- Jan 8, 2015
- 14
- Category........
- Visa Office......
- Ottawa
- Job Offer........
- Pre-Assessed..
- App. Filed.......
- 04-Feb-2015
- Doc's Request.
- 30-July-2015 (Proof of sponsor's Canadian residence)
- AOR Received.
- 06-April-2015
- Med's Done....
- 27-April-2015
- Passport Req..
- IP: August 6. DM: Sept 26
- VISA ISSUED...
- 25-Sept-2015
- LANDED..........
- 05-Oct-2015
Hi everyone, hope you all had a merry Christmas!
I have FINALLY finished the vehicle import process and am the proud owner of Ontario plates! So I wanted to share my experience/ the tips I have to help someone else, as there is a surprising lack of information about car importing on this forum when you have already been living in Canada as a visitor, and I know I really struggled with it. I am by no means an expert and definitely didn’t do everything perfectly, so if you have any corrections to make or any advice of your own, do feel free to correct me and leave a comment!
All of the information can be found on the Registrar of Imported Vehicles/ RIV website, riv.ca. A lot if it is still unclear, so if you want to call the RIV customer service number, I will say that they are actually very helpful, unlike CIC’s call centre xD Every time I needed to call, I was able to quickly get on with an agent. They were never rude, extremely fast when they said they’d email me something, etc.
Okay, so moving on. Here is my experience:
I have been in Canada as a temporary worker/visitor since 2013, and finally landed as a PR October 2015. My car has been here the whole time. I never temporarily imported it when I first came, nor did I fill out any kind of B4 goods to follow form when I landed (don’t ask me why- must have been a mistake on my border agent’s part). This made things a little trickier.
I suggest the first thing you do is take care of your vehicle recalls. My car had 3. I made an appointment here in Ontario with a local Chevrolet dealer and they fixed everything (recall fixes are always free of charge) and gave me a document showing the recalls were taken care of. There were a few hiccups along the way and the whole process took a good 5 hours because it’s an American car and I guess they had to get some special codes from the American office or something, but in the end it was done. Get this done early in case of any setbacks as you will need to show RIV that your car doesn’t have any outstanding recalls.
Also, if you haven’t already, GET AN ONTARIO (or whichever province you live in) LICENSE. Not doing this early really screwed me over at one point, but I’ll get to that later.
After you have your recall clearance and Canadian license, the first thing you need to do is get ready for EXPORTING the car from the US before you can IMPORT it. The US has its own set of rules, namely, the 72-hour rule, which is the stupidest thing in the world, but I’ll get to that later
The RIV’s website isn’t the best here. It suggests that you first email the US border crossing with notice that you plan to import, THEN get an ITN number. I did this, and the border chewed me out for not submitting an ITN in that email, so do that first!
The RIV website explains how to get an ITN, but it’s still quite confusing. You must register the car through AES (“automated export system”) and they will generate a number for you. RIV gives a couple websites you can use, which are complicated in their own right. I was able to successfully get an ITN using autoexports.us. It was a $75 fee (more when you count the exchange rate since I don’t have American payment).
THEN you should email the US. I’m in the Greater Toronto Area, so the only US border office nearby that does exports is LEWISTON bridge. I had emailed a different border (either Rainbow bridge or Peace bridge, I can’t remember) and they told me it had to be at Lewiston. Okay, fine.
In huge bold letters, the email states that your car must be left in the US for 72 hours starting from the date of that email.
…Huh?
Now, if I were already living in US and moving up here, that wouldn’t be a huge problem. But for someone already established in Canada, how the heck was I supposed to just leave my car in the US for 3 days? The email also states that you can face a fine if you don’t follow this rule.
I work every day and thought there was no way I could just leave my car over the border when I rely on it for work, so I decided to ignore that rule and try anyway. My advice? DON’T DO THIS! Haha.
I drove across the border with my boyfriend (luckily it’s not too far of a drive) and we found the Lewiston car export office. The FIRST thing they will ask you is if you are coming from the US. I’ve watched enough Border Security to know that it’s a bad idea to lie to these folks, haha, so I was honest and said no. At this point I was willing to pay any fine just so long as they let me export it, but they told me I would have to leave it in the US and try again. I asked where I was supposed to leave my car and she suggested a paid storage, an airport, etc. Ridiculous.
It was a complete waste of a trip and I felt frustrated and anxious. But, it had to be done. I managed to arrange rides to work and made another trip out to the US.
I really didn’t want to pay tons of money to pay to leave it somewhere, so I took a risk and left it at the Seneca Niagara Casino… lol. It’s a huge lot, free to park, and there’s always people coming and going, so I left it there and hoped for the best.
Three days later, I returned, and voila, car still there in one piece, and no tickets! Haha. I’m not recommending anyone do this as it’s obviously very risky, but it worked out okay for me.
I returned yet again to the US export office for try #2. Again, they asked me right away where I was coming from, and I was honest that I had left the vehicle in New York for 3 days. She asked me specifically where, and I was honest that I left it at the casino. I guess this wasn’t a problem, because she printed off her paperwork, verified that my vehicle had the same VIN as on my documents, stamped it, and sent me on my way. It was actually very quick and easy if you do things by their rules. The US side also has no fees for this, unlike Canada.
So next is importing, which you can do at any Canadian border crossing, unlike with US where it’s only Lewiston. This is where I ran into a bit of trouble.
Have your title and registration ready. You also need to have a document with your Canadian address on it.
I ran into a particularly grumpy border agent. He asked me for this proof of address document, which I didn’t know I needed and did not have. (My COPR only has my sponsor’s address on it, which of course is mine too, but it technically does not say that it’s mine). He asked, what about your driver’s license? I told him I didn’t have an Ontario license, but my Florida one. Bad idea!!! He was yelling at me like I was a child. You are supposed to change your license over within 60 days of moving here, and I was going on two years. Haha. But only a police officer can reprimand you for that, so in the end I didn’t receive any “punishment” and he still processed my documents just fine. Oh well!
He had asked for my B4 goods to follow form, which I told him I never got when I landed as a PR. That made him grumpier, but in the end he did not charge me any taxes, so I guess he believed me. I was given a completed Form 1 and another blue and white document that I believe is to show Service Ontario that you already paid the taxes on it (in my case, I paid nothing, but I still needed the form).
I was also told that I cannot trade, sell, destroy, or do anything to the vehicle for an entire year, or else I owe them money. I wish I had known that prior to importing, because my car is a 2005 and on its last days, and if it doesn’t survive another year I guess I am stuck with it?! Ridiculous.
He told me I now needed to go to the RIV website and pay their fee so that I could get an inspection document from them, take it to the inspection, and then I can finally get plates. I believe you only have 45 days to do this.
Remember that recall clearance you got at the beginning? Now you will need that. Scan it and email it to RIV. It only takes about one business day for them to process it and put it on your file. Then scan and email your Form 1 that you got at the border. Then you pay the fee the border agent told me about. This fee depends on which border you imported at. I believe mine was Rainbow Bridge, and the fee was somewhere around $220. I actually made a mistake and put the wrong border code in and paid around $15 too little. This is where RIV’s stellar customer service came through. I gave them a call, they let me pay the difference over the phone, and the second the payment went through, they emailed me the inspection form.
This list varies depending on your vehicle, but mine was mostly straightforward. Appropriate child restraint capabilities, a French airbag sticker, km/hr instead of MPH. I knew I met all of these requirements EXCEPT for daytime running lights.
All cars in Canada are made with daytime running lights… NO cars in the US are. :/ This was complicated. I spent around $50 on the daytime running light kit from a Parts Source store (this same part was $150 at Canadian Tire) plus another $80 for my mechanic to install it for me. While at the mechanic, I had him do my safety and emissions tests to make sure everything was good to go (this is a requirement for registering the car in Ontario, I cannot speak for other provinces). Now, the safety and emissions test are NOT a part of this federal inspection through RIV, so could I do it again, I would have waited to do these, because they expire after 36 days. I ended up having trouble with getting the Ontario license, so I REALLY cut it close with these inspections and almost had to pay to do them again twice.
Anyway! Once I had the inspection form, I looked at the list of certified inspectors (you can’t just take it anywhere to be inspected), which were mostly Canadian Tires. I booked an appointment with my local CT and was in and out in around 20-25 minutes. I did not have to pay CT anything, I guess that’s included with the RIV fee. I believe if you fail the inspection the first time, it is $60 per recheck.
CT stamped my Form 1 (make sure you bring that with you!) and inspection form, and said they would fax the completed forms over to RIV, but I just did it myself again to be sure.
RIV will then send you a sticker in the mail to put on your car showing you passed the inspection, so you don’t have to worry about future border crossings.
I was SO relieved to have passed the inspection, but the nightmare didn’t end there!
Remember how I said to get your Ontario license ASAP? You will need that to get Ontario plates, and it can be quite a lengthy process.
In order to get an Ontario license, they require an ORIGINAL driver’s abstract from your relevant state (mine is Florida). Meaning you can NOT buy it online and print it out. I had to get a money order and snail-mail my request to the Florida DMV. Considering postal times, you are looking at a months’ turnaround. All of my safety and emissions documents were set to expire around that same time, plus it was Christmas time with everything closed, so I was getting serious anxiety that I would have to redo everything. The good news is that once you pass the federal RIV inspection, you never have to do that again… but safety and emissions aren’t cheap, and those DO expire.
Again, I tried skirting around the rules, but had no luck. My first trip to the Drive Test centre, they ALMOST gave me the license (I took the eye test, filled out all the paperwork), and at the last minute she double-checked with a coworker and said I needed the abstract. Crap.
