Traveling to Canada with newborn born in USA after completing Soft landing with COPR

Express Entry
1

Hello All,

Last year, my wife and I completed our COPR landing in the USA through the Peace Bridge. During that time, the Canadian border officer inquired if I was moving in permanently at that moment, and I explained that I intended to return later once I had settled things in the USA. The officer then mentioned that they would issue our PR cards once we returned permanently.

Subsequently, we spent a couple of days in Canada, applied for SIN, and opened a bank account. Upon returning to the USA via the Rainbow Bridge, the US border officer simply requested to see my H1b copy, verified it, and allowed us to enter. However, my I94 was not updated with the new travel dates at that time.

Now, we have a child who is a US Citizen, and as we haven’t received our PR cards, and our COPR dates are expiring this February, we are planning to cross the border and move to Canada and apply for PR card as we are coming in permanently. Has anyone been in a similar situation? Our question is whether they will allow us entry into Canada, considering the newborn is not listed on the COPR, as our COPR landing was done earlier. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

2

A whole year, huh? You should be fine - last time you were at the border, your wife may not have even been pregnant yet. As you landed and applied for SINs, you are PRs of Canada now, and should have no problems with entry.

As a U.S. citizen your child should have the ability to visit Canada. Technically the child doesn’t even need a passport, just a birth certificate. You’d have to eventually apply to sponsor the child for PR though, as a new PR application under the family sponsorship class.

Note that if you already had a child born before you landed last year, then that might have been a different story. In that case you are suppose to tell IRCC before you land and they will ask for a medical for the baby and add the baby to the CoPR - but that doesn’t apply to births that happen after landing.

See also Baby born in US after soft landing - #21 by sameer

Luckily the baby hs a US citizen, if the baby required a visa then you might have been separated during this process for a quite a few good months, see Baby born after soft landing | Canada Immigration Forum.