Bringing personal belongings to the USA

[valerie3956 10]

Hi Visa Journey Family!

I had a couple questions regarding moving my personal belongings to the USA. Firstly, has anyone brought their belongings with them (as in renting a van with my dad, filling it with all my stuff and then just driving to the USA, this would be my POE)

Secondly, I read that your personal belongings must be in your possession for at least 1 year in order for them to be exempt of tax... Here's the thing: I received a lot of household gifts for Christmas this year, some of them of great value (Kitchen Aid stand mixer, sewing machine, etc.), and I know my family will be throwing me a "going away" shower the weekend before I move. What happens with those items that have been in my possession for less than a year? Will CBP really ask me when I received everything I am bringing with me? What's the legal way of doing this? I want to make sure that I have absolutely NO ISSUES with this either during my POE or at any other point in our lives.

What are your experiences?

[NikLR 13,232]

They dont really have to have in your possession that long. The CBP could be jerks about it but then you could leave it in Canada for a year and go pick it up because you have 10 years to move your posessions.

I moved all my things down in a uhaul when I immigrated.

Many times they don't look at your manifest or even open the uhaul.

Edited February 8, 2015 by NLR

[VeeNDee 44]

I drove over the border during my POE with my possessions. I went in the car with my fiance, and behind us were his parents towing a U haul trailer with all the boxes etc. They sent us both to secondary and we got through just fine.

As for items being in your possession longer than a year - I was really worried about this too. I had been thrown two wedding showers before leaving so had a lot of new items for the kitchen etc. What I ended up doing was just making a separate list of what was a gift from the showers along with the list of what was in my Uhaul. The guy never asked to see a list and as far as we can tell they never even opened the Uhaul to look inside. I think you should be fine!