JayPinNC said:
I'm about to do this in 11 days. Will be driving a moving truck across the border while wifey drives the family car with a suitcase in the back. We still have ties to the U.S. - bank account, house, investments, etc - but I'm moving 99% of our things to make life a little simpler and she's visiting to help us me get settled, etc. She gets nervous easily and I'm trying to give her clear concise answers for questions she's likely to get when she crosses. If anybody has input, it's welcome as always.
Done.
Drove up to the border at Queenston-Lewiston (use the RV lane if you have a moving truck) with wifey in our car behind me. Explained to the border officer what we were doing and I was asked the typical questions for anybody who crosses under normal circumstances. I admitted I had a palm tree in my truck and I got a tongue-lashing about pests and soil. I was told that I'd have to discard the plant and soil. (more on that later).
Was directed to the parking area while wifey got questioned. She said she was nervous but was asked the basics (and a few questions about why our son was already in Canada) but nothing beyond that.
We headed inside to complete the importation of my goods. I was told that I had created one of the best accounting of goods the CBSA guy had ever seen. We chit-chatted about my car value (it's on my list of goods to follow) and he even let me use the Red Book to make sure both my valuation and the CBSA valuation was under $10,000CAD. Both were under the $10,000 value. Exportation/importation of my vehicle will be another post. I got my receipt, stamps on my spreadsheets, and headed over to immigration to handle wifey's situation (I'm her Dec 2014 outland sponsor).
We walked to the immigration counter together, explained what was going on and the two CBSA folks working the immigration counter couldn't have been more helpful (they were obviously "work wife" / "work husband" to each other - they were busting each others' chops the entire time while remaining professional.) We explained that we had paid the PR application fees but had no AOR or UCI (they didn't know what either meant meant) but they managed to see some details of the application so we knew it was in process to some degree which was very helpful. They asked how long my wife wanted to stay and she said "As long as legally possible." We also explained that she still has ties to the U.S. - including a father in FL with cancer and they were very clear that she should use that fact when she went to extend or reapply for her visitor record. Aside from reviewing her passport, they took our word for everything but we were definitely prepared.
It took them about an hour to print her VR because they are learning a new system (that was their claim) but in the end, we got the 6 month VR (we didn't ask for it - it was just given), my receipt for goods and we were on our way.
As for the palm tree...a gentle reminder from the CBSA officer who processed my B4 about the dangers of pests + soil. I'd tell you about what happened when I opened the door to the moving truck to show CBSA what was inside, but uh...that never happened. 9pm on a Friday night and -9F probably contributed to that.
If you have any specific questions, ask here or PM me. Happy to answer questions about my experience.
