Hello All,
My COPR was approved before March 18. I have not been able to travel to Canada due to current situation in the USA. I have that taken care of now but cannot move to Canada permanently yet. Is it still possible to do a soft landing? Has anyone done this after the new regulations went into effect?
HI,
This is my experience of Soft Landing in to Canada.
US to Canada:
I have an Approved COPR prior to March 18, 2020. I did my landing in Canada 10 days before my COPR expiry date. The process on the Canadian Immigration end was smooth. Carry your COPR and GTF/GTA, thats all you need.
I stayed in Canada for 21 days, completing my 14 days Quarantine. I received calls from Health Department on my 7th and 8th day of Quarantine.
Canada to US:
I have an expired F1 visa on my passport and Approved H1b (I-94) valid through 2022 but not a stamped VISA on my passport.
I traveled back to US exercising AVR option. Questions were the same, as others have mentioned. Answered those questions and showed him the documents. Everything was fine and I got it through.
Hope this helps. If you have any questions let me know.
Hi Thanks for the response. Did you complete your landing prior to the rule change on IRCC website. Currently it mentions that if you are traveling to canada to complete your permanent residence formalities but not live here permanently, it is considered non-essential.
Yep I did prior to the rule change.
Yes I missed on the opportunity then. I think it is too risky to do it now. Will just fill the web form and hope that they extend the COPR
Hi Harsha,
Yep, there is change in rules with Soft Landing. But it should not largely affect your trip. There a person who made a trip into canada and returned back on the same day on July 21st, after the rule change by Land. I am not encouraging you to make the same day trip plan. But doing a 14 days Quarantine after a air travel and coming back to US is still possible from my point of View.
First, you will have very less chance of facing a question about your stay in Canada at the Immigration when you Land. And just answer them you are moving in as a Permanent Resident. And after you land and quarantine your self no one can stop you from leaving Canada, because you are free make that decision for yourself.
While travelling back you will not come across Canadian Immigration at all. You have to face US immigration only so if the way into US is cleared for you then you all set to travel.
These are my thoughts based on my own experience and other I have interacted with. Still think twice before you make a decision. I just wana say there are still options to exercise.
To what I know, COPR extension is not happening anytime soon. They put a hold on you application until you get back to IRCC and let them know that you are ready to travel. And I know few people have opted that route too. So there is not best or worst situation, just the one you want to go with. I hope this information helps. Please don’t get influenced with these information. Make your own judgement since you know your situation better.
Feel free to let me know if you have any more question. I will try to answer my best.
Sounds good. I was planning on completing the soft landing by road.
I will take a few days to think and make a final decision.
Also not very worried about COPR extension as I have the H1B until 2022, just would not like to miss the landing opportunity if I can do it right now.
Hi TVMkamal ,
One quick question bro when did you traveled to Canada for Soft Landing.
reason being I have h1B valid till June 2022 but as per the new rule from US govt H1b is not allowed to come back to usa or go for stamping . I know we can travel to Canada on AVR option. My question was if this option is still available for resources to travel to Canada after the rule change. If you can throw some light on that it will really help.
Perfect. All the best bro.
HI Vivek,
My case is similar to you. I have my H1b valid until 2022 and have not got it stamped on my passport. I have a valid I-94. I traveled after the Proclamation on July 4th. As you may know briefly the proclamation should not affect people who are in H1b status and resides in US before July 4th to exercise the AVR option to get back in to US. I did get back exercising AVR option. This is what happened on my way back in to US.
I traveled from Edmonton --> Toronto --> Chicago.
Carrier: Air Canada.
It took some time to explain my situation about the Visa to the Air Canada people to get my boarding pass at Edmonton (It took 2hrs for them to get me a boarding pass). Just be patience and try to explain them. By land you should not have this problem.
At the Pre Clearance in Toronto, US immigration officer asked me few questions.
- He asked for my Passport, boarding pass.
- He asked about my VIsa.-- I mentioned i have an expired F1 so he asked for I20.
- Then after looking at the expire date in the Visa he asked about my situation – I mentioned I want to use AVR to validate the Entry based on my I-94.
- He asked me what is AVR – I explained him briefly about AVR. No response.
