Hi Friends,
Thought sharing an article which I was going through for new settlers.
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New Settlers
Please note that the information in the rest of this article is for new settlers, that is, newly arriving permanent residents.
Quick clarification
Because of many misconceptions that have arisen in connection with importing personal possessions into Canada, please note the following:
You do not have to complete Form B4.
You do not have to type the information.
It is okay to write the lists by hand.
But, if you write the lists by hand, you need to print neatly and legibly.
You do not have to list your belongings in detail.
It is absolutely fine to list GROUPS of possessions, such as linen, clothes, books, kitchen utensils, etc.
To see how to write the lists, please see the section called Examples, below.
Because of the misconceptions continue, this information is being repeated in a different font colour in the hopes that you will notice it:
You do not have to complete Form B4.
You do not have to type the information.
It is okay to write the lists by hand.
But, if you write the lists by hand, you need to print neatly and legibly.
You do not have to list your belongings in detail.
It is absolutely fine to list GROUPS of possessions, such as linen, clothes, books, kitchen utensils, etc.
To see how to write the lists, please see the section called Examples, below.
What can I bring?
Here is the Canada Border Services Agency's web page( http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/pub/rc4151-eng.html )that explains the goods that new settlers are allowed to bring to Canada with them and which goods can be brought in free of duty and taxes.
If you really want to study the rules in detail, read Memorandum D2-2-1 concerning Settlers' Effects - Tariff Item No. 9807.00.00.
Procedure
Before you land
Before you land in Canada, you should prepare two lists (preferably typewritten) of the possessions you intend to bring with you to Canada.
The lists should be:
a list of goods accompanying, that is, the goods that you will carry with you when you land
a list of the goods that will follow later
Please note that these need to be two separate lists.
When you land
It would be nice for the customs officer at your port of entry if you were to provide two copies of each list, but this is not essential. If you do not have a spare copy of each list, the customs officer will photocopy the lists.
At your port of entry you have to provide to the customs officer the list of the goods that you are bringing with you and your list of Goods To Follow. If you don't have any goods with you when you land, you still have to provide your list of Goods To Follow.
Please note, you do not have to complete Form B4 E, Personal Effects Accounting Document before you land in Canada!
Repeat, you do not have to complete Form B4 E, Personal Effects Accounting Document before you land in Canada.
Yes, completing Form B4 E in advance will speed up your interactions with the customs official at your Canadian port of entry, but completing this form in advance is entirely optional.
If you have not already completed two copies of Form B4 E, the customs officer will prepare them on your behalf, based on the lists of goods you submit.
The officer will assign you a file number and give you a receipt.
The officer will stamp both copies of both of your lists of goods. He/she will keep one set of lists and return the other set of lists to you.
When you claim your goods
When your goods arrive in Canada, the moving company will notify you.
You will need to go to a customs depot with the Goods To Follow list that the customs officer had stamped when you landed at your port of entry.
The customs office will reconcile your copy of the Goods To Follow list with the one that they have on file, and they will release your goods free of duties and taxes.
Then, depending on the level of service for which you have paid, you can arrange for the moving company to deliver your goods to your residence, or you can go to the moving company's warehouse and take delivery of your goods yourself.
If you do not have the time to go to the customs depot yourself, you can hire a customs broker to handle this for you.
Which forms to use
Form B4 E, Personal Effects Accounting Document is the mandatory cover sheet for your list of goods accompanying as well as your list of goods to follow.
Please note that the empty version of Form B4 E, Personal Effects Account Document is the same, whether it's to be used for the goods that accompany you to Canada and for the goods that will follow later.
If you have both goods accompanying and goods to follow, you will need two copies of Form B4 E, Personal Effects Account Document.
About half way down Form B4 E, there are boxes that you check to indicate whether or not the goods will follow later.
For the form that will act as the cover sheet for your Goods To Follow list, you should tick the Yes box next to Goods To Follow.
For the form that will act as the cover sheet for your goods accompanying list (that is, for the goods that accompany you at your Canadian port of entry), you should tick the No box next to Goods To Follow.
If you run out of space on the cover sheet, Form B4 E, you can continue on Form B4 A, Personal Effects Accounting Document (list of goods imported).
Form B4 A is the continuation sheet.
You can use as many B4 A continuation sheets as you need.
However, you are not obliged to use Form B4 A when you list the goods that you're importing to Canada.
Repeat, you are not obliged to use Form B4 A when you list the goods that you're importing to Canada.
It is perfectly acceptable to use Excel or other software to type and print your list.
If you write your list by hand, use neat printing.
If you have not completed two copies of the cover form, Form B4 E, in advance, the customs officer at your port of entry will complete them, based on the information that is provided in your detailed lists.
