Moving from US To Canada - Movers

[gprasad.n]

Anyone has any experience with smaller moves? Looks like UPack specializes in bigger ones.

I have a studio apartment but if it will cost too much to move furniture, I am leaving them and just moving my stuff and a couple appliances. Moving from NYC to TO. I already landed a couple of years back and I still have my to-follow inventory list, however, I have definitely accumulated more stuff since then. Any suggestions/insight will be super helpful.

upack will still be cheaper unless you want to bring the items yourself with an uhaul. Since yours is a studio apartment get a pod from upack instead of truck which will even be cheaper. uhaul also has similar service like upack which will deliver you a pod to load your stuff. Check with them too. I took 28' truck, my stuff took 13' and upack only charged for used space. The guy at the upack in Cambridge, ON was really good, helpful and accommodative during my move. I had accumulated some stuff too when I moved and I had no problems with that. I drove my car with me, which I had already declared. CBSA asked me why are you bringing your items now and your document is dated 2015. I said, I landed in 2015, I was trying to get a job since then, I got a job now and I've decided to move. Let me know if you need any more info.

 

[Jaina_Fel]

upack will still be cheaper unless you want to bring the items yourself with an uhaul. Since yours is a studio apartment get a pod from upack instead of truck which will even be cheaper. uhaul also has similar service like upack which will deliver you a pod to load your stuff. Check with them too. I took 28' truck, my stuff took 13' and upack only charged for used space. The guy at the upack in Cambridge, ON was really good, helpful and accommodative during my move. I had accumulated some stuff too when I moved and I had no problems with that. I drove my car with me, which I had already declared. CBSA asked me why are you bringing your items now and your document is dated 2015. I said, I landed in 2015, I was trying to get a job since then, I got a job now and I've decided to move. Let me know if you need any more info.

Do they deliver the pods, too? I don't have a car so I can't move stuff on my own. If my stuff moves by land, do I have to go with it when it crosses the border?

thanks!

 

[gprasad.n]

Do they deliver the pods, too?

thanks!

Yes. upack delivers pods too.

I don't have a car so I can't move stuff on my own.

You don't have to have a car to move on your own, you can always rent a truck.

If my stuff moves by land, do I have to go with it when it crosses the border?

No. You don't have to go with it to cross the border, but give your goods to follow list to upack - if you had filled one already while landing, CBSA would have given you a blue form and you've to give a copy of that as well along with copies of your passport and PR card. Your items will be held in a customs office once it reaches CAN. Upack will let you know which customs office - Depending upon your destination address. You've to go to the local customs office / airport to clear it. Once cleared, you can schedule a delivery with local upack office.

You can also try uship.com you could find quotes from various movers and you can read reviews and choose the one that you are comfortable. However, I am not sure how it works for the cross border move. It is cheaper if you are moving within the US.

Hope it helps. Let me know if you need more info.

 

[APPNOV2014NY]

Few clarifications :

1. Upack pod is called as ReloCube. You cannot tow this ReloCube behind your car or truck.

You can either :
a) ask Upack to drop ReloCube on a street in front of your house/parking area of apt and fill it up. Upack folks will come back 3 days later to pick up filled ReloCube.

OR

b) You can carry stuff via UHaul etc to Upack office and fill ReloCube there.

2. If you have big items then Upack can drop big trailer to near your home/apartment and then pick it up later once it's filled up. However, trailer is quite big and will require significant parking space and most probably parking permit. If you have big items then it's better to fill trailer at Upack location.

http://www.upack.com/moving-services/moving-container.asp

I did a 3 way move.

In USA , I hired a local mover to move stuff from my rental apt to Upack location. Movers filled up trailer
Upack moved trailer from USA offfice to Canada office in Droval , QC.
Then I hired Canadian mover to move stuff from Canadian Upack to my rental apt near Dorval.

This 3 way move came out significantly cheaper than other popular options for ex- Vanlines. Also , I got more flexibility. For ex- Upack allows 3 days to drop items and 3 days to pick items. So , you get couple of days to find rental apt in destination and sign lease before you pick up stuff. In my case Upack droval said that it's OK if you pick items in a week. Direct movers need destination address before they pick items from source else they will charge for storage.

