List of Goods - Landing...

[nyssa]

The CIC website is confusing the heck out of me when it comes to how I'm supposed to import my things. Honestly, I'll probably be hiring a service to drive my goods for me. Do I give them this list? Do I organize my items like "30 shirts, 1 box = value $60" ? I really have junk, honestly. Nothing of high value except my headboard for my bed I'm bringing which was bought a long time ago... anyway, my question is, where can I find a better explanation on HOW IN THE WORLD to fill in those forms, etc than CIC is giving me? I couldn't really find a good answer here, either. Thanks, you guys. 8)

 

[Swede]

The CIC website is confusing the heck out of me when it comes to how I'm supposed to import my things. Honestly, I'll probably be hiring a service to drive my goods for me. Do I give them this list? Do I organize my items like "30 shirts, 1 box = value $60" ? I really have junk, honestly. Nothing of high value except my headboard for my bed I'm bringing which was bought a long time ago... anyway, my question is, where can I find a better explanation on HOW IN THE WORLD to fill in those forms, etc than CIC is giving me? I couldn't really find a good answer here, either. Thanks, you guys. 8)

I specified the more expensive things to follow and generalized the rest:

"1x hi-fi system, $300; 1x bed $400; cds, $500; miscellaneous personal effects, $200"

The border official had no problem with it...

 

[heatherusa]

The CIC website is confusing the heck out of me when it comes to how I'm supposed to import my things. Honestly, I'll probably be hiring a service to drive my goods for me. Do I give them this list? Do I organize my items like "30 shirts, 1 box = value $60" ? I really have junk, honestly. Nothing of high value except my headboard for my bed I'm bringing which was bought a long time ago... anyway, my question is, where can I find a better explanation on HOW IN THE WORLD to fill in those forms, etc than CIC is giving me? I couldn't really find a good answer here, either. Thanks, you guys. 8)

I can only tell you about my experience as a "returning Canadian"

At Sweetwater at the border between Montana and Alberta I had a list of what was in my uhaul. They wanted me to copy that list on to the form that they had...( i dont know off the top of my head what that was).

I classified things as follows"

1 bunk bed 400
3 computer monitors 100
5 boxes womens clothes 100
1 box of shoes 100 (actually priceless... how can a woman live without her shoes)
12 video games 100
1 Wiii 150
1 bedroom set 500
1 tv stand 250


they told me i could generalize... YAY... and it was just filling out this form...

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publications/forms-formulaires/b4-eng.pdf

which is the same form that Cbsa lists as the form for immigrant goods.

send me a message if you want more info.

 

[nyssa]

Great, you guys are wonderful. So basically, this is a non-stress issue? Someone told me something like "only certain things could go in certain boxes labelled a certain way" kind of thing that sort of sent me in pre-panic mode. But I will just make a list of my own now and deal with the rest later? Again, thank you for the information

 

[ambar]

Guys,

I had a question as well about these forms..
What if your not having anything shipped in after you land? What form do you fill out (if any) if your landing just with 2 suitcases full of clothes and personal belongings and nothing else is following after that?

Thank you in advance for replies.

 

[Kess]

My husband has a very large number of books and comics (pretty much the bulk of what he will be bringing to Canada).

He has a very small place so I threatened that I could get him packed and ready to go in a weekend (I've moved a lot, he's only moved once). He asked how I would pack his books. I replied "um, in a box!?" He said that wasn't acceptible and has to be sorted by author, etc. I told him if his books were not packed by the time I fly down there in November, I would be packing them in the most disorganized way possible on purpose!

Well needless to say all of his books are already organized and packed to his standards and all the boxes are labelled. This is going to save us some time making a list.

 

[USA2BCCANADA]

I have another question as well. Does the border ever look through your boxes to check items off your list? I'm planning on bringing everything I own (which is a lot of stuff for me and my son) with me in a uhaul when I land and I'm just curious how detailed I need to be. Should I itemize by box or are they just going to eyeball it and then send me on my way?

