Hello everyone.
So, I have spent too many hours trying to see if the people from the SAAQ are right OR if the officers in the Border Crossing are right (because they have different opinions about if I need to register my car in Quebec if I will be working here just for 2 years). In summary, the SAAQ is "the boss" and they are right. Check their website carefully because the information you need is there (although sometimes it is confusing).
Here is what happened with me:
Since I arrived to Quebec, I investigated if I needed to register my car (get license plates, etc.) if I will be here just for 2 years. The final answer is: if you have a temporary work permit YOU HAVE TO REGISTER YOUR CAR. The people in the border crossing (I used the one in St. Armand because it is the biggest closest to me) told me that I was wrong because all the STUDENTS come for 2 or 3 years to study and they don't have to register their cars. Exactly! Students don't have to do it, but workers DO have to do it. Which is very sad because it is a long and expensive process. Here it is:
1 - You need to export your car from the US. I won't go into details because there are other forums with this information very well explained, but in general you need to get an ITN number (I used https://aesforvehicles.com/ and I just paid $45 for the entire export process). It is true that you need to leave your car in the US for 72 hours before exporting it. What happened with us was a miracle from God as we started the process on a Friday with requesting the ITN number where I just said, and we planned to drive across the border to Swanton VT to leave the car in the Park and Ride (free) and a friend went with us to drive us back to our house in Cowansville, QC. We crossed the border the next Tuesday (with ITN number in hand, passports and the title of the vehicle) and a very nice officer in the Highgate Springs border crossing in VT let us do the entire process for exporting the car right there, the same day (so we never left our car in Swanton). However, this is NOT NORMAL!!! The only reason why the officer let us do the process without leaving the car 72 hrs in the States was because we started the process the Friday before (more than 72 hrs prior to the Tuesday we crossed the border), and because we were honestly going to leave the car in Swanton for 72 hrs. as we knew we needed to. My advice, leave the car in the states for 72 hours before exporting it because that's what the law requires. At the end we just got our title stamped and went back to Canada (once your car is officially exported you need to go back to Canada right away and start the Import process).
2. Importing the car into Quebec is simple once you know what to do (and again, DO NOT trust what people say if there is no written document stating what they claim is the "law"). As we plan to work in Quebec just for 2 years, we did a process called TEMPORARY IMPORT. Which is an option for temporary workers and the only reason why this is useful is because you don't have to pay the $345 fee for the import, and even if you HAVE to pay the FEDERAL TAXES with them, they will REIMBURSE you once you export your car and leave Canada. At the border crossing you need to show them your title with the stamp, give them some personal information, and after about 1 hour they will check your car, tell you how much you need to pay for taxes and that's it. They will give you 2 sets of documents that you need to guard with your life if you want the reimbursement of your federal taxes.
We have a Toyota Camry 2010 Standard, and they valued the car for 7,000 CAD, so the federal taxes were more than 400 CAD (that they will reimburse when we leave). Yes, cars in Canada are more expensive than in the USA (as our car in US was valued at 2,500 USD), and there is nothing we can do about it.
3. Next step is to Register the car with the SAAQ. The documents you need are: Title of the car (with the stamp of export), passport and driver's license of the owner of the car (it can be from the US), proof of inspection (check the SAAQ website for instructions) and the 2 documents that you received from Customs at the border. Once you have all this, you go to an SAAQ office, present your documents and pay the PROVINCIAL TAXES of your car (more than 700 CAD in our case) and about 200 CAD for the registration and the license plates. It is still a mystery for us if they will reimburse the provincial taxes when we leave Canada (rumors say that they won't), but they told us to call the Ministry de Revenue @ 1 800 567 4392 and check with them about this (I haven't done it, so I don't know).
And that's it! We are just waiting to change our driver's license from the US to a Quebecois and we'll be all set!
Why we did all this process? Because it's the law. The insurance company would not cover us if we don't follow the rules of SAAQ. The insurances in the US only cover you out of the US for max. 6 months (at least the ones we investigated). So we had to do it. It is true that now we are thinking in maybe importing the car entirely (not temporarily) so we can sell it here, but that might happen in more than a year from now.
BE CAREFUL WITH THE INFORMATION OUT THERE. You have no idea how many hours and frustrations I passed because people don't know what they say, they don't know the law. Especially at the border crossing. Remember, the SAAQ is the boss when talking about registration and driver's license. Different officers at different border crossings in 3 different days gave us the WRONG information (they seem very confident and very smart, and they won't admit that they are mistaken). We were supposed to do all this process during the first 3 months we were living here in Quebec, but we trusted an overconfident officer in the border crossing and waited until the insurance company told us to register the car or lose our coverage.
I hope this is helpful and may God bless you in all the processes you need to do!
