I travelled from Indianapolis to Toronto with connecting flight in Charlotte using American Airlines. AA was not allowing me to check in online. So, I had to complete the check in at the airport. They checked my visa and COPR and issued me the boarding pass. Once at the gate, they have again verified by visa.
Once I landed in Charlotte, I immediately had a connecting flight and headed to the gate. For some reason, they could not clear me to board in as the system was not allowing them to clear my boarding. They called another officer to check my eligibility to travel and were trying to confirm the same with American Airlines internal immigration customer service. I provided them a printout of the following page which indicated that I could enter Canada as my PR was approved before March 18th. They verified my PR visa and COPR again and let me through. The flight was delayed by 5 mins as they were trying to figure out whether they should let me board or not.
After landing in Toronto, we directly head towards immigrations with a covid-19 declaration that is provided on the flight. The first officer checked my passport and asked me if I had a quarantine plan and if anyone else was living with me and let me through to the next officer who collected my covid declaration. The Covid declaration has questions like, if you have fever, cough, difficulty breathing etc.
Then I proceeded to another officer who processed my landing and asked some basic questions like if I was convicted of felony in any country and if I had access to more than $10000 cad. The officer stamps and signs both the COPR copies. They keep one copy and return the other. That makes you officially landed PR. Then I headed to another officer who processed my Goods Accompanying and Goods to Follow. At the end of every stage, each officer asks you to confirm about quarantine plan and I was told that the day I landed is day 1 of the quarantine.
Finally got an uber and reached my Airbnb. I have ordered food and groceries online and added in delivery comments to have it left at the door. I have received a phone call today from Public Health Office and they asked me questions about my quarantine like, whether I directly came to my place of quarantine or if I stopped anywhere, whether I had any visitors, if I got access to food.
I use a T-mobile plan in the US. I can make/receive phone calls, but data plan does not seem to work. After my flight landed, it took about 15 mins for the signal to show up.
Thank you for sharing your experience. May I please know after how many days of landing were you contacted by Public Health? Also, did you consider using rental car and drive to Toronto or was flying your only choice from the start?
I landed yesterday afternoon and got the call from Public Health this morning. I have always planned to fly in. But I read some other posts recently about entering through land border at Detroit-Windsor and Niagara
I am also in the US planning to travel to Canada but I am confused about whether or not I can travel. My PR was approved March 10 and the COPR visa was issued on May 20. Am I eligible to travel based on these dates?
I think that is a bit of a grey area. Some people who travelled via land border have called CBP officials before their travel to confirm if they would be allowed based on their specific scenario. I would suggest you try that if possible.
That was awesome and great help. Thanks for taking the time to give us some insight. Did they ask for for proof of funds? Do you have to bring the money with you or showing proof you have it in US bank is sufficient. We’re you allowed to stop on the way to your Airbnb or not? What was a good quarantine plan they accepted? As you said, Airbnb, order food delivery ? Is there anything else required ? I am assuming you have a WiFi in your airbnb? Are you allowed to leave for food during quarantine? Thanks
They asked if I had access to more than $10000 cad. I said I had the amount in US bank account. The officer took a note of it but did not ask for proof of funds. Using your US bank account should be sufficient. Before my travel I applied and got a US credit card that did not have foreign transaction fee. Otherwise you will be charged 2-3% on foreign transactions depending on your card.
I said that I would be going to a basement unit of a house that had its own entrance, no shared area and access to kitchen, bathroom. For groceries and food, they asked if I had a plan to get those without going out. I said Yes. They did ask to elaborate. You can answer most of their questions in yes or no. If they need more information, they will ask.
You are not allowed to leave to get food. You can get it delivered to your door by someone(friend or though uber eats/instacart etc). And yes, I have wifi. The public health officer did call me the after to confirm if I made any stops from airport to my place of quarantine. Instacart is pretty good. Deliveries in 1-2 hours. So, did not have to stop anywhere. Just ordered everything to be delivered.
Has anyone done a landing with rental car recently? Or is aware of someone who did?
Was wondering if it would be okay to just drop off the rental car with key dropbox after hours (no contact with anyone) near the place of quarantine (around 5 mins away).
This is a great post for people concerned with landing during COVID crisis. Thanks for putting this together. It’s good to hear that they are actually following up with travelers after they enter Canada.
Based on the above post it seems it’s OK to land (assuming you are allowed to based on March 18th condition), as long as you have a self-isolation plan in place. Dropping your rental car keys in a dropbox and heading back to place of quarantine with no contact seems like a very safe option. I don’t see why the officer would have problem with that.
Me and my wife completed our landing process via road on June 18. At the Port of Entry the officer said we cannot give our friends address as PR card delivery address and he asked us to do it online. Can anyone please guide me or point me to an earlier thread were this was discussed?
hello @arunb! Thank you so much for the post. This is very helpful. I was wondering about the Goods to follow and Goods Accompanying list. I was wondering if you could please share any template.
Also, have you also applied for SIN and Medical card too? I was wondering if you moved permanently to Canada? Are you planning to return back to the US after 14 days of Quarantine period?
Replace Item 1, 2, 3 etc with actual item name. Example: Iphone X, Dell Xps. If possible include serial number of the product. And don’t put vaue as zero. Give a guesstimate as to what their current price.
You apply for medical once you settle down permanently. I plan to go back to the US after quarantine, but will have to see about the rumored visa ban.