Car Temporary Import -> Permanent Import After Landing As PR

[ee_nougat]

I don't know what you've all heard but you're setting yourself up for a world of hurt of you import a vehicle (temporarily or permanently) from the US to Canada without exporting it first.

If you later return (move back) to the US with your Canadian plates you are expected to *reimport* the vehicle and if you never exported it in the first place you will have some explaining to do.

 

[shivassg]

Hi. Any luck with exporting the car once you got the PR?

 

[aruns1494]

Hi all. Not sure who this helps but I was able to export my car purchased in the US that was already temporarily imported into BC. Here is a timeline of what happened:
16 - Aug - 2018 - Car Purchased in Palo Alto, California, USA
03 - May - 2021 - Did a temporary import into Canada. Came here on a Work Permit (temporary resident). Filled Form 1, No RIV Fee,
19 - May - 2021 - Completed Vehicle Inspection from Canadian Tire in Burnaby. Result: Failure (DRLs issue. Had to install Canadian Version of the software for the car to fix the problem)
06 - Jun - 2021 - Completed Vehicle reinspection from Canadian Tire in Burnaby. Result: Pass
07 - Jun - 2021 - Registered with ICBC

06 - Jul - 2022 - Became a Permanent Resident of BC
06 - Aug - 2022 - Reached out to Blaine CBP and explained the loss of California Title to ICBC (ICBC took the title and destroyed it). They said that they can export with ICBC documents but that the car had to be in the US for 3 days after filing ITN. How I get the car into the US is my headache.

23 - Mar - 2023 - Visa Appointment for a B1/B2 US Visa in Vancouver Consulate
04 - May - 2023 - Drove car across the border to a friend's house in California
31 - May - 2023 - Filed a new ITN with CBP. Got the response that I was allowed to export on or after June 5 2023
05 - Jun - 2023 - Reached Blaine office. Submitted just the ITN worksheet and my ICBC registration. They wanted a "Confirmation of ownership" letter from ICBC but ICBC said they don't issue something like that and that the name being reflected on the registration is the owner. CBP accepted this.
05 - June - 2023 - Did a permanent import in Canada. CBSA asked to file another Form 1. No import duty to be paid as the car was a old one and could be declared as a personal belonging. People coming into Canada as PR can declare some items for 0% import duty but this is at the officer's discretion.
05 - June - 2023 - New Form 1 submitted to ICBC. They will remove all restrictions placed on your car when you first registered it with a temporary import status
06 - June - 2023 - Go to riv.ca and pay the RIV fee ($325 + tax). This needs to be paid within 10 days of import. Temporary imports don't/can't pay this because if you enter your Form 1 number on the website, it would say the number is exempt from RIV fee if it was a temporary import.

Hope this answers everybody!

TL;DR; - Just do the export the first time when you are moving from the US. It is a lot easier and lot less problematic.

 

[sandeepdude]

Below is my experience:

May 2019 - Moved to Canada from US in work permit. Did not export the car and temporarily imported the car to Canada. ServiceOntario took my original US title.
May 2022 - Became a Canadian PR
Dec 2022 - Moved back to US for work reasons. Drove the car to US with Ontario number plates. The car was parked in my US home as I was using another car.
September 2023 - Moved back to Canada. This time know I should permanently import the car to Canada. So I started to prepare for exporting my car from US. I found my US title was still active with the state where I resided before moving to Canada in 2019. So I applied for a duplicate title from the state and received it by mail. Next, I used a customs broker's help to get my ITN.

I drove to the US border and had some trouble finding the U.S. Vehicle export office as my Google maps went crazy. But one gentleman stopped by and helped me find the U.S. Vehicle export office. In the office, I was questioned on why I (temporarily) imported the car in Canada without exporting the car from US in the first place. I apologized and informed the officer that I didn't know the process. I was fortunate that the officer was lenient and stamped my car as exported.

Next, in the Canadian border, I was again questioned on my purpose of visit to Canada. I explained that we are moving back to Canada and I am already a PR. The officer asked if the Car is in the list of goods that I am importing to Canada. I explained the whole story to him. They sent me to the customs office and made me fill a new Form 1. Now, I need to take my new Form 1 to Service Ontario and see what they say....



My advice:

1) Like aruns1494 mentioned above, try to export the car from US before you import Canada. This will avoid a lot of hassle.
2) If you are returning to US to settle, You are allowed to keep the car in US with Canadian number plates for only 30 days in most states. So try to get US plates within the allowed time period.

 

[elrond]

Few days back I completed the conversion of temp import to perm import in Ontario. Original US Title of the car is not required for this process. Went to the CBSA near Toronto YYZ airport and they gave new vehicle import form 1. Paid RIV fee online using the case number in the Vehicle import Form 1. RIV then gave the inspection form and took that to the Canadian Tire near me and got the vehicle inspected. After passing inspection RIV sent the Canadian label via post. Stick the label in your car driver side door post below the latch. Process complete. Now you can sell your car in Canada if you wish.

Hi, I also got the label. I am wondering, when you renew your plate license, do they require anything related to the perm importing? Thank you so much!