I got my COPR approved which was valid until Jun2022. Given I current job in US and working there, I didnt want to move to Canada immediately but rated was to do a soft landing to have my PR card processed . My intent was to move to Canada by end of 2022 or early 2023 once I figure out the job prospects. Therefore, I decided to do a soft landing to Canada via Land (Peace bridge) in mid-December.
In my case, I passed through the first immigration check point, and the first officer asked me to go into a office nearby for further verification and processing. The second officer who was validating my documents on my length of stay, therefore I honestly told him that I plan to stay for about a week at my friends place and then immigrate at a later point. He immediately jumped on that and mentioned that he cannot process the PR request to any temporary address. I tried to explain and convince on my situation, however, he was very certain that he will not send the PR to any friends/family address in Canada. The officer continued to explain that the whole point of issuing the PR was when someone really moves in permanently into Canada. Long story short, the officer said that he wont process my PR and recommended that given have 6month left in my COPR visa, that I come at a point when I am ready to move in permanently. So I just had to make a U turn at the border and return back the US. Pretty disappointed.
Has anyone had a similar experience? and is there any way to have the PR card processed when you are in US? As I said, I never planned to immigrate in by Jun2022, still have to work on my employment stuff and have lot of things in US to settle before I move to Canada in 2023. Also, I dont think I can travel in next few months to Canada due to worries around the travel ban on re-entry to US etc…
i was in a similar situation i did the soft landing successfully and also stayed one week in canada after getting my CoPR paper work processed in the border. i did mention that i will be moving once i get naturalized in US in march and they did not mind that as well. Only thing what they mentioned to me is to indicate what items that i will be importing to canada. So i did that i was well on my way.
I would suggest you try another weekend to cross the port of entry (peace bridge) . If possible try another port of entry if there is available . If you tell them that you only want to do soft landing and return back to US they would not stop you from doing that. indicate you have permanent address in Canada that they can mail the PR card to. Hope it works well for you.
Hi @appubgl ,
Sorry to hear about your experience. We are in the same boat with a copr expiring in March 2022 and we wish to move permanently later in the year.
Assuming you had a one time entry PR Visa, can you re-enter Canada with the same PR visa again before your copr expires in June 2022?
That’s tough luck. I remember seeing posts where folks get the COPR validated but were not able to get a PR card processed till they acquire a residence in Canada and I believe that should complete the soft landing process even without issuance of a PR card, correct me if I am wrong there but did they at least do that?
I experienced a similar situation a week back when i tried soft landing at the Thousand Island bridge ontario. I have a copr with sinp nomination and i was driving from us to Ontario for soft landing.
Officer was not convinved about my intentions to move to Saskatchewan. He asked do i have a job offer or address in saskatchewan. He felt my intentions was to move to Ontario since i mentioned i was there to complete the formalities and spend time with a friend in ontario for 2 days and return back to usa. He mentioend he is not rejecting the application and since i had time for my copr to expire asked me to come back with proof of intent. He recommended i should go to Saskatchewan and visit that province before i move permanently.
Now can i use the same one time visa that came with my copr.
Did you try again and get your PR. How was your experience 2nd time.
Please do let me know. Reading posts from others experience have helped me gain a lot of insights.
Hi , @kalingaxe , when you say indicate you have a permanent address in canada, how exactly should one say that? I have a relative with whom I intend to stay when I move permanently, can that be my permanent address?
Yes it can. Just like that, “I’m planning on moving permanently to Canada right now and I’ve already arranged it so that I’ll be staying with my relative indefinitely at this address, …”