10-30-2006, 11:29 AM
We landed yesterday in Windsor, and I have mixed feelings about how it went. We were greeted at the border by the most horrible border agent, who grilled us about why we had a rental car (not importing our car right away) and didn't seem to believe us that we were landing. She reluctantly allowed us to immigration.
At immigration, the IO was alright. He didn't allow us to use our Canadian address that we supplied for sending our PR cards, because it was the address of a friend rather than our new permanent home. I've never heard of anyone having this problem before, and it left me a little afraid that he was going to deny us. Of course, he didn't, and everything else went fine. He checked our passports and COPRs and has us wait for 10 minutes or so in the lobby before calling us back in to sign the COPRs. Then we were sent off down the hall to customs.
The customs agents were awesome. After ages of my stressing about the Goods to Follow list, one declared that we won the GtoF list award of the day. She loved that we had models and serial numbers listed and were super thorough. They checked our drivers licenses and did some mysterious paperwork, and we were done. They never asked about POF. I asked about how to bring money in to the country when we do move, and they said to declare large amounts of cash at customs (they don't care what the amount is, just that they know it's coming in), or we can have our bank wire the money to our new bank in Canada and all the paperwork will be done by the banks. Cool. Customs also wrote down that we have a car to follow, but didn't write down our VIN number or model; I asked them about that, but they weren't concerned with the details at all. I hope that won't cause major headaches when we do import the car.
We were never welcomed to the country and received no congratulations, but we're glad to have it done and finally be official. I'm left not knowing what to do about the PR cards; we were given 180 days to provide an address or have to pay processing fees, and I don't understand if we can use our friend's address or not (we were given a form to fill out when we do get an address). We likely won't be able to sell our house and actually move within that timeframe. We also weren't able to get SIN numbers because 1)it was Sunday (we expected that, of course), and 2) we don't yet have a permanent Canadian address. BTW: Customs did require a Canadian address, and didn't care at all that the one we had was a friend's. I'm baffled as to why immigration cared (since I know other people have also been honest about using a friend's address and had no problems).
So in a way we're left with more holes than we had before landing, but in another way, we are official landed immigrants (!) and can move forward from here. Canada has been home to us for so many years, in our hearts and spirits, and I'm thankful to be one step closer to making it our physical home as well.
Thanks to everyone here on this awesome board, epecially Antoine who really "gets" why we're taking such a huge leap of faith. There's been some really great support here on this board, and it would have been a much longer and more lonely experience without it. A huge thanks to Chelle, too, for starting this board, and to the great moderators who try to keep it peaceful.
At immigration, the IO was alright. He didn't allow us to use our Canadian address that we supplied for sending our PR cards, because it was the address of a friend rather than our new permanent home. I've never heard of anyone having this problem before, and it left me a little afraid that he was going to deny us. Of course, he didn't, and everything else went fine. He checked our passports and COPRs and has us wait for 10 minutes or so in the lobby before calling us back in to sign the COPRs. Then we were sent off down the hall to customs.
The customs agents were awesome. After ages of my stressing about the Goods to Follow list, one declared that we won the GtoF list award of the day. She loved that we had models and serial numbers listed and were super thorough. They checked our drivers licenses and did some mysterious paperwork, and we were done. They never asked about POF. I asked about how to bring money in to the country when we do move, and they said to declare large amounts of cash at customs (they don't care what the amount is, just that they know it's coming in), or we can have our bank wire the money to our new bank in Canada and all the paperwork will be done by the banks. Cool. Customs also wrote down that we have a car to follow, but didn't write down our VIN number or model; I asked them about that, but they weren't concerned with the details at all. I hope that won't cause major headaches when we do import the car.
We were never welcomed to the country and received no congratulations, but we're glad to have it done and finally be official. I'm left not knowing what to do about the PR cards; we were given 180 days to provide an address or have to pay processing fees, and I don't understand if we can use our friend's address or not (we were given a form to fill out when we do get an address). We likely won't be able to sell our house and actually move within that timeframe. We also weren't able to get SIN numbers because 1)it was Sunday (we expected that, of course), and 2) we don't yet have a permanent Canadian address. BTW: Customs did require a Canadian address, and didn't care at all that the one we had was a friend's. I'm baffled as to why immigration cared (since I know other people have also been honest about using a friend's address and had no problems).
So in a way we're left with more holes than we had before landing, but in another way, we are official landed immigrants (!) and can move forward from here. Canada has been home to us for so many years, in our hearts and spirits, and I'm thankful to be one step closer to making it our physical home as well.
Thanks to everyone here on this awesome board, epecially Antoine who really "gets" why we're taking such a huge leap of faith. There's been some really great support here on this board, and it would have been a much longer and more lonely experience without it. A huge thanks to Chelle, too, for starting this board, and to the great moderators who try to keep it peaceful.
![[Image: 1894413199.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg]](http://images.amazon.com/images/P/1894413199.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg)