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Goods to follow / how detailed / citizen/PR couple?

armoured

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Feb 1, 2015
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Preparing for arrival to Canada in a few months and looking at the 'goods to follow' requirements (we will have luggage with us and a shipment separately). This is entirely comprised of household goods, with not much of particularly high value, save perhaps some jewelry (nothing too extravagant), and a sort-of antiquey camera collection. Some paintings that are not particularly valuable (we have the cultural items export issue from country of residence in hand). The rest is plain old household goods, clothes, personal effects, some furniture, a modest amount of electronic goods, kitchen items and the like and not very much furniture. No cars, forbidden items, dangerous items, agricultural, or other problematic matters. We have not and do not plan to acquire any big-ticket items in the interim.

So my main questions:
1) In the 'goods to follow' declaration, any experiences or guidelines about how much detail is required? I would think/imagine that high value items (over $1000? some other number?) should be itemized in more detail and we shall do that (with model/serial number where appropriate). We can do pictures if useful. But after that - I presume it's okay to group items, but how much detail - eg clothes (some volume designation, or number of items - how exact)? I suspect that large physical items (eg furniture) best to just list - e.g. couch white. Paintings etc - separately but with short description? Kitchen items - seems silly to itemize, "kitchen items - two boxes" might be sufficient?. For some electronics, would hope to just list things like brand/type (Sony Television - one, for example). We can but would hope not to do serial numbers except where higher value. "Children's toys - two boxes" would be another suggested grouping, that would be easy enough.

Any experience welcome here. I am going over in my mind but there is little that I think of as high-enough value to bother going into much detail.

2) I'm a returning Canadian citizen (more than five years abroad) and my spouse and kids new PRs. I can't see any reason to split the items arriving, but am I missing something? I'm assuming/hoping that a single large list of household items would be sufficient. And happy to put all in the name of myself (for example) if that's acceptable/easier.

All we really want to do is avoid getting into any disputes or delays with CBSA/CRA, and any monetary or other surprises. We've no need to hide anything, but neither do we want to do excessive work listing garments individually (but if we must to avoid tariffs or GST, well, then we must).

If the general view/experience is that what are obviously household items are just let in without much examination, that'd be ideal. (Again, we would be careful with high-value items, but I doubt we have more than a handful of items worth more than a few thousand dollars; even things we think of as 'valuable' are mostly less than a thousand. The rest is just stuff and of value only for use or personal reasons.)
 

armoured

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Feb 1, 2015
15,224
7,750
Ah, additional question - for the goods to follow, do I understand correctly that there's no prescribed format or form that must be used? Just a simple and understandable table should be sufficient?

And I guess I provide this list in two copies and we sign some declaration on arrival, to which the list is attached? (And presumably a copy/copies provided ot the shipping company?)
 

Buletruck

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May 18, 2015
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When I returned to Canada, I simply listed big items (specific furniture, big ticket, high value jewelry items individually) and more common items (clothes, dishes, etc) by box....I.e. suitcase of clothes, box of kitchen utensils, box of bedding. Numbered each corresponding item with the line number on the form where it was list and whether it was to follow or not.
Handed CBSA the form on arrival (requested secondary) and it took maybe 15 minutes for them to go over it. Once the goods to follow arrived, had to go to customs, present the paperwork for them to review and release the goods from bond. Was done in 30 minutes. They never even looked in the sea can or inspected the luggage on arrival (although, as usual, that’ll depend on the specific CBSA officer you encounter). They just signed off and sent me on my way.

I made 3 copies..one for myself, one for cbsa and one for the shipping company to include. At the time it was a BSF185 and there was a supplementary form for extra goods, but I also formatted a spreadsheet in the same format (I had a ton of crap). I kept goods to follow on a separate list from the goods being carried. Don’t think it made much difference though.
 
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armoured

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Feb 1, 2015
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At the time it was a BSF185 and there was a supplementary form for extra goods, but I also formatted a spreadsheet in the same format (I had a ton of crap).
Thank you so much, this type of experience is exactly what I was looking for.

And also thanks, now I see the form in question. I am guessing/interpreting that they don't seem to necessarily care too much that the itemized list be done on the form i.e. just spreadsheet table format is fine.

Seems overall my guesses were not that far off on the basics of procedure and what info is needed.

Any other experiences or info from all comers much appreciated.
 

Buletruck

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May 18, 2015
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I had specifically stopped in secondary on a prior trip home to enquire what CBSA was looking for on the forms, as the instructions are a bit ambiguous. It was CBSA that had directed me to number items/boxes to correspond to the list as a means of streamlining any potential review of goods and not to list every single item individually (she actually pleaded with me not to do that) as it presents reams of paperwork. Given your exempt on duty on repatriation, it makes sense that all they really care about is recent/big ticket purchases people try to slip past as duty free.
 
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armoured

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Feb 1, 2015
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I had specifically stopped in secondary on a prior trip home to enquire what CBSA was looking for on the forms, as the instructions are a bit ambiguous. It was CBSA that had directed me to number items/boxes to correspond to the list as a means of streamlining any potential review of goods and not to list every single item individually (she actually pleaded with me not to do that) as it presents reams of paperwork. Given your exempt on duty on repatriation, it makes sense that all they really care about is recent/big ticket purchases people try to slip past as duty free.
This is exceptionally helpful, thank you very much. It gives me much more comfort about preparing and far more manageable.
 

armoured

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Feb 1, 2015
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@Buletruck - a follow-up question (or for others, too).

Did you use a commercial mover? Did the commercial mover provide any kind of manifest or list, roughly the same format, of eg number of boxes/numbered boxes and what kind of stuff was in each box? Trying to clarify with our movers right now.

Would just sort of like to know what to expect and what to demand/request. While it might be possible for me to keep track of the boxes and what's going in where, etc., I also expect that (as always) the day that this happens is going to be an absolute nightmare.
 

Buletruck

VIP Member
May 18, 2015
6,666
2,521
@Buletruck - a follow-up question (or for others, too).

Did you use a commercial mover? Did the commercial mover provide any kind of manifest or list, roughly the same format, of eg number of boxes/numbered boxes and what kind of stuff was in each box? Trying to clarify with our movers right now.

Would just sort of like to know what to expect and what to demand/request. While it might be possible for me to keep track of the boxes and what's going in where, etc., I also expect that (as always) the day that this happens is going to be an absolute nightmare.
I did use a commercial mover. I had them list the items in the boxes and number the items with a description on the list. I just cleaned up the list afterward. They had (at least in my case) a move coordinator on site that kept track of what was going where on the BSF supplemental form. It wasn’t perfect, but it was pretty close.
 
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