Doing a Border Run to Validate PR

massdebater

Howdy I've recently been approved for Canadian PR so need to leave Canada and return so I can do an interview with an immigration officer at the border to validate my PR. Has anyone here done similar and could answer a few questions? I'm just finding generic advice online so would be nice to hear from someone who's actually done it already. I live within a few hours of the Osoyoos border (BC) so was thinking about going there.

How long does the interview usually take? 20 minutes? 5 hours? etc

Can I use any of the border crossings or does it have to be a bigger one?

What sort of questions do they usually ask so I can be prepared?

If I drive by myself to the border, can I just park on the Canadian side and walk across the border to walk back? Or am I not allowed to leave my car at the border? If not, can my friend drive me and wait while I walk across?

After the interview, do I need to apply for a PR card or does it automatically get sent to me? How long does that usually take? I fly to Ireland in 5 weeks so want to get it done asap.

Thanks for talking the time to answer my questions!

circular flexing

massdebater wrote: »

Howdy I've recently been approved for Canadian PR so need to leave Canada and return so I can do an interview with an immigration officer at the border to validate my PR. Has anyone here done similar and could answer a few questions? I'm just finding generic advice online so would be nice to hear from someone who's actually done it already. I live within a few hours of the Osoyoos border (BC) so was thinking about going there.

How long does the interview usually take? 20 minutes? 5 hours? etc

Can I use any of the border crossings or does it have to be a bigger one?

What sort of questions do they usually ask so I can be prepared?

If I drive by myself to the border, can I just park on the Canadian side and walk across the border to walk back? Or am I not allowed to leave my car at the border? If not, can my friend drive me and wait while I walk across?

After the interview, do I need to apply for a PR card or does it automatically get sent to me? How long does that usually take? I fly to Ireland in 5 weeks so want to get it done asap.

Thanks for talking the time to answer my questions!

If you live a few hours from the border then you can make an appointment to "land" at a CIC office.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=748&top=22

If you do decide to drive to the border then you can park and walk across the border, just tell the US agents you are flagpoling and then you can walk straight to the Canadian side. Questions are straightforward, they just ask you to confirm the information on the COPR form and to confirm that you have not since been convicted of any crime. Takes about 20 minutes in total. The PR card is sent out automatically, the agent should confirm your address. Current processing time for new PR cards is 12 days, so figure about 4 weeks in total including time to post.

If you are flying back to Ireland for a short trip, you are honestly better just landing when you get back from that trip. Whatever status you are on now is still valid until you land as PR.

jme2010

massdebater wrote: »

Howdy I've recently been approved for Canadian PR

Congrats!

Can you give a little details about how you went about it and what the process was like?

Did you have to have your college qualifications converted? Take the english test, computer or hand written, cost involved, how long you where on previous visa before applying and time it took etc.

I'm looking to start the process on October 1st as I'll have 1 year of skilled work with ~11 months left on my IEC.

Thanks

massdebater

circular flexing wrote: »

If you live a few hours from the border then you can make an appointment to "land" at a CIC office.

http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/helpcentre/answer.asp?qnum=748&top=22

If you do decide to drive to the border then you can park and walk across the border, just tell the US agents you are flagpoling and then you can walk straight to the Canadian side. Questions are straightforward, they just ask you to confirm the information on the COPR form and to confirm that you have not since been convicted of any crime. Takes about 20 minutes in total. The PR card is sent out automatically, the agent should confirm your address. Current processing time for new PR cards is 12 days, so figure about 4 weeks in total including time to post.

If you are flying back to Ireland for a short trip, you are honestly better just landing when you get back from that trip. Whatever status you are on now is still valid until you land as PR.

Thanks for the reply! I'm flying to Ireland for 4 weeks but I leave to go to the US about 2 weeks after I return to Canada so I want to get my PR card on the way asap. If it doesn't get to me before I fly to Ireland, I'm going to have an Express post envelope ready for my roommates to post it to me in Ireland asap.

Yeah I was thinking about just parking and walking across but that makes me get an "administrative refusal" to the US which I'd rather avoid, even though it's easily explained on future border forms.

I'm thinking about driving to the border tomorrow morning, going to lunch across the border and coming back across to Canada to validate my PR. That way I don't have the refusal on my record and it can still get done the same day. Is there a minimum time I'd need to spend across the border for this to be done? Like 1 hour/ 24hrs etc? I only have about 3 hours to spare so anything less than that will be fine, otherwise I'll have to do the refusal method

circular flexing

massdebater wrote: »

I'm thinking about driving to the border tomorrow morning, going to lunch across the border and coming back across to Canada to validate my PR. That way I don't have the refusal on my record and it can still get done the same day. Is there a minimum time I'd need to spend across the border for this to be done? Like 1 hour/ 24hrs etc? I only have about 3 hours to spare so anything less than that will be fine, otherwise I'll have to do the refusal method

There's no minimum time, once you are outside of Canada that's all that counts

massdebater

Just to follow up on this, I did the border run last week. It was very easy, I parked my car the Canadian side of the border at the duty free the Osoyoos side of the border. Walked up to the American side with my passport and forms. They knew I was flagpoling and said that refusing to enter the states doesn't show up on my record, I can always answer "no" when asked if I'd ever been refused admittance to the USA. So I did that, walked to the Canadian side and they put a form in my passport and said that my PR card should arrive in the post in 6-8 weeks (although I don't think it'll be this long). Whole process took about 35 minutes before I was back in my car again and free to drive home