Landed Permanent Residents

Bonjour New Brunswick.

On 3 May 2016 at 5 am in the morning, Canada time, we finally did our landing to the maple leaf country at Toronto Pearson International Airport as our port of entry. 

Before doing the landing, be sure you have with you the following: (1) passport with visa and PDOS stamped on every member of your family; (2) Confirmation of Permanent Resident; (3) Form BSF186 and BSF186A for goods to bring and goods to follow, respectively; and (4) Form E677 if you are bringing more than USD/CAD10,000.00. Forms BSF186 and BSF186A were already discussed in my previous post.

With regards to Form E677. During PDOS, the staff there will tell you that you need to also fill up BSP Foreign Currency Declaration if you are bringing with you more than USD/CAD10,000.00 for AMLA purposes. I actually downloaded the form,  filled it up, signed and printed it because we are carrying with us CAD20,000.00 as settlement fund. Then we also downloaded, filled up, signed and printed Form E677. You can get E677 form HERE. Note, however, that I did not present BSP Foreign Currency Declaration at NAIA Terminal 1, Immigration because my husband and I decided to not to and the immigration officer (IO) did not asked for it. Good thing he did not.

Anyway, our tickets if for Manila-Shanghai Pudong-Toronto-Fredericton with 9 and 14 hours layover at Shanghai and Toronto, respectively. Here goes our detailed experience with our landing. First, in the Philippines, you may want to secure yourselves of the "tanim bala" modus operandi in our country so better seal your luggages with a plastic cover like ours. We used plastic wrappers for food. Oh, and if you are using a regular weighing scale at home, to check if your luggages are overweight (yes not you but the bag, LOL), do not worry much because it will not exceed the weight limit. Ours even drops to 1 to 1.5 kgs. If I only knew, I should have added a little more, hahaha. Payment for terminal fee for each member of the family is also required. Terminal Fee is at Php550 each. We did not pay for travel tax of Php1,620.00 because according to China Eastern Airline staff, it is already included in the tickets we purchased. Ooopss, we have extra Philippine money of Php4,000.00, LOL. 

Second, we need to pass by an IO. I only presented our boarding passes, departure cards (provided at NAIA) and passports. The IO just asked us if we still plan to return to the Philippines, our destination province, stamped on the passports, signed it and viola, off we go to the waiting area. Fact: I was actually very nervous with Philippine immigration because I know my country, the Government employees. That is why I was so relieved that we get through the immigration thingy.

Thirdly, at Shanghai Pudong International Airport via China Eastern Airline. We have the worst experience here so I advise do not get a stopover in China. Why? We have a 9 hours layover in Shanghai but during the check in, the airline staff told us that our flight will be delayed for 9 hours more. She gave us a meal complimentary vouchers for such delays amounting to Yuan 280.00. And yes, you are very correct that we only ate and ate there for stress reliever. We also exchanged our Php4,000.00 to Yuan Dollar for more food and drinks, LOL. Then came around 1:00 AM of 2 May 2016, the staffs again announces that there is an additional 2 hours delay time. If you were there, you can see the chaos brought about by the delay with no hotel bookings to pacify there customers. We finally boarded the plane at around 3:20 AM, 3 May 2016, Asia Pacific Time.

I am recommending not to get China as stopover for the sole reason that there is no facebook there. It is blocked. Imagine, we waited there for 20 hours without communication to our families. Good thing, I decided to bring with me my old cherry mobile phone for whatsapp purposes. I get to communicate with my 2015 co-applicants with our situation at Shanghai Airport. So what we did there is just eat, sleep at the benches and wait.

At the airplane, there is unlimited food also, LOL. It is our first time to ride in a very big airplane and travel a very long haul to Toronto. So, there is a small tv where you can watch movies or series, play games and a lot more. The funny side is that we thought that our travel from Shanghai to Toronto will only take 3 1/2 hours, LOL, as indicated in the ticket. NO. Note that because of time difference, our travel took 12 1/2 hours. Such a very long trip.

On 3 May 2016, again LOL, we finally landed to the maple leaf country with only almost 3 hours left before I flight to Fredericton. We were not allowed to go out the plane because we landed at 4:20 AM and the immigration office will open only at 5:00 AM. Another delay isn't it. Before we were send out of the plane, the staff there gave each one of us a Declaration Form where you use it during Custom Officer checking. I ticked more than CAD10,000 and goods to follow. So at the strike of 5:00 AM, we were in a hurry to pass by the security check upon landing, then as first time immigrant they directed us to the immigration officer. Checked on our passports, visa and COPR, signed both of it and viola, the immigration officer told us,"congratulations. welcome to Canada", ayyyiiieeee. Is this really true? The IO also asked me if I wanted to open a SIN but I declined because no more time to open.

So, off we go to a customs officer (CO). I printed  2 copies each of Forms BSF186, 186A and E677 but the CO asked only for 1 copy. He made remarks on each form, stamped ad signed it. Then he xerox a copy of the forms. He asked me to go to another window for checking. Then he printed a blue paper, attached it on our forms for goods to bring and follow. He get 1 copy of said forms and asked me to return to the CO officer. The CO officer says I must keep the other copy because he already entered the details on his computer. There you go, we are done with our landing. We went to the baggage counter to get our luggages and exited our port of entry as permanent residents. So, happy.

Just as you thought our travel is done. No not yet. So we transferred to another section of terminal 1 for our boarding going to Fredericton. Walking with so many blue or green or other colors of eyes is getting me overwhelmed hahaha. I was even literally smiling to each foreigner I meet along the way. But the funny thing is that we are the foreigners, LOL.

It was a sunny day at Toronto but in Fredericton, it was so cold. Here is the best part of our landing at Fredericton. The FCNB was there to welcome me and my husband to Canada. This was my greatest dream and we got it, LOL. We landed as the first Filipino under the NBPNP EELMS program. Nice hahaha.

In my previous post, I posted there that we will be leaving at Ate Gina/s place. True to her word. We stayed in their house. Their house is beautiful. They even cook so many yummylicious foods. First sight of Fredericton, I love New Brunswick the more.

So, hello our little R. Mama and Papa is already here in Canada. We pray that someday, in God's most precious perfect time, we will get to hold, love and pamper you with all our hearts. A dream is still a dream if you are not yet with us but our faith with our Father God brought us this far because He knows the desire of our hearts. We just cannot wait to be with you soon. A little more, little R, a little more.