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Greetings from Alberta! I have applied to a number of US universities recently (going back to school, yay!) and if I get the nod and decide to move, I like to take my car with me. This means driving across the border and exporting my car into the US. After some googling and whatnot, I found that if one decides to not use an importer, the following documents are needed to get this done on your own:
1- Bill of sale (if the vehicle was purchased more than a year from the date of moving -> no purchase tax)
2- Registration papers
3- EPA form 3520-1 (compliance with US environmental regulations)
4- DOT form HS-7 ((compliance with US transport safety regulations)
5- NAFTA certificate of origin (to keep it duty free, if the car was built in Canada)
It seems if the Canadian car has stickers showing that it is complaint with Canadian safety and environmental requirements, one still has to get "a letter from the manufacturer" confirming the car also meets US EPA and DOT requirements.
NOW my question is: does any one have any actual experience with doing this? Did you have to contact the manufacturer? How did the border crossing and importation go?
Greetings from Alberta! I have applied to a number of US universities recently (going back to school, yay!) and if I get the nod and decide to move, I like to take my car with me. This means driving across the border and exporting my car into the US. After some googling and whatnot, I found that if one decides to not use an importer, the following documents are needed to get this done on your own:
1- Bill of sale (if the vehicle was purchased more than a year from the date of moving -> no purchase tax)
2- Registration papers
3- EPA form 3520-1 (compliance with US environmental regulations)
4- DOT form HS-7 ((compliance with US transport safety regulations)
5- NAFTA certificate of origin (to keep it duty free, if the car was built in Canada)
It seems if the Canadian car has stickers showing that it is complaint with Canadian safety and environmental requirements, one still has to get "a letter from the manufacturer" confirming the car also meets US EPA and DOT requirements.
NOW my question is: does any one have any actual experience with doing this? Did you have to contact the manufacturer? How did the border crossing and importation go?
Appreciate any insight into this!
Cheers,
Decades ago, my uncle who lives in Canada was going abroad for a few years and decided to hand over his Canadian manufactured jeep to my father to use. I do not remember if they had to contact the manufacturer but I do recall they encountered registration problems that forced them to drive the vehicle from Boston all the way back to the Canadian border to get the vehicle inspected and to sign some special documents. Then at the border, the officials gave the two of them quite a hard time. Given it was the Peace Bridge crossing in the Buffalo-Niagara Region, which is one of the busiest, perhaps the officials were just impatient or they simply had bad luck in encountering the wrong official. Hopefully you won't have the same experience out west. Either way it was not an easy or pleasant experience so good luck to you in exporting your vehicle.
25 years ago I moved to the US with my 1986 Buick Regal, which in Canada had the Chevy 305 instead of the Olds 307.
The 305 didn’t meet US EPA regulations so I couldn’t register the car in the US...so I traded it in to someone who probably ended up wholesaling it back.
If the same model with the same engine is sold in both Canada and the US you should be OK, especially if there are digital displays that convert from metric to US units.
Greetings from Alberta! I have applied to a number of US universities recently (going back to school, yay!) and if I get the nod and decide to move, I like to take my car with me. This means driving across the border and exporting my car into the US. After some googling and whatnot, I found that if one decides to not use an importer, the following documents are needed to get this done on your own:
1- Bill of sale (if the vehicle was purchased more than a year from the date of moving -> no purchase tax)
2- Registration papers
3- EPA form 3520-1 (compliance with US environmental regulations)
4- DOT form HS-7 ((compliance with US transport safety regulations)
5- NAFTA certificate of origin (to keep it duty free, if the car was built in Canada)
It seems if the Canadian car has stickers showing that it is complaint with Canadian safety and environmental requirements, one still has to get "a letter from the manufacturer" confirming the car also meets US EPA and DOT requirements.
NOW my question is: does any one have any actual experience with doing this? Did you have to contact the manufacturer? How did the border crossing and importation go?
Appreciate any insight into this!
Cheers,
I did that in 2005 so the rules may have changed. We followed the CBP and PA DMV rules exactly and everything went well. Our car was financed in Canada at the time of our move so we did need to get approval from the manufacturer to export the car from Canada, but I don’t recall needing anything else so this may be a new rule. Judging from our subsequent experience in importing a US car back into Canada a few years later, manufacturers will typically provide you with what you need as long as you plan in advance. Bringing a car back into Canada requires a few more hoops because the US CBP has official procedures to export cars (in addition to CBSA procedures to import them and provincial procedures to register them).
