Applicants living in the USA who receive the 'Ready for Visa' email for Canadian PR must courier their passport to IRCC's Ottawa office with a prepaid return envelope. This thread covered the practical logistics.
What group members advised:- Use a major courier like FedEx and let them handle customs paperwork. For US–Canada shipments containing a passport, the courier walks you through the customs/export declaration forms required in both directions — you don't need to figure out the Electronic Export Declaration on your own.
- Send everything in one package to the address in your letter (CPCO – PR VISA, 365 Laurier Av. West, Ottawa ON K1A 1L1 at the time of this thread), including the prepaid self-addressed return envelope.
- Expect roughly three weeks. An IRCC agent quoted 21 days for passport return; the member got theirs back in 18 days.
- Watch the GCKey portal for a 'counterfoil' update — when the counterfoil status appears, the visa has been printed into your passport and return shipping follows.
- Include dependents' passports if they are on the application — every applicant needing a visa counterfoil must send their passport (the thread flagged the question for US-born children; check your letter's instructions).
Keep the courier tracking numbers for both legs so you can follow the passport the whole way.