Arriving in Canada as a new immigrant

It can seem a little daunting when you read the official IRCC guidance of what to expect when you arrive in Canada as a new immigrant; it talks about a Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA) immigration interview to make the ultimate decision about whether to grant you entry! Yikes!

But don’t worry – in reality the process is pretty much a breeze. I’ll cover the full process in this article from our experience when we landed as new permanent residents.

Keep in mind the process described below was pre-COVID-19 so there would now be COVID testing requirements to be included in the steps outlined. You can read more about the relaxation of the border restrictions here.

Step 1: Electronic Declaration

Once you leave the plane you follow the normal arrivals route to immigration.

Along with all other passengers crossing the border, the first thing you’ll be met with is an electronic kiosk to verify your identity and do a customs declaration (the kiosks are now at all the major international airports).

You can do one declaration per family (up to 5 people) all together at one machine.

Firstly it’ll ask you to scan you passport and it’ll take a photo of you.

Next you’ll have to answer a series of questions, nothing complicated (confirm that you’re not bringing in prohibited items, that you’ve got less than $10k in cash on you, that kind of thing).

You’ll lastly give your fingerprint to “sign” your declaration as true and then the machine will print out your declaration receipt.

Step 2: First CBSA agent

You then take your receipt and line up to see a Canada Border Service Agent with all the other international arrivals.

So-far the same as arriving as a visitor.

But once you get up to the border agent you tell them that you’re landing as a new permanent resident (or whatever work/study visa you’re on) and at this point they’ll direct you where to go for your immigration interview.

Step 3: CBSA immigration interview

We were directed to an office with a waiting room off to the side where we had to take a paper ticket to join the queue to be seen by a border agent.

We waited for about 10 minutes until our number was called and headed up to the desk to speak to the border agent. Obviously each interview will  be slightly different but essentially there’s a set list of things they need to go through with you:

• They’ll check your passports and Confirmation of Permanent Residency (CoPR) letter (or other visa).
• They’ll ask what money you have to survive on initially. For this we had a recent bank statement from our UK bank account and screenshots from our online banking. The agent was happy with this. To get more information on how much money you’ll need to demonstrate you personally have, click on the link here.
• They’ll ask where you’ll be staying initially. We had printed out the Airbnb booking confirmation. Again, fine.
• They’ll ask what goods you’re bringing into the country with you. This is where you give them your two copies of ‘goods accompanying list’ (also known as settler’s effects list . Read about what should be on this list and all the other documents you’ll need here.
• They’ll ask what goods you will be importing later. This is where you give them two copies of your ‘goods to follow’ list. We had two different versions of this, a list that we’d produced ourselves with values and the list that the removal firm had produced themselves. Read about how to produce this list in our guide here.
• The border agent will complete a form called Personal Effect Accounting Document – BSF186 for you using your ‘goods to follow list’ and stamp and attach the list to the form. This form is important as it’s this completed form that you’ll need to show the customs agent to be able to claim tax free importation of your goods when they arrive in Canada. Read our overview of the full shipping process here.
• Once they’re happy with everything they’ll ask you to answer and initial a couple of questions on both copies of the Confirmation of Permanent Residence letter (confirm dependents and that you’re not convicted of a crime) and to sign it. The officer will then sign and stamp the letter and give you one copy (without the photo) and keep the other (the one with the photo) which is used to send you your Permanent Resident card within 3 months. The signed CoPR letter they give you serves as evidence of permanent residency until the card arrives. Keep it safe!

And that’s it, you’re now a Permanent Resident of Canada!

All that you then have to do is go and collect your baggage from baggage reclaim and hand that declaration receipt you got from the electronic kiosk to the customs agent as you leave the baggage area (along with all the other regular international arrivals).

Arriving into Quebec as a new Federal Skilled Worker Permanent Resident  

We were a bit concerned before we flew to Canada that our initial Port of Entry into Canada was in Quebec (from where we were travelling on to our final destination in Ontario). As a landing Permanent Resident, if you plan to settle in Quebec you must have a Certificat de Sélection du Quebec (CSQ), we obviously didn’t have this and weren’t planning to settle in Quebec but thought the immigration officer might make an issue of it. As it turned out, it was fine, we told the immigration officer that we were going to be living in Ontario and she was totally fine with that. We did have a copy of a train reservation to Ontario and a copy of our Airbnb reservation but she didn’t ask to see this – but it’s probably sensible to have something like this.

Quebec selects its own skilled workers through a different program to the federal program. If your intention is to live in the province of Quebec then you need to apply through the Quebec-selected skilled workers program. That said however, once you’re a permanent resident of Canada you can live in any province you want – including Quebec!