K1 Approved! Car IMPORTING ???

[crockies99 0]

Hello. Our K1 was approved. Just in time to have our ceremony. We are going to magistrate in two days to make it official.

Question about importing cars though.

The border said we had to take her (my Canadian wife/fiance) Hyundai to a national port and pay fees to have it imported.

I have read that with a K1 that she is allowed to bring one car in to the country duty free.

Is that correct?

Anybody have any clear directions as to how we get her car legal now?

Thank you!

[Penguin_ie 5,996]

**** Moving from K1 to Moving Here and Your New Life forum *****

[VeeNDee 44]

Hello. Our K1 was approved. Just in time to have our ceremony. We are going to magistrate in two days to make it official.

Question about importing cars though.

The border said we had to take her (my Canadian wife/fiance) Hyundai to a national port and pay fees to have it imported.

I have read that with a K1 that she is allowed to bring one car in to the country duty free.

Is that correct?

Anybody have any clear directions as to how we get her car legal now?

Thank you!

Yes you can bring a car into the country duty free. I have one question - does she own her car or is it still financed? If it is financed they may not be able to import it until the loan has been fully paid off. Other people here know more about that process.

For the car, you need to request what is called a 'compliance letter' from Hyundai stating that the car complies to US safety and environmental standards. They may charge you a small fee for this but you will need it to import the car. Basically what you do is show up to the border with the car and tell them you want to import it. They will send you inside to secondary processing where you have to fill out a bunch of paperwork. You will need a copy of your license and registration and whatnot inside with you, as well as the compliance letter. You may also want to know the value of your car for importing - you don't have to pay duty on it but they still want to know the value - I found out my car's value from Kelly Blue Book.

Hope that is helpful!

P.S. I imported my car at an actual border entry because the Seattle Port of Entry officer was absolutely terrible and told me I couldn't import it without a greencard which is TOTALLY incorrect. I ended up importing my car about 4 months after POE because I had to wait for AP/EAD to be able to get across the border and back to re-enter the USA with the car. I imported the car WITHOUT my greencard. So hopefully you don't get someone who doesn't know what they are doing at your local port of entry. I think I just had bad luck with that guy. Sigh.

Oh and I didn't pay fees to import my car either with my K1

Oh one more thing- make sure you take along the passport with the K1 visa inside so they know she is eligible for a duty free import. He photocopied my K1 visa.

[pro_star 52]

What he said about the loan is correct (or at least that's what the guy at the dealership told me - the loans won't carry over). Hyundai Canada should be able to provide a letter of compliance for the US highway fun. (Or tell you what needs to be done - but I've heard our collision etc standards are higher so...should be okay).

Options with the financing, since if you transfer to a us bank, you will lose any awesome financing she may have...is keep a Canadian account open just for the loan. Transfer money into it/have a friend/family across the border deposit cheques on a regular basis...there ya go.

Let me know what you do end up doing and do find out- my knowledge is based on my attempts at fact finding which I've just started - still a ways away from the great move.

[NigeriaorBust 4,087]

You need the compliance letter but you will have some time because your now wife is stuck in the US until she has AP in hand ( 90 days or so)