tanitm said:
I am currently in the US on H1-B, but I am going to Canada in September for grad school. I plan to take my car with me and drive it there. The car has US license plates and I have a valid US license. I have a couple of questions:
1. Do I need to import my car? I have heard that they will allow you to keep your car in Canada without having to import it as long as you are an international student. However, I am bit concerned since I am not a US citizen.
2) Do I need to get a Canadian license? Technically, if I get to keep my car's US license plates, wouldn't it be illegal to drive it with a Canadian driver's license?
I was in your same exact situation in 2007 - being on H1B in the US and coming into Canada as an international student. I have only recently started my PR application. To answer your questions:
(1) No, you do not have to import your car for as long as you remain to be a temporary resident (student or worker). I've read a couple of helpful university websites before and you should be able to find more information from them.
I do remember reading that there is a document which at point of entry the customs border agent will have to issue you (I do not remember what type of document it is) to document that you were bringing in your car. You should be able to get this info from the Canada customs border agency website.
However, when I entered and was preoccupied with immigration I totally forgot to ask for the document that will document that I was bringing in my car. I did
notify the border agent about my car at the time I presented the list of things I was bringing in but he did not even bother look at my car's documentation. Neither did he care to look at my list of things.
My entry was very easy and smooth which could also have happened because I have been into Canada many, many times as a visitor in the last 15 year.
I only remembered that I needed to get the car document from the customs border agent after I already was in Toronto and did not want to bother going back for it.
There is one very important requirement that you will have to prepare for. And this is to make sure you get that "Canada card" from your auto insurance agent. Every time I visited in the past, the Canada card was looked at and so was my car registration. Strange again that when I entered to study that was not looked into. It might have been a fluke that I was met by a customs border agent who did not care and so I do not know whether he/she will be very strict with you.
(2) You do not have to get Canadian plates. I wanted to, but since my car was not yet paid in full and a clean title (which means that your bank does not have it's name on your car title because you already paid your loan in full) . If you do not owe anything on your car you probably would want to do this. I see a lot of US plates driving in a lot of Canadian cities all the time so it is not like you will be the only one.
If you kept your US plates, your insurance company would want you to keep your US driver's license. I asked about this too and was told that my insurance can only cover me while driving in Canada if I kept both my US plates and US driver's license. But give your agent a call and see what their rules are.
I have copies of the following in my car just in case I get flagged down by a traffic police, which fortunately for me, has not happened yet: study permit, car registration and car title from the US and my Canada card from my insurer. Point being that you have to make sure you can show proof that you are a student and only in Canada temporarily.
Hope this helps.
