It is POSSIBLE to travel with eCOPR by Airlines -CANADA-

2024年6月17日

Hello,

As I know many people are looking for a trusted story that can make them brave enough to try it, I am going to share my story of coming back to Canada by Westjet with only having eCOPR in June 2024.

My PR Card weren’t mailed by my scheduled travel

I am going to start from my PR card timeline.

eCOPR– Feb 2024
PR card GU1– May 9 2024
Travel to US– June 6-10 2024
PR card GU2– June 15 2024 — I am already back from my trip

My PR card took more than 4 months to be mailed to me. But I didn’t expect that it takes this long and already bought a round way flight ticket.

I found 2 ways to come back to Canada with eCOPR

Because I was not thinking to cancel my trip, I was looking for a way to come back to Canada with my eCOPR. And these were the easiest 2 options.

Buy or change the flight ticket to Seattle for a way back (or closest airport for you to go through a land border) then get on a border crossing bus to Vancouver.
Use my ETA (It has to be still valid) as my travel document to Canada FOR AIRLINES and when I get to Canada port of entry, I would show them my eCOPR.

Source of option 1

1.Crossing land border with eCOPR

Asked IRCC on the phone and they answered me that “If I have my eCOPR with me, I can come back to Canada by crossing the land border.” and also got an email says so.

2.Take a border crossing bus with eCOPR

Asked Flixbus via chat and they answered that “I only need valid passport to get on the bus.”

Source of option 2

1.Flight check in with my ETA

I read a thread says that “The problem we face when we travel outside of Canada with only eCOPR is that commercial vehicles may reject us to be on board when they can’t check our PR card or PRTD (IF I SAY I AM a PR). But if I still have my valid ETA and act like I am an traveler, they check my ETA on their system when they scan my passport and that is all they want to allow us to be on board.”

2.Show my eCOPR to CBSA

It is very risky to lie to CBSA officer. We could easily get in trouble when the officer finds out that and I found one article says “CBSA officer can check our PR status on their system and also PRs have legal right to come back to Canada although we might need to explain about job, family etc to let them believe.”

I tried the option 2

So I chose option 2. Back to Canada by airplane with eCOPR and ETA. If I lost my status of ETA by the time of check in, I would have tried option 1 that needed some work.

Westjet online check in

First, I did online check in of my flight way back to Vancouver. It asks about PR to everyone and I chose ” I don’t have a PR card” because I am Canadian PR but I don’t have PR CARD.”

And that made me no problem and finished online check in with my boarding pass.

CBSA at YVR

Luckily I found no problem came back to YVR and just left one more step to be officially back to Canada. So this is what I did.

Go to Arrivals
Do Kiosk with my passport (we don’t need PR card on this system)
Chose the answer of “PR” with the question of the purpose of coming to Canada at Kiosk
Go to the line for PRs and Citizens with a paper printed by Kiosk
Talk to the CBSA officer and showed them my eCOPR
CBSA officer asked me some questions and let me go

What officer asked me

Where did you travel?
How long did you stay?
What was the reason?
Show me your PR card
Are you coming for getting PR card?
- I said “No I was waiting for my PR card in Canada and I haven’t received it yet.”
So do you have the address to send it and you are just waiting for your PR card to be mailed right?
- I said “Yes”

That was all the questions and I think they didn’t even check my printed eCOPR well.

Just let me know if you have any questions

This is the whole story of coming back to Canada with eCOPR by Airlines. I have no guarantee of whether it works for you too or not but so I experienced something that I don’t find much information on internet that I would have loved to share it with everyone who is interested in it but not very sure.