So, I have spent too many hours trying to see if the people from the SAAQ are right OR if the officers in the Border Crossing are right (because they have different opinions about if I need to register my car in Quebec if I will be working here just for 2 years). In summary, the SAAQ is "the boss" and they are right. Check their website carefully because the information you need is there (although sometimes it is confusing).
Here is what happened with me:
Since I arrived to Quebec, I investigated if I needed to register my car (get license plates, etc.) if I will be here just for 2 years. The final answer is: if you have a temporary work permit YOU HAVE TO REGISTER YOUR CAR. The people in the border crossing (I used the one in St. Armand because it is the biggest closest to me) told me that I was wrong because all the STUDENTS come for 2 or 3 years to study and they don't have to register their cars. Exactly! Students don't have to do it, but workers DO have to do it. Which is very sad because it is a long and expensive process. Here it is:
1 - You need to export your car from the US. I won't go into details because there are other forums with this information very well explained, but in general you need to get an ITN number (I used https://aesforvehicles.com/ and I just paid $45 for the entire export process). It is true that you need to leave your car in the US for 72 hours before exporting it. What happened with us was a miracle from God as we started the process on a Friday with requesting the ITN number where I just said, and we planned to drive across the border to Swanton VT to leave the car in the Park and Ride (free) and a friend went with us to drive us back to our house in Cowansville, QC. We crossed the border the next Tuesday (with ITN number in hand, passports and the title of the vehicle) and a very nice officer in the Highgate Springs border crossing in VT let us do the entire process for exporting the car right there, the same day (so we never left our car in Swanton). However, this is NOT NORMAL!!! The only reason why the officer let us do the process without leaving the car 72 hrs in the States was because we started the process the Friday before (more than 72 hrs prior to the Tuesday we crossed the border), and because we were honestly going to leave the car in Swanton for 72 hrs. as we knew we needed to. My advice, leave the car in the states for 72 hours before exporting it because that's what the law requires. At the end we just got our title stamped and went back to Canada (once your car is officially exported you need to go back to Canada right away and start the Import process).
2. Importing the car into Quebec is simple once you know what to do (and again, DO NOT trust what people say if there is no written document stating what they claim is the "law"). As we plan to work in Quebec just for 2 years, we did a process called TEMPORARY IMPORT. Which is an option for temporary workers and the only reason why this is useful is because you don't have to pay the $345 fee for the import, and even if you HAVE to pay the FEDERAL TAXES with them, they will REIMBURSE you once you export your car and leave Canada. At the border crossing you need to show them your title with the stamp, give them some personal information, and after about 1 hour they will check your car, tell you how much you need to pay for taxes and that's it. They will give you 2 sets of documents that you need to guard with your life if you want the reimbursement of your federal taxes.
We have a Toyota Camry 2010 Standard, and they valued the car for 7,000 CAD, so the federal taxes were more than 400 CAD (that they will reimburse when we leave). Yes, cars in Canada are more expensive than in the USA (as our car in US was valued at 2,500 USD), and there is nothing we can do about it.
3. Next step is to Register the car with the SAAQ. The documents you need are: Title of the car (with the stamp of export), passport and driver's license of the owner of the car (it can be from the US), proof of inspection (check the SAAQ website for instructions) and the 2 documents that you received from Customs at the border. Once you have all this, you go to an SAAQ office, present your documents and pay the PROVINCIAL TAXES of your car (more than 700 CAD in our case) and about 200 CAD for the registration and the license plates. It is still a mystery for us if they will reimburse the provincial taxes when we leave Canada (rumors say that they won't), but they told us to call the Ministry de Revenue @ 1 800 567 4392 and check with them about this (I haven't done it, so I don't know).
And that's it! We are just waiting to change our driver's license from the US to a Quebecois and we'll be all set!
Why we did all this process? Because it's the law. The insurance company would not cover us if we don't follow the rules of SAAQ. The insurances in the US only cover you out of the US for max. 6 months (at least the ones we investigated). So we had to do it. It is true that now we are thinking in maybe importing the car entirely (not temporarily) so we can sell it here, but that might happen in more than a year from now.
BE CAREFUL WITH THE INFORMATION OUT THERE. You have no idea how many hours and frustrations I passed because people don't know what they say, they don't know the law. Especially at the border crossing. Remember, the SAAQ is the boss when talking about registration and driver's license. Different officers at different border crossings in 3 different days gave us the WRONG information (they seem very confident and very smart, and they won't admit that they are mistaken). We were supposed to do all this process during the first 3 months we were living here in Quebec, but we trusted an overconfident officer in the border crossing and waited until the insurance company told us to register the car or lose our coverage.
I hope this is helpful and may God bless you in all the processes you need to do!
