Moving question: Uhaul or Company (and goods to follow confusion). HELP!

[jnt211]

Hi,
I will be landing in Toronto in a few weeks. It is a soft land with a permanent move to follow about a month later. Two questions:
1) Should we provide a list of goods to follow when we soft land in September? Or should we provide it when we move permanently? Is there a benefit/requirement to one versus the other?
2) We don't have much stuff, but we don't have some thing we are bringing with us (more than a trunk full, for sure). I'm daunted by the idea of driving a Uhaul for the 8ish hours from NY to Toronto. However, I'm also confused by the logistics of using a moving company and having your things not be available for weeks. Also, how do they get from customs clearance to your home?

I would so appreciate any insight to either/both of these questions.

Thank you!

 

[subodhp]

1. You provide a list ONLY when you are landing with intention to stay permanently. You are not considered settler unless you intend to stay for at least 6 months.
2. Whether to carry yourself or hire a moving agency is obviously a personal decision to make. It is money vs convenience. Movers would notify you when your stuff has crossed border and provide you documents that you would need to carry along with you to customs office (usually at airport) for clearance. Personal presence is required. After clearance, it will finally be delivered to your place.

 

[subodhp]

Regarding benefit part, as an incoming resident, you get to bring in all personal items exempt from duty. So whether you bring them in small installments or all together does not matter. So soft landing does not help on that front.

But if you are limited by airlines baggage allowance or your car space, then multiple visits help since you can bring items that you foresee you would be needing immediately after landing whole leaving big ticket items for a moving agency.

 

[jnt211]

1. You provide a list ONLY when you are landing with intention to stay permanently. You are not considered settler unless you intend to stay for at least 6 months.
2. Whether to carry yourself or hire a moving agency is obviously a personal decision to make. It is money vs convenience. Movers would notify you when your stuff has crossed border and provide you documents that you would need to carry along with you to customs office (usually at airport) for clearance. Personal presence is required. After clearance, it will finally be delivered to your place.

Got it. So if we've already done a soft landing-- who/when do a provide a list to when we finally move as settlers? Is it just something we hand to border agent as we are driving in?

 

[Hurlabrick]

Got it. So if we've already done a soft landing-- who/when do a provide a list to when we finally move as settlers? Is it just something we hand to border agent as we are driving in?

If you are driving your own stuff across the border at a future date when you 'land as settler', then you tell the CBSA agent where you cross the border that you are now landing as settler and want to declare goods accompanying / goods to follow. He will park you up and do the paperwork, what you need is a list of both with values for each item or group of items. See here:

https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Goods_To_Follow-Canada

 

[jnt211]

If you are driving your own stuff across the border at a future date when you 'land as settler', then you tell the CBSA agent where you cross the border that you are now landing as settler and want to declare goods accompanying / goods to follow. He will park you up and do the paperwork, what you need is a list of both with values for each item or group of items. See here:

https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Goods_To_Follow-Canada

Perfect. That’s what we are planning to do. If you’ve already taken care of landing, will they do a search of our car when we go to settle? I’m just envisioning having to figure out how to re-pack everything into a trunk if they’re going to remove all of our boxes and bags. Or did they just trust that what’s on your list is what’s really there?

 

[subodhp]

Perfect. That’s what we are planning to do. If you’ve already taken care of landing, will they do a search of our car when we go to settle? I’m just envisioning having to figure out how to re-pack everything into a trunk if they’re going to remove all of our boxes and bags. Or did they just trust that what’s on your list is what’s really there?

It is like any other customs check, most of the folks are just allowed through after finishing formalities but there is no guarantee that they would not ask for detailed search