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Recall Clearance Letter while Importing Car from US

whenhaveiever

Member
Dec 15, 2023
17
2
Hi everyone,
I'm an American citizen and recently got my Canadian PR. I'm looking to import my personal vehicle from the US, and I see one of the steps is getting a recall clearance letter from the manufacturer. My car is a Toyota manufactured in the US, so as far as I can tell, I'm supposed to go to www.toyota.com/recall to get the recall clearance. However, all I can get after entering my VIN there is "Sorry! An error occurred during your request... You can refresh this page to retry. We apologize for any inconvenience." I can see at www.nhtsa.gov/recalls that there are no recalls for my vehicle, but is a printout of this page enough for import?

Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Thanks.
 

Abhi1982

Star Member
Jul 8, 2019
149
21
Hi everyone,
I'm an American citizen and recently got my Canadian PR. I'm looking to import my personal vehicle from the US, and I see one of the steps is getting a recall clearance letter from the manufacturer. My car is a Toyota manufactured in the US, so as far as I can tell, I'm supposed to go to www.toyota.com/recall to get the recall clearance. However, all I can get after entering my VIN there is "Sorry! An error occurred during your request... You can refresh this page to retry. We apologize for any inconvenience." I can see at www.nhtsa.gov/recalls that there are no recalls for my vehicle, but is a printout of this page enough for import?

Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Thanks.
raise a request on the toyota USA portal. I have seen a section there where they ask you to provide your vehicle VIN and then ask your question of the help that require. They usually respond in 2-3 days. https://www.toyota.com/support/contact-us/
 

Buletruck

VIP Member
May 18, 2015
6,878
2,711
Hi everyone,
I'm an American citizen and recently got my Canadian PR. I'm looking to import my personal vehicle from the US, and I see one of the steps is getting a recall clearance letter from the manufacturer. My car is a Toyota manufactured in the US, so as far as I can tell, I'm supposed to go to www.toyota.com/recall to get the recall clearance. However, all I can get after entering my VIN there is "Sorry! An error occurred during your request... You can refresh this page to retry. We apologize for any inconvenience." I can see at www.nhtsa.gov/recalls that there are no recalls for my vehicle, but is a printout of this page enough for import?

Has anyone else encountered this problem?

Thanks.
I'd try the dealer. They should be able to provide one as well.
 

whenhaveiever

Member
Dec 15, 2023
17
2
in the same boat at the moment, Did you obtain the clearance letter? if yes , would you mind sharing how . Thanks
Yes, on the next business day Toyota emailed me a clearance letter. I also printed the page from the NHTSA and submitted both with my import Form 1 to RIV. I finally did the import yesterday and didn't have any problems.
 

Monsterup

Member
Nov 4, 2019
17
4
Yes, on the next business day Toyota emailed me a clearance letter. I also printed the page from the NHTSA and submitted both with my import Form 1 to RIV. I finally did the import yesterday and didn't have any problems.
Nice, I made a mistake with my case number when paying RIV fees online ,called them and the lady was able to port my payment to the right case number. Asked her if i needed recall clearance, she said RIV was able to pull it so no need to submit one.
Got my inspection letter yesterday. Have an appointment with canada tire tomorrow for RIV and safety inspection.
 

whenhaveiever

Member
Dec 15, 2023
17
2
Nice, I made a mistake with my case number when paying RIV fees online ,called them and the lady was able to port my payment to the right case number. Asked her if i needed recall clearance, she said RIV was able to pull it so no need to submit one.
Got my inspection letter yesterday. Have an appointment with canada tire tomorrow for RIV and safety inspection.
Does Canadian Tire make the needed changes as well? When I check online, RIV doesn't have my stamped import form yet that the border took, so I emailed them a scan of the ones I got to keep. How long did it take to get your inspection letter after crossing the border?
 

Monsterup

Member
Nov 4, 2019
17
4
Does Canadian Tire make the needed changes as well? When I check online, RIV doesn't have my stamped import form yet that the border took, so I emailed them a scan of the ones I got to keep. How long did it take to get your inspection letter after crossing the border?
If you have emailed them your form and made RIV payment , they will send you an email once the inspection letter is ready.
I crossed last week on second but made RIV payment on the morning of October 9th, and it was ready by EOD.

Re Canadian Tire, will let you know after my appointment today
 

Monsterup

Member
Nov 4, 2019
17
4
I have a 2014 camry and the only thing that didn't pass was day time running light. canadian tire quoted me 350 to get that module installed , i will probably shop around and see if i can get any better deal, other than that nothing else needed change.

And please get your safety inspection done somewhere else
 
Last edited:

whenhaveiever

Member
Dec 15, 2023
17
2
For anyone who finds this thread later, my 2016 Camry didn't need any changes, either for the federal inspection or the BC inspection. Canadian Tire charged quite a bit for it and took most of an afternoon, but that's the price of doing business.