Landing on a NAFTA visa - how does importing my property work

[TheMaze]

In the next 60 days, I expect to be landing (is that the correct term for coming in on a NAFTA visa?) in Canada. I'm rather unclear how this all works. My current plan is to fly to Toronto and land, before flying back home and packing all my stuff. The intent is if there's some issue with the visa, I'm not sitting at the border with my life packed on a truck trying to figure out what to do. I've got a number of questions:
1. I know there is a B4 landing form - would that be the form to use in this case? If not, what do I use?
2. To what level do I need to document what I own. I own a *LOT* of stuff - in particular in the electronic/technology area. Do I need to go to the level of "1 Samsung model ABCXYZ TV, S/N 123456" or how does it work. What's a good dollar threshold to not line-item under?
3. Does the amount of stuff I own (in particular electronic/technology) seem likely to raise flags? I have an order of magnitude more computer parts than most tech people would have.
4. It sounds like I need to declare "goods to follow" when I'm landing - how does that work? I've never seen a description of this.
5. Is there a timeline of when goods to follow need to be imported by? I have family in Buffalo, NY, and am considering leaving some of my items with them to store for the first year or so I'm in Canada. Can I do this without having to pay import duty later on? Am I likely to run into issues here?
6. One of my hobbies involves collecting some atypical items - specifically, I have a collection of arcade and pinball machines. These are kept in my home and not put in businesses/do not earn money. Am I likely to encounter any issue bringing them over? There are no slot machines/other gambling devices - they are all video games and pinball machines.
7. My car is a US-spec car (model year 2005 if it matters) and does not have daylight running lights. Will I need to retrofit it with them? I am seeing conflicting information here.
8. Is alcohol also exempt? Right now I've got about 40 bottles of hard liquor. It sounded like I will have to pay duty to bring them in, even if landing. Is that correct? Roughly how much is duty?

Any other typical issues with landing? Good resources? Thanks!

 

[scylla]

Your hobby is perfectly normal. What pinball machines are you bringing? That's really the most important question.

We have a fairly active community here in Toronto. Make sure you join pinballrevolution.com - maaca.org is also good although Quebec based. My husband and I have the following in our basement (hopefully you're familiar with the acronyms): Who Dunnit (although it's leaving soon), TOTAN, FT, TZ, CV, SS, Fast Draw and MM (technically being redone and not currently in our basement).

Bringing pins down to the US from Canada is easy and there are no taxes / custom charges involved. Bringing them up here sucks if you're buying. But it should be different if you are relocating them rather than importing them. I'm not sure how that would work. This would be a good question to ask on pinballrevolution since I'm sure someone there has gone through this (that answer should cover your arcade games as well).

Here's a link that deals with some of your other questions: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomers/before-goods-what.asp

 

[TheMaze]

Your hobby is perfectly normal. What pinball machines are you bringing? That's really the most important question.

Haha yeah. So let's start with what I currently own for pins: LW3, Meteor, Fireball Classic, Whirlwind, Paragon, Viper Night Driving and Comet. For vids I have Ms Pac UR, MKII, Ms Pac Cabaret (yes, I have 2 Ms Pac's at the moment), Gorf, 4-slot Neo Geo. I've been pruning down my collection in preparation of moving. I will likely broke LW3, Fireball and Whirlwind with me, and probably the Ms Pac Cabaret and sell off the rest. I'm looking at being in an apartment for the next 1-2 years, and a condo long term, so it's not realistic for me to have a large game room, unfortunately. Most of the machines I bring with will likely end up in storage for the next year (or are there any "collector's clubs with actual buildings in Toronto - I haven't looked into that yet), with the remainder being sold off before I move.

We have a fairly active community here in Toronto. Make sure you join pinballrevolution.com - maaca.org is also good although Quebec based. My husband and I have the following in our basement (hopefully you're familiar with the acronyms): Who Dunnit (although it's leaving soon), TOTAN, FT, TZ, CV, SS, Fast Draw and MM (technically being redone and not currently in our basement).

I knew most of those. I had to look up CV and SS. Most of what I own now has been bought because it was for sale locally and cheap - not because I sought those specific titles out, but LW3, Fireball and Whirlwind grew on me so I want to keep them. On-location pinball in Charlotte (where I live now) is almost non-existent, similar to Toronto, so most of what I own I bought having never played them before. Games I would like to buy at some point would be MM (but not the remake because the company doing the remake are jerks), Python's pinball Circus when that comes out, Safecracker, I would like something from Jersey Jack's but not WOZ or their announced title. Would also like Family Guy, the Stern Star Trek, and probably Mustang. Would like a TZ and TOTAN too, but not willing to pay what they cost.

Bringing pins down to the US from Canada is easy and there are no taxes / custom charges involved. Bringing them up here sucks if you're buying. But it should be different if you are relocating them rather than importing them. I'm not sure how that would work. This would be a good question to ask on pinballrevolution since I'm sure someone there has gone through this (that answer should cover your arcade games as well). I'm just a bit worried bringing them in because that's not something that people typically import, and because I'm going to be coming here on a work visa, which means I can't do work other than that job (not that I'm planning on routing machines, but I could see it looking that way to a non-collector).

Here's a link that deals with some of your other questions: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/newcomers/before-goods-what.asp

Any input on the "Goods to follow" and timeline on that? Thanks!

 

[Rob_TO]

7. My car is a US-spec car (model year 2005 if it matters) and does not have daylight running lights. Will I need to retrofit it with them? I am seeing conflicting information here.

That depends, as you have 2 options:
1. Leave the car registered and insured in the US. If you're coming to Canada via a NAFTA work permit, then you may be returning to the US permanently sometime. During the time in Canada you can leave the car registered in the US as long as your US insurance company allows the car to spend long periods of time in Canada.
2. Officially import the car to Canada. For this yes you will need to get a safety inspection and get daytime running lights, and pay some other fees and possibly duty (depending where the car was manufactured). You will also need to ensure there are no liens against the car (so you must own it outright). Once the import is done, you would then need to insure that car from a Canadian insurer in your province. If you ever move back permanently to the US, guess you would need to do all this again to import the car back to US..

8. Is alcohol also exempt? Right now I've got about 40 bottles of hard liquor. It sounded like I will have to pay duty to bring them in, even if landing. Is that correct? Roughly how much is duty?

No alcohol is not exempt. Any visitor or Canadian resident only gets a minimal exemption, which for hard liquor is 1.14 litres (1 big bottle of something). Anything over that you will pay tax/duties depending on the province you're entering. No idea how this is calculated, but here's an online calculator (not sure how accurate it is): http://www.canadiandutycalculator.ca/index.php