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Bringing Jewelery on Landing-Help please.

MM345

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Hi guys,

On landing, i intend to bring all my jewelry (gold) items with me. This is what the CIC website says with regard to jewelry items (http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomers/before-goods-what.asp):

Jewelry or precious ornaments
Officers may ask you questions about these items during your customs interview. Make sure you describe these items on your list of goods. To avoid delays at customs when you enter Canada:

On your list of goods, use the wording from your insurance policy or jeweler’s appraisal.
Have photographs of the items.
Know how much you paid for the items or have a receipt showing how much you paid. You do not need to pay duty or tax on family heirlooms.


My questions are:

1) Jeweler's appraisal: Does that mean that i must go to a jeweler and find the current value of each piece of jewelry? Does it have to be on a jeweler's letter head or something?
2) I dont have receipts for all jewelry items as some are jewelry passed in the family and some are gifts at the time of my wedding. What do i do in this case?

3) Can anyone please confirm if the above text on the CIC website is sufficient? Any recent experience at landing?

Thank you!
 
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Hurlabrick

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No personal experience of this yet. We read the same thing and have read others posts and experiences on this and other forums.

We are pretty 'risk averse' and don't want any possible dramas with CBSA / Customs when we land, so we have gone the whole hog and for any items of real jewellery (i.e. not obvious costume stuff) we have:

* Description and insurance value on 'goods accompanying' list
* Photograph
* Written insurance valuation from a jeweller (yes, you have to pay for these) OR the original receipt from when we bought it
* Each item separately listed on the goods accompanying list

For items like watches we have the serial number, full make and model, description and photos and have printed out web pages from retail sellers quoting current prices.

We are probably going 'over the top' and I am sure others will have managed entry with less, but we think it is worth the hassle to avoid the risk of any drama in Canada after a long flight with jet lag!
 

MM345

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Hurlabrick said:
No personal experience of this yet. We read the same thing and have read others posts and experiences on this and other forums.

We are pretty 'risk averse' and don't want any possible dramas with CBSA / Customs when we land, so we have gone the whole hog and for any items of real jewellery (i.e. not obvious costume stuff) we have:

* Description and insurance value on 'goods accompanying' list
* Photograph
* Written insurance valuation from a jeweller (yes, you have to pay for these) OR the original receipt from when we bought it
* Each item separately listed on the goods accompanying list

For items like watches we have the serial number, full make and model, description and photos and have printed out web pages from retail sellers quoting current prices.

We are probably going 'over the top' and I am sure others will have managed entry with less, but we think it is worth the hassle to avoid the risk of any drama in Canada after a long flight with jet lag!
Thanks for your reply Hurlabrick.

Can you please explain what you mean by Written insurance valuation from a jeweller?
 

Hurlabrick

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MM345 said:
Thanks for your reply Hurlabrick.

Can you please explain what you mean by Written insurance valuation from a jeweller?
You go into a jewellers store, hand them the jewellery in question and ask them to prepare a written valuation of each item for insurance purposes (i.e. what you should insure it for and what it would likely cost to replace, rather than what they as a jeweller would pay you to buy them!).

The jeweller will then examine each item so they can describe it and value it (e.g. 9ct / 14ct / 18ct gold, what colour gold, what other metal might it be, platinum etc. how big is the diamond, what colour, what cut, how many in the setting, how mounted etc.). They will normally list all of the items on one piece of headed paper and value each, then the jeweller signs the headed paper and hands it to you.

They almost always charge for this, our charged £GBP15 per item. In our case, we had to leave them with the jeweller for a few days.

In addition to this, we took our own photographs and printed them out as well.

None of which is a big deal, just another item on the long list of pre-move activities!
 

MM345

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Hurlabrick said:
You go into a jewellers store, hand them the jewellery in question and ask them to prepare a written valuation of each item for insurance purposes (i.e. what you should insure it for and what it would likely cost to replace, rather than what they as a jeweller would pay you to buy them!).

The jeweller will then examine each item so they can describe it and value it (e.g. 9ct / 14ct / 18ct gold, what colour gold, what other metal might it be, platinum etc. how big is the diamond, what colour, what cut, how many in the setting, how mounted etc.). They will normally list all of the items on one piece of headed paper and value each, then the jeweller signs the headed paper and hands it to you.

They almost always charge for this, our charged £GBP15 per item. In our case, we had to leave them with the jeweller for a few days.

In addition to this, we took our own photographs and printed them out as well.

None of which is a big deal, just another item on the long list of pre-move activities!
Thank you very much!
 

cheng9999

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Dec 14, 2015
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MM345 said:
Thanks for your reply Hurlabrick.

Can you please explain what you mean by Written insurance valuation from a jeweller?
What happens is you are allowed to bring in the jewellery even if there are no receipts or appraisals. The problem is that when you take the same pieces of jewellery out (say even on vacation, you wear some of them on you), when you re-enter, you may have trouble bringing them back in tax-free.

If you have no intention of every bringing them out of Canada, then it's not a problem. Or you can get appraisal later when you arrive in Canada, and register whatever pieces you will bring out at the airport's customs office with those documents.
 

MM345

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cheng9999 said:
What happens is you are allowed to bring in the jewellery even if there are no receipts or appraisals. The problem is that when you take the same pieces of jewellery out (say even on vacation, you wear some of them on you), when you re-enter, you may have trouble bringing them back in tax-free.

If you have no intention of every bringing them out of Canada, then it's not a problem. Or you can get appraisal later when you arrive in Canada, and register whatever pieces you will bring out at the airport's customs office with those documents.
I think in the future i would take them out of the country, for instance if i have to go at a wedding in the home country.

So the best way is to have them all appraised by a jeweller this time and present the appraisal during landing. Although im not sure if a jeweller in Pakistan is going to understand "appraisal for insurance purposes".
 

TANMEX

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MM345 said:
I think in the future i would take them out of the country, for instance if i have to go at a wedding in the home country.

So the best way is to have them all appraised by a jeweller this time and present the appraisal during landing. Although im not sure if a jeweller in Pakistan is going to understand "appraisal for insurance purposes".
You don't need to appraise them , just put an estimate value on your list of goods , are allowed to export Jewelry from Pakistan , some countries don't allow large exports of Gold .
 

MM345

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TANMEX said:
You don't need to appraise them , just put an estimate value on your list of goods , are allowed to export Jewelry from Pakistan , some countries don't allow large exports of Gold .
Hi, have u landed yet?
 

MM345

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TANMEX said:
My wife landing this coming Monday
Ok, is she bringing any jewellery? Would appreciate if you can share her experience later with us.
 

TANMEX

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MM345 said:
Ok, is she bringing any jewellery? Would appreciate if you can share her experience later with us.
Yes, she is bringing her personal jewelry .
 

MM345

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TANMEX said:
Yes, she is bringing her personal jewelry .
Ok, after her landing, do let me know her experience.