Depending on how long you will be in the US, just know that some (many? most?) potential buyers/dealerships may not want to buy a car that was originally marketed for Canada if you wanted to resell it in the US. We ended up reimporting the car back into Canada to sell it, which was a bit of an unexpected hassle but still not the end of the world.
Decades ago, my uncle who lives in Canada was going abroad for a few years and decided to hand over his Canadian manufactured jeep to my father to use. I do not remember if they had to contact the manufacturer but I do recall they encountered registration problems that forced them to drive the vehicle from Boston all the way back to the Canadian border to get the vehicle inspected and to sign some special documents. Then at the border, the officials gave the two of them quite a hard time. Given it was the Peace Bridge crossing in the Buffalo-Niagara Region, which is one of the busiest, perhaps the officials were just impatient or they simply had bad luck in encountering the wrong official. Hopefully you won't have the same experience out west. Either way it was not an easy or pleasant experience so good luck to you in exporting your vehicle.
Thank you for your response! I'm trying to exactly avoid that. What a coincidence! I will be also importing a Canadian made Jeep into the US and I'm trying to avoid the hard time at the border. I am sure driving around with the Alberta plate for a few years in the US will not be easy. So I need go prepared and get my paperwork done right.
25 years ago I moved to the US with my 1986 Buick Regal, which in Canada had the Chevy 305 instead of the Olds 307.
The 305 didn’t meet US EPA regulations so I couldn’t register the car in the US...so I traded it in to someone who probably ended up wholesaling it back.
If the same model with the same engine is sold in both Canada and the US you should be OK, especially if there are digital displays that convert from metric to US units.
Thank you for sharing your experience. My vehicle is a Jeep made in Windsor, Ontario and the dashboard display does the conversion thankfully, so I'll keep that in mind and will mention it to the border officer.
I did that in 2005 so the rules may have changed. We followed the CBP and PA DMV rules exactly and everything went well. Our car was financed in Canada at the time of our move so we did need to get approval from the manufacturer to export the car from Canada, but I don’t recall needing anything else so this may be a new rule. Judging from our subsequent experience in importing a US car back into Canada a few years later, manufacturers will typically provide you with what you need as long as you plan in advance. Bringing a car back into Canada requires a few more hoops because the US CBP has official procedures to export cars (in addition to CBSA procedures to import them and provincial procedures to register them).
Depending on how long you will be in the US, just know that some (many? most?) potential buyers/dealerships may not want to buy a car that was originally marketed for Canada if you wanted to resell it in the US. We ended up reimporting the car back into Canada to sell it, which was a bit of an unexpected hassle but still not the end of the world.
Good luck with your (graduate?) studies!
Thank you! Great point, I got to check the DMV rules in the state that I will end up in as well. This will be a graduate degree yes (4-5 years). And I'm planning to keep the car all the way through since it's paid. I'm hoping the hassle stays manageable.
While you are familiar with this vehicle and it is paid for, I think you should consider the exercise of seeing what you would get if you sold it here in Canada and in turn, what it would cost you to buy similar there.
Generally, U.S. used vehicle prices are considerably lower than in Canada, even after adjusting for the dollar difference, and some states have low sales tax rates.
While you are familiar with this vehicle and it is paid for, I think you should consider the exercise of seeing what you would get if you sold it here in Canada and in turn, what it would cost you to buy similar there.
Generally, U.S. used vehicle prices are considerably lower than in Canada, even after adjusting for the dollar difference, and some states have low sales tax rates.
Good point, I looked into it a bit. I looked at similar Jeeps for sale on kijiji here in AB and a few websites for the state that I am moving to. It looks like I might end up paying a bit more for the same car (considering the conversion and all) over there. Maybe depends on the car and year too?
Thank you for sharing your experience. My vehicle is a Jeep made in Windsor, Ontario and the dashboard display does the conversion thankfully, so I'll keep that in mind and will mention it to the border officer.
Cheers,
Is the same model with same engine exported to the US? My bet is yes but check it out. What you don’t want is a “Canada only” engine.
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