Canadian Car, US GC holder, Canadian PR- options?

[mugatu300 8]

Hello, my wife is a Canadian PR with a Canadian car. She is has been in the USA since November 2023. She just received her US green card a few days ago through the adjustment of status path. We had two unrelated questions:

 

1) can she return to Canada and sell the car in Canada without issue?

 

2) how long can she continue to drive the car in the USA without any issues (before she needs to formally import it into the USA)? I know non residents can drive it for a year and she’s been here for 8 months already but now that she’s officially a green card holder I’m not sure if that changes things….

[NorthByNorthwest 347]

43 minutes ago, mugatu300 said:

1) can she return to Canada and sell the car in Canada without issue?

 

No issues, though if she tried to come back into the US with it once more she might get additional questions.

 

43 minutes ago, mugatu300 said:

2) how long can she continue to drive the car in the USA without any issues (before she needs to formally import it into the USA)? I know non residents can drive it for a year and she’s been here for 8 months already but now that she’s officially a green card holder I’m not sure if that changes things….

 

It's still one year as long as she has proper insurance. License plates are automatically captured every time you enter by land border, so CBP knows exactly when the car first entered the country.

 

It can still be a hassle to import from Canada to the US, so I'd probably go for selling it in Canada. A small thing like TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) can trip you up since it is mandatory in the US but not in Canada and even new Canadian models can come without the tire sensors as well as the hardware needed to read them.

[mugatu300 8]

12 hours ago, NorthByNorthwest said:

 

No issues, though if she tried to come back into the US with it once more she might get additional questions.

 

 

It's still one year as long as she has proper insurance. License plates are automatically captured every time you enter by land border, so CBP knows exactly when the car first entered the country.

 

It can still be a hassle to import from Canada to the US, so I'd probably go for selling it in Canada. A small thing like TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) can trip you up since it is mandatory in the US but not in Canada and even new Canadian models can come without the tire sensors as well as the hardware needed to read them.

So no issues with her selling it in Canada then right? Not sure if the fact that she’s now resident of US/green card holder would complicate that or not…

[NorthByNorthwest 347]

2 hours ago, mugatu300 said:

So no issues with her selling it in Canada then right? Not sure if the fact that she’s now resident of US/green card holder would complicate that or not…

 

Yeah, unless you sell it for more than you paid for it (unlikely) there are no tax implications - selling it in Canada is the simplest option by far.