A soft landing (a short visit to formally activate PR status before permanently moving later) creates a practical problem: the PR card itself takes 1–3 months to arrive by mail, but you may not be able to stay that long.
What group members advised:- You can travel to Canada by road via the US using your COPR, which was reported as workable even if the COPR has technically expired by that point — this can be a way to complete the soft landing itself.
- If you don't have anyone to receive the card, this is the harder part. Giving a friend or family member's address at the port of entry, so they can collect and forward the card, was flagged as the best option when staying the full 1–3 months isn't possible — but don't tell the officer you're only there for a short duration; simply provide the address, and double-check that address is correct before finalizing your paperwork.
- A referenced video (mentioned as 'option 5') apparently outlines an additional method for card collection, though details weren't included directly in the thread — worth searching for or asking about for the specific alternative it describes.
The practical bottleneck for someone with no contacts yet in Canada is having a reliable address for card delivery — arranging this before landing (even a paid mail-forwarding or relocation service) is worth doing ahead of time.