Leo The Great

Peace Bridge - It takes 20 minutes - 1 hour to import vehicle depending upon how many people are in the secondary area for vehicle import.

We imported two cars in December 2024 by driving it to US. As long as you can get compliance letter from Car manufacture, it should not be problem. you can also import it from US also either by driving the car to nearest border or airport.

Already installed in both vehicles. You just go to the agent at cabin with paper work and tell agent that you want to import vehicle. They will take your passport ask you to go to a building used for secondary

No need to carry car papers if you travelling by air. read following with regards to duty for reimporting car. Source https://www.cbp.gov/trade/basic-import-export/importing-car Re-Importing A Previously Exported Vehicle - A vehicle taken from the United States for non-commercial, private use may be returned duty free by proving to CBP that it was previously owned and registered in the United States. This proof may be a state-issued registration card for the automobile or a bill of sale for the car from a U.S. dealer. Repairs or accessories acquired abroad for your vehicle must be declared on your return and may be subject to duty. In some countries, it will be difficult or impossible to obtain unleaded fuel for your vehicle. If the vehicle is driven using leaded gasoline, it will be necessary for you to replace the catalyst and oxygen sensor upon its return to the U.S. To avoid the expense of replacing these parts you may obtain authorization from EPA to remove the catalyst and oxygen sensor before the vehicle is shipped overseas. The EPA telephone number for these authorizations is (202) 564-2418. When the vehicle returns to the U.S., the original catalyst and oxygen sensor will need to be reinstalled. However, you may now reenter your U.S. version vehicle into the U.S. without bond, upon your assurance that you will have the reinstallation performed.

Check with the cross border accountant the gain tax you will need to pay if your home closing is after crossing border and it is your primary residence before the activation of green card. It vary from case to case but there is 25% capital gain tax in Canada If you sell it after becoming US resident and it does not meet the criteria for primary residence as per CRA. Your property lawyer will ask you if you are resident of Canada at the time of closing. There is no capital gain tax on your primary residence if you are Canadian resident for tax purpose.

Yes it is possible. That is what we did. Activated our green card first and imported 2 vehicles later.

Zero cost for importing vehicles made for Canada and approx $25 for VIN check and new Title and $6 for plate + annual renewal fee

If you planning to import vehicle to US, you need to get the compliance letter from vehicle manufacturer as a first step. We have imported two personal vehicles to US and registered them with DMV recently.

Our one car was made in Japan but sold in Canada by Mazda. We did not pay any duty on it. Both cars now have Ohio number plates although we had to do the Emission check before BMO issued number plates because of our county requirements.

It mean your administrative processing is complete and CO will review the outcome of AP. Once the review is complete you will get Medical and Passport Request. Hope this will help. This reply is based on Montreal consulate replies in the past

We imported our vehicle via Buffalo land border without any problem. Whole process took 20 minutes. You need to have compliance letter from car manufacturer, EPA 3501-1 form and DOT HS-7 Form, original registration, vehicle purchase agreement and recalls fixed. Officer sent assistant to check EPA sticker ,VIN, year of manufacturing sticker on the car. CBP officer typed three forms on the computer and returned us the stamped forms including 7501 form for DMV. There is no duties on the car manufactured for Canada.

It is an immigrant fee $235 you need to pay to receive green card USCIS Immigrant Fee | USCIS

We received only passport and a page with instructions how to pay fee and no other documents. All documents are electronically available to CBP these days

Thanks for the info. Two follow up questions 1. Does permission letter need to be notarized? 2. In addition to drive it with permission letter, one parent can also import the vehicle via land border that is registered on other parent’s name correct?

Yes. If it is awaiting review by consular, it mean your AP is done. Visa will be issued once consular approve your case

We are driving our car to US Peace Bridge land border to import it to US. We got compliance letter (with both parent names on it) from manufacture and all recalls have been repaired. We have couple of question with regards to US custom. 1. if the ownership/sale agreement of the car is on both parents name's but the registration is on my mother name and father is driving alone to border for import it, would there be any problem. Do mother needs to write consent letter and sign all forms or father signatures are good enough? Both parents are green card holder and immigrated to US this year. 2. Can my father carry now tires and other personal stuff in it or it would create an issue at US custom while importing?

Congrats!! Yes it is from legit source

We got 5 unsolicited updates in 3 weeks duration and received the request for medical and passport. The clearance was infact received on first update. Rest of the updates seemed to be related to internal review by consulate

I know I can just cross border with Canadian vehicle and keep it in US up to one year without US registration. Can we properly import vehicle without compliance letter using import forms? Our Canadian vehicle has safety recall related to fuel injectors and the Honda USA refused to issue compliance letter until it is fixed and Honda Canada does not parts inventory since 1 year and they are not ready to fix problem if the vehicle is running fine.

You do not need to update any travel history after the submission of DS-5535 nor it will delay your processing. Keep the thing simple.

Yes, We crossed the border and returned to Canada earlier this year because 2nd visa was in AP. The green card was delivered to the US address but SSN was not delivered beside we checked the option in the DS-260 form. So we had to go to SSN after 5 weeks(On next visit to US) to get it (SSN# was available from same office next day) and later physical card was delivered to US address

You will receive the case update as soon as doctor office upload your results. In our case, doctor's office uploaded results 4 days after medical and our case date was updated same day (Saturday) as we received the confirmation email from doctor's office same day.

Bank rates seems to be much lower than the exchange companies CAD->USD. We seems to be losing 3-4% of money if we use our bank for exchange. Would bank give us the better rate if we are transferring a large sum of money from property sale? Anyone has prior experience getting better rate with the bank?

Thanks for the reply. Have you done big transaction with this company in the past and how are their exchange rates as per your research?

What is the best and safest way to transfer money in CAD to USD after selling property in Canada? Which Canadian/US bank is the best for cross border transfer?