- Then he asked to wait and made some calls. After couple of min he update my expire date on I-94 to my passport expire date and let me in. (Expire date on my passport is early than the one on my I-94)
- He didn’t give me a new I-94. Later I checked online, the valid date on my i-94 got updated. I didn’t ask for a new paper I-94 from him, I think you can ask for one from the officer.
That’s what exactly happened.
Hello,
I am in the similar situation. My COPR was approved before March 18th and it has now since been expired (COPR was valid till May 7th, 2020). I reached out to IRCC regarding to make a soft landing in the month of August and they replied back with the below: (IRCC’s response below):
According to our records, you have indicated that you are now ready to travel to settle and live in Canada as a permanent resident. Currently, only CoPR holders whose travel to Canada is considered essential are able to enter Canada. In addition, some public health measures are in place to limit the spread of COVID-19 in Canada.
Accordingly, we ask that you confirm that you are able to fulfill the requirements described below. In order for IRCC to determine if you can indeed travel to Canada, you must provide the following:
1. Your plans to live and settle in Canada upon arrival
• documents to support your living situation in Canada (i.e. address, lease agreement, home ownership document)
• employment plans in Canada, (i.e. location of work, letter from employer)
• any other relevant information.
2. How you plan to quarantine for 14 days when you arrive in Canada, including how you will have access to groceries, get medical care, and other essential services. While in quarantine, you will not be able to leave your place of quarantine for any reason. This is mandatory even if you have no COVID-19 symptoms.
• proof of funds (i.e, bank and/or credit card statements)
3. your proposed or confirmed travel itinerary
• a description of your proposed or confirmed travel itinerary, including travel tickets if you have already purchased them
Please provide the above information to IRCC via the IRCC Webform. We will evaluate your request upon receipt and let you know whether or not you are approved to travel to Canada at this time.
Please note that only approved permanent residents now able to live and settle in Canada will be allowed into the country at this time due to the ongoing travel restrictions. Travel for temporary stay for reasons such as tourism, entertainment or simply to finalize applications without staying in the country is not allowed and will not be permitted.
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I and my husband currently are evaluating to whether or not revert back to IRCC regarding making a soft landing as they have specifically mentioned not to make a soft landing for the completion of PR formalities.
That makes it tricky. Ours has not expired yet, but we are still very confused if we should make the journey or not.
Hi Buddy ,
Thanks for replying back. I have few more queries .
is it possible to call you and discuss if you are ok with this .
Can you provide your US Number ?
Regards
Vivek Sharma
+1-646-575-7583
You can always provide the information. Tell them that you are planning to quartine in B and B as if now and will search for a rented apartment once you arrive as currently people are not allowing remote rental agreement … and to other you can provide the bank statements and tentative planned dates planned dates should match with your B and B 14 day quartine . Do Consult with some one else as well mean while I iwll check and see if I can get someone with similar situation .
Thank you for your reply. Even if mention the above stated information to the IRCC- would you have any idea about making a trip to Toronto and back to the U.S. via road? We are ready to quarantine per the guidelines but we would definitely want to come back to the U.S.
Hi All,
Just wanted to let you know that I successfully completed my landing.
My wife and I completed out landing by land at the Detroit Windsor Tunnel on August 01, 2020.
Our plan was to stay at an AirBnB for our 14-day quarantine and then return back to the US.
At the border, Canada Border patrol asked whether this is a permanent stay or temporary. Since we were under the assumption that temp. stay is no longer permitted, we said it is permanent. They requested information regarding our quarantine plans and asked us to drive towards the secondary inspection. There we ran into an issue with customs, since we said it is a permanent move, they said we have to import our car to Canada. I said we are not ready for that yet and will return back to the US in the future to sell the car. The officer said that a PR of Canada cannot drive a US plated car without importing. They said we would have to go back to US and drive a rental car back or any other vehicle but not my personal car. So basically, they approved our landing, took down the address for delivery of PR cards in Canada, signed GTA/GTF forms and said you can enter but not the car.
We returned back to US and successfully used the AVR process.
Wife is on F1 visa but the Visa is expired, I am on H1B with an expired F1 visa in my passport.
I’ll be happy to answer any questions.
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Did you quarantine for 14 days in Canada or did you immediately return back to the US?
We had plans in place for quarantine but due to our situation with the car were allowed to return the same day
Did you guys made plans to travel to Canada anytime soon. You said you were planning to go in August .