 

[gprasad.n]

I did 2 way move as it was hard for me to secure a parking permit in D.C. area to park a trailer / relocubes for over 2 - 3 hours. I used a local mover to load my stuff on to the trailer at upack terminal. Later from the upack website, I found that you can even request them to wait for couple of hours while you load your stuff at your house on to the trailer. If I had seen this before I would have saved another US$500, anyways I leveraged that when I unloaded my items in Canada which saved me around CA$250. I also hired couple of guys for CA$250 to help me unload my stuff from the trailer. In my case I spent less than US$3000 (Thanks to this forum for suggesting upack) all inclusive packing materials, charges for moving help and etc . It is way cheaper than the professional vanlines whose quotes were ranging from US$7000 - US$10000. When you load your items make sure you secure them with moving blankets and proper support to avoid any damages. If you decide to use upack you've to put lots of effort as well as time.

 

[APPNOV2014NY]

I found that you can even request them to wait for couple of hours while you load your stuff at your house on to the trailer.

Good piece of information. Will try this in my next USA --> Canada move ;D

 

[sraj07]

Hi all,

I did my soft landing last year and came back to USA . I will leave US in May and go to india for 3 months vacation and then later move to Canada permanently .

I have to move my used house hold stuff - [May be 7 or 8 boxes - around 500 pounds in total] through FEDEX or DHL from US to Canada before i leave to India for vacation . Can i pack and send the stuff to my cousin in Canada ? Or we can only send goods only to our address in Canada . Huh

I do have the "Goods to Follow" form stamped in airport during my landing . In that i mentioned my cousin address as my landing address . So can i just use that copy attached to my commercial invoice document while shipping ?

Any suggestions pls.

 

[Kuchbhi]

I am entering Canada with a UHaul and my belonging including king mattress in it. I purchased the mattress new in US. Do i need to get it fumigated?

 

[Mort Sinclair]

I moved from West Virginia to Ontario in 2010 on a work permit. I rented a Penske truck and moved myself. I went to the trouble of inventorying everything in a spreadsheet, and had my mattress in the truck too.

Your experience may be different, but when I crossed at the Ambassador Bridge, the CBSA agent didn't want to see my inventory list, and just had me lift the overhead door of the truck so he could take a (seriously) five-second glance inside and he told me I was all set.

How big a truck did you rent? We would be moving from New Hampshire to Nova Scotia. Any idea what the (adjusted) cost might be in 2018 for the rental?

 

[2_of_5]

How big a truck did you rent? We would be moving from New Hampshire to Nova Scotia. Any idea what the (adjusted) cost might be in 2018 for the rental?

I believe it was a 26-foot truck. As far as cost, I have no idea. I think I paid around $400-$500 back then, with a tow dolly as well. Best bet is to give them a call. Good luck!

 

[Foxdie]

Guys I just moved my stuff from NYC to Toronto couple of weeks back. Considering I have moved quite a few times in the past few years, here is my advice -

If it is a small studio or even 1 bedroom or two bedroom apartment, you are better off just selling big stuff and buying new stuff in Canada unless your current stuff is very expensive. I was living in a 2 bedroom apartment, I sold all big items except electronics, expensive kitchen items, Projector etc.

Packed everything remaining in boxes and put it at my sister's place. You can put it at a storage facility as well.

Then I packed my bags and moved to Canada. Declared things to follow.
After I bought my car, I drove back and picked up my remaining stuff and went back. My SUV was full of stuff but absolutely no issues at immigration. You can also rent a car and drive back to US to pick stuff.

But if you have a big house and you intend to move everything, you can rent a truck and use a service like "Hire a helper" to load stuff in the truck.
Cross the border, go through immigration and hire helpers to unload.
Please note in this case you will have to pay a considerable amount of money for truck rental because it will be one way rental with drop off charge which could be easily over 1K bucks. Also, the pricing of the trucks can be tricky, means they will charge you some fixed money and will also charge you per mile driven, which depending on your case add another big chunk of money. To it add cost of hiring people to load and unload which could be about another 300 to 400 bucks.

You can get estimates and see what is better money wise as well as hassle wise.

 

[Foxdie]

How big a truck did you rent? We would be moving from New Hampshire to Nova Scotia. Any idea what the (adjusted) cost might be in 2018 for the rental?

My friend just call truck rental company and get estimate. Make sure you also ask if there is an additional cost per mile driven. Also tell then that it will be one way rental.

 

[kellyhanna]

Me and my family has been looking for cheap packers and movers, is there anyone who can suggest some names for us.

 

[khoowin]

A friend of mine used Moovaz.com when they relocated to Canada from Singapore. They are operating as a tech company now and I believe they have one of the cheapest prices. At least for now I believe. My friends used them and find it somewhat refreshing they way they manage their clients.

 

[amolsjain89]

Can anyone please let me know if bring new un-opened mattress from US to Canada in an SUV?