Ready For Landing

Landing Process and obtaining your Permanent Resident Card

So now you have received your Confirmation Of Permanent Residency (COPR) document and, if applicable (for non visa-exempt citizens such as Indian nationals) a one-way visa for your landing. Now what do you do? When do you go? What must you bring to the point-of-entry? Can you land separately from your spouse and dependents or is it better than you all enter together as a family? Must you have a Canadian address when you land in Canada? What are the consequences if I opt to land in a city other than what I originally declared in a prior form? For answers to these questions, we invite you to schedule a consultation.

Landing is also an exhilarating experience as it is the culmination of an arduous bureaucratic process involving months of preparation, form submission, endless exchange of documents including medicals and police checks spanning multiple state agencies and visa posts.

The landing process is also one of the most critical phases of the immigration process as it is the starting point of your official immigrant and permanent resident status in Canada.

While you may have a one-time valid visa in hand or Confirmation Of Permanent Residency (COPR) document, you are not considered a permanent resident until you officially “land”; either at a land entry (at the border) or international airport in Canada. It is therefore absolutely critical that you don’t, to state it bluntly, “screw it up”!

Once landed, the first step is obtaining your permanent resident card, which generally requires that you provide at least a transitory mailing address in Canada. With a PR card, you will be able to board an airplane or otherwise enjoy the social benefits that both immigrants and Canadian enjoy such as health care. For more information about obtaining a permanent resident card, consult our PR Card section of the web site.

Sample Topics to be Discussed in a Landing Consultation:

• Identify if you are eligible for landing
• Required paperwork to bring at landing (differs from one visa program to another)
• Landing time-lines – can landing be postponed
• Logistical issues – can landing involve different family members at different times
• Do I have to land once granted a COPR or can I still enter as a tourist
• Pros/Cons of a Land/Airport entry
• Importing my car (taxes, duties, emissions)
• Obtaining your PR card
• Obtaining health insurance, getting a driver’s license and social security (SIN card)
• Do I have to provide a mailing or transitory address when landing
• Landing Dos and Don’ts and other risks
• Returning to Canada after landing (but prior to issuance of my PR card)
• What are my residency obligations to maintain my PR status