How to complete forms
In the case of items that can be identified individually, e.g., electronic goods that have serial numbers, you are supposed to itemize brand name, model and serial number.
If you will be importing precious jewellery, provide detailed descriptions and preferably photographs.
Beyond that, you do not have to complete the Goods To Follow forms in great detail.
Let's suppose you have six boxes of books. You do not have to itemize each book and give its value. All you need to do is type, "6 boxes of books," and state a value for all of the books, collectively. If you have a golf bag with golf clubs, there is no need to list the golf clubs individually. Just type, "golf bag and golf clubs," and provide a collective value. If you have a toolbox with a bunch of different tools in it, type, "toolbox with assorted tools," and again provide a collective value.
Please note that you do not have to list items in great detail. When you provide a collective value for clothes, you do not have to list your shirts, trousers, socks, underwear, etc. Similarly, if you provide a collective value for bed linen, you do not have to list pillow cases, single bed sheets, double bed sheets, etc. Again, in the case of bath linen, you do not have to list bath mats, bath towels, hand towels, and facecloths. In each of these cases, just provide a collective value for the category.
There are example lists in the Examples section of this article, below.
If you will be shipping only a few items of sentimental value (photographs and the like), don't stress yourself over the monetary values to quote. After all, who's to say what some photographs and a 20-year-old teddy bear are worth? Just suck some numbers out of the air.
However, keep in mind that a copy of your Goods To Follow list can serve as the manifest that you lodge with your insurance company if you insure your goods during their passage to Canada.
If you are using your Goods To Follow list for insurance purposes, you'll want to list replacement values rather than secondhand values. In the (admittedly unlikely) event that your shipment came to harm, you'd want your insurance company to compensate you for the replacement value of your belongings.
If you have rare books that would be difficult and expensive to replace, it would be much easier to prove that you had shipped such books if you had submitted a detailed, itemized list with the insurance company.
You must provide values in Canadian dollars. You can get the exchange rate between British pounds and Canadian dollars at the XE website.
It's a good idea to have a subtotal of the value of the goods at the bottom of each page and a grand total of the value of all of your goods on the last page.
If you bring your own list, or the inventory list your relocation company provided, it is a good idea to have your name on each page, number the pages as "page x of y," and leave some space for the customs stamp at the bottom of the page.
The form asks you to provide your Canadian address.
If you do not yet have an address in Canada, you can use your shipper's address.
If you are absolutely stumped for an address, you might consider using this one: 201 Fairview Rd, Barrie, Ontario L4N 0A1. It is the address of a McDonalds Restaurant that was obtained via a Google search.
What to include in list
Once your Goods To Follow list has been stamped by a customs officer in Canada, you cannot add anything to it.
This is true even if your personal and household effects are shipped to Canada many months after you've had your Goods To Follow list stamped at a Canadian port of entry.
So, if you are not sure if you will ship a certain item, say a bed, to Canada, it is prudent to include it in your Goods To Follow list -- just in case you end up shipping it.
Remember that recording something on your Goods To Follow list does not set up any sort of obligation. You don't have to ship to Canada everything that is on your Goods To Follow list.
But, if you do record an item on your Goods To Follow list, you reserve the right to ship it to Canada, duty-free, at any time in the future.
As long as your possessions have been recorded on your Goods To Follow list and that list has been stamped by Canada Border Services Agency at the time of your "landing" in Canada, you can ship those items to Canada duty-free in dribs and drabs. That is, you can split the possessions into different shipments, and you can stagger those shipments over as long a period of time as you choose.
Recent experience has shown that if you are bringing a pet then this should be included on the good-to-follow list.
Examples
Your Goods To Follow list may include items like the following:
6 boxes of books .............................................. $X,XXX
1 box of kitchen utensils .................................... $XXX
4 boxes of bath linen ........................................ $XXX
5 boxes of bed linen ......................................... $XXX
TOTAL GOODS TO FOLLOW ............................... $XX,XXX
Your Goods Accompanying list may include:
1 suitcase ...................................................... $XXX
1 shoulder bag ................................................ $XXX
clothes in suitcase .......................................... $X,XXX
1 laptop computer (brand, model, serial number) ... $X,XXX
1 camera (brand, model, serial number) ............... $XXX
TOTAL GOODS ACCOMPANYING .......................... $XX,XXX
Your actual lists probably will be longer. Your Goods To Follow list may run to several pages. The point of this example is just to demonstrate the level of detail that is required.
Regards,
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Nirav Suratia , Branch Manager, , HDFC Bank Ltd., Nyaymandir Br. Vadodara
(M) 9327440547 (@) niravsinh.suratia@hdfcbank.com
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