Questions regarding soft landing

Post PPR
1

Hi Everyone,

My wife and I have sent our passports to VFS NYC and we got our Copr visa on our passports and it’s valid until July 2021.

So, we plan on doing a soft landing in our car from Detroit border to windsor canada and have questions regarding the same.

  1. How long should we be there in Canada. Can we go and come back on the same day?

  2. We both have our valid h1 stamping and what other documents should we be carrying?

  3. What documents should we be carrying for soft landing?

  4. Any other tips or ideas that the group

5.any issues driving in our own car?

  1. Should we be taking Covid tests for both entry into canada and for back into USA?
2

Any inputs from the community would help me in preparing for this travel

3

Hi stepsri, I’d recommend browsing through the posts here Canada Immigration Forum. A bunch of very helpful people have posted their recent soft landing experiences.

4
  1. Yes you can come back right away. Just tell them clearly that it is what you want to do. They make sure you turn back once the formalities are done.
  2. We carried all documents that you would typically need when entering the US via an airport. Company id cards, pay stubs, I797 approval etc.
  3. Negative covid test. Goods to follow. Can’t quite think of anything else.
  4. Be confident in your response when giving your friends address for PR card. We hesitated and the second officer asked us to apply for the card once we properly land.
  5. We took our car. Had no issues. We did have the VIN in GTF but they didn’t check.
  6. We were not asked for negative test when entering the US.
5

Thank you for your response. Could you elaborate more on #4 regarding the response given to the officer. What should we do differently based on your experience?

6

Dear Basky,
Can you kindly let me know on what date did you complete the landing formality? Our COPR expires on July 8th and we want to validate it at Canada border and come back to US on the same day but the Canada immigration website Coronavirus disease (COVID-19): Immigration applicants - Canada.ca it says
→ If we already approved your permanent resident application

If you’re outside Canada and your COPR and permanent resident visa are still valid

We’re changing Canada’s travel restrictions. If you hold a valid (not expired) Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR) and visa, you can travel to Canada as of June 21, 2021.
You must also

  • be coming to Canada to settle permanently (you cannot come to Canada and leave to go live in another country, even if it’s temporary) and
7

Dear Stepsri,
Can you kindly share the date and your experience of soft landing? Our COPR expires on 8th July and we want to complete the landing and come back to US on the same day.

8

Hi, our date is July 8th as well. We are planning to do our soft landing this weekend at Windsor Detroit . I have the same above question in my mind as well. Where are you guys planning to go and complete?

9

Hi,
We just started our research for port of entry. Either Peace Bridge, NY or Windsor, Detroit but not sure if they have landing process at this Windsor. Are you aware ?

10

Hi,
Any reason you are not thinking of traveling by air?

11

It’s 8 hour drive for us

12

@sancha @stepsri Have you tried the soft landing. I’m looking for recent experiences as my COPR is expiring. The government of canada website says

" You should not travel to a port of entry to validate your COPR. This is not considered essential travel and you won’t be able to validate it this way.

Due to COVID-19, we have a new process to confirm permanent resident status. We don’t need a COPR for this new process if you are in Canada."

13

Our COPR expires on 8th July 2021. We went by road to the Canada border at Peace Bridge on 2nd July and completed the PR process. Sharing our experience, hope it helps.

The officer at the border was not friendly, my suggestion is just keep your cool and apologize if you did not bring anything that the officer asks.
Canada Border Officer - Give your passports and what is the purpose of coming.
We - Gave passports and answered that we want to complete the PR process and return back to USA.
Canada Border Officer - When are you coming to settle permanently.
We - In a month.
Canada Border Officer - Why can’t you complete the PR process when you come after a month.
We - My COPR expires on 8th July 2021.
Canada Border Officer - Did you fill in ArriveCan.
We - Yes
Canada Border Officer - You are saying you want to return to USA but you mentioned in the ArriveCan App that you will stay at **** hotel for your quarentine.
We - Yes I booked the hotel in case of any unforeseen situation where we have to quarentine.
Canada Border Officer - Did you get Goods to Follow sheet?
We - I have the print outs of the template but have not entered the details yet.
Canada Border Officer - Do you not know you should bring it with details filled in.
We - Apologies we missed it.
Canada Border Officer - Any weapons, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, fruits, vegetables, plants or anything that is not allowed to bring.
We - No
Canada Border Officer - Gave an yellow sheet and asked to go and park at spot 11 and all of you enter the building.

he has hand written on that yellow sheet that we have come for PR landing process, want to return back to the USA on same day and that we do not have goods to follow sheet.

