ANY RECENT POE EXPERIENCE AT TORONTO ???

[chman_zinga 0]

HI Guys

I will be having my POE on coming Saturday May 28th through Toronto Pearson Airport around noon time.

Can anyone with recent POE through Pearson can tell me how long it normally takes and what kind of questions and documents do they ask ?

apart from Passport and Sealed Envelope.

How long prior to my Flight Time I should be there so I can have smooth POE.

Any help from anybody would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Chman_Zinga

[Daniellesm07 0]

my husband went thru Pearson's in Feb and all you need is your passport and sealed envelope. I would arrive about an hour atleast ahead of time. Thats what he did and no problems. They did a full search on him and asked a few questions, nothing to stress over.

[chman_zinga 0]

When you say full search what did they do? They went through all his luggages and belongigs like wallet and pockets ??

Chman_Zinga

my husband went thru Pearson's in Feb and all you need is your passport and sealed envelope. I would arrive about an hour atleast ahead of time. Thats what he did and no problems. They did a full search on him and asked a few questions, nothing to stress over.

[Krikit 1,163]

Toronto can get pretty crazy. I'd allow for a minimum of two hours at Customs. I'm going to move your thread to the Canada forum so you get more exposure.

[Inky 1,110]

If you are going at noon, give yourself 2 hours to go through customs.

[CBM 14]

To be safe, I would say more like 3 hours.

I mentioned this in another thread, but I had around 3.5 hours (it was a little more or a little less, I can't remember)... and I almost missed my flight because there were so many people ahead of me in Secondary, and they don't care when your flight is, or the reason you've been sent to Secondary. Once it was finally my turn, the whole procedure took under 2 minutes.. my passport was stamped, and the i94 was stapled in, and I was told to get married in 90 days, and off I went.

Then you have to wait and go through security. I would just rather be safe than sorry. YYZ isn't the most exciting airport, but you can find something to do for an hour or so if you manage to get through immigration quickly.

[Daniellesm07 0]

Sorry, yes listen to their advice. What i meant was add an extra hour to what they recommend for international flights. For example they say arrive 2 hours prior to your flight. And then add an extra hour to that, so 3 hours total to be early. Everyone else seems to say the same thing. No worries, just arrive what all you need and plenty of time and it will go smoothly.

[Daniellesm07 0]

They basically did a "normal" body search like they do with the metal detectors. From what I remember from the YYZ airport when I can thru as a US citizen coming back to USA they do a search (regardless of where you from) and then you go thru another detector again. That is what i can remember to the best of my knowledge. Hope this helps.

[lovetimhortons 1]

I POE'd at Pearson in late 2010. For some reason the airport was really busy that day (I don't think it was a weekend), and it took 3 hours from the time I set foot inside the terminal, until when I was at the gate. I arrived 4 hours early, just in case, and made it to gate with half hour to spare before boarding. I was activating a K1. The largest amount of time was spent in secondary screening, waiting for the people in front of me. The actual paper processing took about 20 minutes (they were nice, just asked me to fill out a couple forms, reminded me to get married within 90 days and not to leave the US until I had AP or AOS complete). No one went through my bags. (apart from the routine Xray screen for carry on baggage).

Paperwork: I took the sealed envelope and my passport for POE. Nothing else was needed, but you may want to take a pen. I had other documents as well, which I took to the US since I knew I'd be needing most of them for AOS, but not required for AOS.

I used to fly frequently out of Pearson before I moved to the US, and anytime you fly to the US, the time to get through bag check, CBP, security (minus visa activation) varies: anywhere from 30 minutes if the airport is not busy to 2.5 hours! I've arrived 3 hours in advance a few times, and nearly missed my flight!

Advice: get to Pearson early!

Edited May 27, 2011 by lovetimhortons

[NinoniAndBoosBoos 6]

my husband went thru Pearson's in Feb and all you need is your passport and sealed envelope. I would arrive about an hour atleast ahead of time. Thats what he did and no problems. They did a full search on him and asked a few questions, nothing to stress over.

Does the sealed envelope get mailed with the stamped Visa and passport?

[SapphireDreams 71]

Does the sealed envelope get mailed with the stamped Visa and passport?

Yes.

[NinoniAndBoosBoos 6]

Yes.

tY...wow big banging storm here today...thanks again.