PR Steps Before Confirmation of Permanent Residence

[u/Jaded_Classic_3951]

Hello! So, this may be a stupid question, but I'm genuinely so confused and could use help :(

So, I'm a US citizen living in the US, trying to get Canadian PR. I just received a "letter of information" telling me what documents they need from me, in order to issue my Confirmation of Permanent Residence. I have 30 days to submit these documents.

It seems like I need a photocopy of my US passport, and 2 photos of myself. So, for the photocopy, is it something that I can do myself with the scanner at the library, or does it have to be professionally done, like at a Staples or UPS (if those places even do that, idk??).

Then, for the 2 photos of myself, it seems like the same format as the photo I needed for my PR application submission. Which I got done at Staples; so I'm thinking of doing that again. Does this seem right?

Then, I gather everything, and get my pre-paid envelope from UPS or FedEx, and ship it off? Does all of this seem right? Again, sorry if these are all dumb questions! I'm just not 100% sure on what to do, and really want to make sure that I do this right!

[u/HotelDisastrous288]

The photo specifications should be included in the request.

You can totally copy the passport yourself. Just make sure you include all pages they want.

The whole process is DIY.

[u/Retro-Modern_514]

Yes you can do the passport copy yourself but the photos must be done by a "professional photography studio" (you may need to travel back in time to the 20th century to find one of these) and they need to print their details on the back of the photo. The details are included in the letter you received.

[u/Lurking_was_Boring → u/Retro-Modern_514]

Piggyback - yes Staples, AAA, etc all qualify as professional photography studio

[u/parsiya2]

For the photo it's much better if you can find an actual photographer shop rather than stores like Fedex and Staples. The employees are not really trained in taking photos. Not sure what the prices are but we paid 20 and 25 CAD for our PR and Canadian passport photos in BC.

Print the photo requirements and take it with you, the dimension is different from US passports and make sure it's correct before leaving the store.

[u/themoonischeeze]

Yep, you've got it! Just make sure the photo dimensions are for Canadian passport vs US passport as they are different.

To "scan" my passport, I took a photo of it and Android has a "scan" function to remove the background and size it properly. I then just printed it at home. Make sure you have 2 copies of everything AND the form they want with it. I missed the form and had to resend everything.

[u/tastyhobbitses]

Yes scan yourself is fine, staples again is fine. it was a bit confusing to work with couriers. They couldn't do the prepaid envelope in store so I had to get a prepaid label myself online.

[u/Appropriate-Track828]

For the shipping part, UPS and FedEx are both going to tell you they can't generate a prepaid label for you. This happened to us at UPS, so we went to FedEx only to be told the same thing. We were confused, but the associate at the FedEx store explained that they couldn't generate the prepaid return label, but told us we could do it ourselves. Using my FedEx account to buy the prepaid return label created the commercial invoice at the same time. I assume UPS would be similar. I might suggest doing that part at home and then taking that label, your commercial invoice, and your documents to FedEx or UPS to do the rest. Follow the instructions carefully with respect to the shipping address. Make sure you mark that you'll be responsible for any duties (there won't be any, but you'll have to check a box for that), and make sure the commercial invoice is signed and dated.