We parked and entered the building. The officer there was very polite.
Canada Officer inside - Good Afternoon, How are you ?
We - Good Afternoon, We are good. How are you?
Canada Border Officer - I am good. How can I help you today?
We - We want to complete the PR landing process
Canada Border Officer - give the yellow sheet, your passports, the copr documents and have a seat.
We - we provided the passports and copr documents and the yellow sheet the border officer gave to us.
Canada Border Officer - called me and asked for Canada address.
We - provided the address.
Canada Border Officer - after a lot of typing, he called us and asked to initial and sign the papers in black ink. he mentioned due to current covid situation, it can take 4 - 6 months for PR cards to arrive and if we want to come from US border then to show the COPR paper (one he took and one he gave to us) and if coming from anywhere else then we have to apply for visa to arrive into Canada.
Then he kindly came out and has shown us the way to go back to the US.

1 Like
14

@sancha Appreciate your quick response. This helps a lot. Can you also share the list of documents which you carried.

15

Our COPR expires on July 9th 2021. We went by road in our own car to the Windsor, Ontario via Ambassador Bridge, Detroit. We did our landing on July 3rd.

Our experience with all 3 cbsa officers has not been friendly at all.

We reached the bridge at around 3 pm est. There weren’t many cars at that time and we were asked to pull up at the toll booth where we met our first cbsa officer.

Officer 1 - Show your pr card /citizenship documents.

We - Gave passports and Copr and Covid negative report and answered that we want to complete the PR process and if possible return back to USA immediately.

Officer 1 - Are you not moving today permanently.
We - We will move after finding a job and closing things in USA.

Officer 1 - Why did you come today when you have no intention to move.
We - COPR expires on 9th July 2021 and if we didn’t arrive - we have to redo our application again.

Officer 1- asked our usa address and phone numbers
We - provided the information.

Officer 1 - You are saying you want to return to USA today itself.
We - Yes, we don’t have any plans of quarantine and hoping that we could go back after completing this procedure. We want to move after things improve with Covid situations.

He called someone and then handed us an yellow slip with some info on it and asked us to drive further to the building and park our car and go inside the immigration office.

We parked our car and met officer#2 who were sitting in the parking area.

Officer 2- please sit in your car, wear masks and talk to me. Give your yellow slip. Then he asks us, why are you moving to Canada.
We - explained about Copr expiring.

Officer 2 - you have been living in USA for ** number of years. Why did you apply and you don’t even want to stay and return back immediately.
We - I was super stressed by his tone and body language. I answered him that I was looking for new opportunities and will move after we get a job.

He had some conversations regarding why folks won’t move to Canada with fellow colleagues.

Officer 2 - Any weapons, drugs, alcohol, tobacco, fruits, vegetables, plants or anything that is not allowed to bring.
We - No
Officer 2 - Gave back our yellow slip and asked us to go inside the building.

No documentation has been asked by him.

We parked and entered the building. The officer #3 there was very rude.

Officer 3- give me the slip and Copr.
We - gave our Copr and passports.

Officer 3- why are you here today. You want to leave right now after this?
We - We want to complete the PR landing process and if possible yes that we want to return.

Officer 3 - have a seat.

She spoke with her colleagues and all of them seem to be annoyed and said most ppl are doing this frequently.

Officer 3 - called us to sign on the Copr.

We will not be issuing pr cards for you today. Please come back using this Copr by road and then we shall issue your card when you move permanently. You can leave now. Take the next left and you are going towards usa.

We were not asked about our gtf forms and ArriveCAN app etc. She didn’t bother to talk or take any questions.

The whole process took about 40 minutes.

On usa side
Cbp officer : scanned our passports and we were good to go. No i94 was issued. We have valid h1 stamping.

16

You yourself said you wanted to go back to usa that same day, so there is nothing wrong if they didn’t ask gtf form or ArriveCan app…

For any rude tone in their voice, you answered yourself “said most ppl are doing this frequently”… which means they are frustrated with this organized scheme used by many on this forum and several other forums :slight_smile: so its natural to have such rude voice when its happening during restricted travel during covid… don’t take it personal and get offended by them…

Congrats on your landing…
For PR cards, you can simply call customer service and tell them you could not update your Canadian address when you landed… they will update your address and cards will be sent to that address…

1 Like
17

Ya, we wanted to come back and didn’t want to quarantine for 14 days. As you suggested they might have been seeing cases like me on a daily basis and hence the tone. Not taking it personally though.

18

We carried Passports, COPR, 6 months bank statements and 6 months avg balance similar to what we upload during submission of the application.

19

Hi All, thank you for sharing your experiences!

I got selected through the OINP program. Is it required that the Port of Entry be Windsor, Detroit ? Can I do the landing formalities at Peace Arch ?