YAY!!! Congratulations

roxye3

I am still confused by this post. What exatly was you getting your passport stamped for?

lof

are you serious???


once cic has decided that you met all points to become permanent resident you have to send them your passport - or what this thread is about: bring it in person to the visa post which processed your file. they insert a single entry visa and return it with the confirmation of permanent residence and some information about validating your status and pr-obligations.

you then have to go to a port of entry do that what generally is known as flag poling, which means leave canadian soil and return, have your landing procedure with the immigration department and then and only then you are pr. *

as said before, having a valid passport is one of the musts to get pr - they control that with this process too.


you might want to read a bit more on the cic-site. specially Skilled workers and professionals: After applying where it states:







* as a side note: going the sw-route there is one single exemption from the obligation to go to the border. i would have been eligible to land at the local cic-office. that didn't make sense though because i did the pp stamping in person and therefore came back through a poe anyway - but the average joe has to land at a poe.

roxye3

Thanks mate,

I knew it had something to do with PPR but I got a bit confused on the sending the passport and taking the passport part. I've already flagpoled for my 3 year work visa so I guess the entry process is similar. Fair play.