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.)
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.)