 

[Kess]

I have another question as well. Does the border ever look through your boxes to check items off your list? I'm planning on bringing everything I own (which is a lot of stuff for me and my son) with me in a uhaul when I land and I'm just curious how detailed I need to be. Should I itemize by box or are they just going to eyeball it and then send me on my way?

From what I've read if you number your boxes and put whats in each box (generlized) that should help. If you are already making the list as you pack, adding in the box number's shouldn't be too much more work.

 

[AllisonVSC]

I have another question as well. Does the border ever look through your boxes to check items off your list? I'm planning on bringing everything I own (which is a lot of stuff for me and my son) with me in a uhaul when I land and I'm just curious how detailed I need to be. Should I itemize by box or are they just going to eyeball it and then send me on my way?

I labeled and numbered every box and made a list as I packed. I was sure that they would want to look at my belongings at the border. My nightmare scenario had them looking at my list and saying that they wanted to see the contents of box number ## and I would have to dig through the uhaul truck looking for the box. OR they would take it all out to look at my stuff and I would have to put it all back by myself!!

I showed my 5 page (no kidding) list of boxes, bins, and furniture to the customs agent and asked for his help in filling the form. I made categories like housewares, kitchen items, clothes, books etc and basically made up the values for each category. I had no idea how to determine the value. He asked that I list "costume jewelry" separately from other accessories, but other than that he said what I wrote was fine.

When I crossed the border with my goods to follow at almost midnight at Lewiston/Queenston on a Sunday in a snowstorm. The customs agent asked if I had anything in the truck that was not on my list. He asked if there was anything else I needed to bring that was already on the list (Yes, my car). He stamped the form, and that was it. He never even opened the truck.

 

[nyssa]

Thank you Allison, that was very helpful! ALL I have is what would be considered "costume jewelry" I'm sure, I guess I will list that way. So it seems like we don't need to bring the goods to follow list at the border unless there are things coming later? No actual form? That's very relieving, thank you!

 

[AllisonVSC]

No, sorry, there is a form! I had it with me, but I hadn't filled it out because I wasn't sure how. I'll see if I can find the link for it.

 

[Silver_Spirit]

I numbered my boxes then in a word document made a table and did things lik;
Box One - [overall weight]
40 CDs - [value]
3 Stuffed Toys -[value]
5 Photo Albums - [value]

And so on and so forth I landed at the montanna(?) alberta border and the guy had no issues with it, he took a copy of all 11! pages of it and stuck a barcode on it it. Because he only had 6 barcodes he had to write the number on a lot of the pages (hehehe)
I also put the values as what i'd be able to re-sell them for as most CD's and DVD's weren't worth anything re-sale wise and my shipping companies a bit dodgy so i didnt want to risk boxes going 'missing' because they had high value. I also didn't list any serial numbers (didn't realise until i left the country and boxes were packed!) and i had a box with a cheapo necklace and a charm bracelet that i listed as jewlery with a low value, the immigration guy never mentioned it being a problem so we'll see what customs thinks..
Im now waiting on my boxes to get here from england so i can't help with if anyones opened my boxes to check, but i shall report back in about 2 months when they get here! Lol

 

[rubyalabar]

The CIC website is confusing the heck out of me when it comes to how I'm supposed to import my things. Honestly, I'll probably be hiring a service to drive my goods for me. Do I give them this list? Do I organize my items like "30 shirts, 1 box = value $60" ? I really have junk, honestly. Nothing of high value except my headboard for my bed I'm bringing which was bought a long time ago... anyway, my question is, where can I find a better explanation on HOW IN THE WORLD to fill in those forms, etc than CIC is giving me? I couldn't really find a good answer here, either. Thanks, you guys. 8)

try using the search engine with keywords B4 which was posted by qorax, it's very detailed.

 

[AllisonVSC]

Same form for both goods at landing and goods to follow. If you have both you have to make separate lists so just print as many as you need.

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/E/pbg/cf/b4a/b4a-05b.pdf

 

[fallenstar831]

The important part of this is that you have to have the brand name/model/and serial number of anythign that has one. Like electronics or bikes or whatever, if not you'll be fishing it out. The rest can be categories - clothing, linens, etc.

Try do a search for this topic, it's been discussed a million times in this forum.