Second try, I forgot my passport for one, which they require, so I wouldn’t have been able to do it anyway. Out of desperation, I had bought an abstract online hoping that it would be fine, but they could tell right away it wasn’t an original and sent me on my way.
Third try, the abstract FINALLY came in the mail (literally one day before my safety and emissions were set to expire!!), and I was prepared with my passport. Again, everything went pretty smoothly when I followed their rules. I did the eye test again, filled out the paperwork, they took my picture, and I was given a temporary paper license until the proper one arrives in the mail. Since I had the abstract to prove I have more than two years’ driving experience, I was given a full G class license, woohoo! They did keep my Florida license and apparently have to send it back, so that’s a bummer I didn’t get to keep it.
Next step was to get Ontario insurance. I met with my boyfriend’s broker, got on the same policy, and was out of there quickly.
Final stop was to a Service Ontario. Here is where you need to show your completed inspection paperwork- the signed RIV form, stamped Form 1, your new Ontario license and insurance, and that blue form you got at the border showing there are no taxes. I also needed to show a letter that had been mailed to me as proof of address. I paid the fee for the new plates and sticker, and was on my way.
FINALLY it was done!
The entire process was lengthy, stressful, and expensive. My car is only worth $2000 and I definitely spent at least that amount on the whole process, from the fees at every step of the way, constant border trips, and lots of maintenance on my car to pass these inspections. Had I known it would be so complicated, I definitely would have just sold the damn thing in the US and bought a new one here haha. Especially considering the rule where you can’t sell/trade/dispose of the vehicle for a year. I don’t even know if my car will make it that long!
But oh well, it’s done now, and I feel fully Canadian finally having Ontario plates on my car Again, I urge you to get on the license ASAP because that is really what held me back and caused the most stress. Since it has to be an original, you need to give the State’s DMV lots of time for processing and mailing times. Recall clearance is important too, but I luckily didn’t have too much trouble getting that done. And also prepare yourself on where the heck you plan to dump your car over the border if you’re already in Canada!
I really hope this was helpful to someone! Again, please feel free to point out any errors you see or chime in with your own experience and advice. Best of luck to everyone importing, and to those still waiting on DMs
I have FINALLY finished the vehicle import process and am the proud owner of Ontario plates! So I wanted to share my experience/ the tips I have to help someone else, as there is a surprising lack of information about car importing on this forum when you have already been living in Canada as a visitor, and I know I really struggled with it. I am by no means an expert and definitely didn’t do everything perfectly, so if you have any corrections to make or any advice of your own, do feel free to correct me and leave a comment!
All of the information can be found on the Registrar of Imported Vehicles/ RIV website, riv.ca. A lot if it is still unclear, so if you want to call the RIV customer service number, I will say that they are actually very helpful, unlike CIC’s call centre xD Every time I needed to call, I was able to quickly get on with an agent. They were never rude, extremely fast when they said they’d email me something, etc.
Okay, so moving on. Here is my experience:
I have been in Canada as a temporary worker/visitor since 2013, and finally landed as a PR October 2015. My car has been here the whole time. I never temporarily imported it when I first came, nor did I fill out any kind of B4 goods to follow form when I landed (don’t ask me why- must have been a mistake on my border agent’s part). This made things a little trickier.
I suggest the first thing you do is take care of your vehicle recalls. My car had 3. I made an appointment here in Ontario with a local Chevrolet dealer and they fixed everything (recall fixes are always free of charge) and gave me a document showing the recalls were taken care of. There were a few hiccups along the way and the whole process took a good 5 hours because it’s an American car and I guess they had to get some special codes from the American office or something, but in the end it was done. Get this done early in case of any setbacks as you will need to show RIV that your car doesn’t have any outstanding recalls.
Also, if you haven’t already, GET AN ONTARIO (or whichever province you live in) LICENSE. Not doing this early really screwed me over at one point, but I’ll get to that later.
After you have your recall clearance and Canadian license, the first thing you need to do is get ready for EXPORTING the car from the US before you can IMPORT it. The US has its own set of rules, namely, the 72-hour rule, which is the stupidest thing in the world, but I’ll get to that later
The RIV’s website isn’t the best here. It suggests that you first email the US border crossing with notice that you plan to import, THEN get an ITN number. I did this, and the border chewed me out for not submitting an ITN in that email, so do that first!
The RIV website explains how to get an ITN, but it’s still quite confusing. You must register the car through AES (“automated export system”) and they will generate a number for you. RIV gives a couple websites you can use, which are complicated in their own right. I was able to successfully get an ITN using autoexports.us. It was a $75 fee (more when you count the exchange rate since I don’t have American payment).
THEN you should email the US. I’m in the Greater Toronto Area, so the only US border office nearby that does exports is LEWISTON bridge. I had emailed a different border (either Rainbow bridge or Peace bridge, I can’t remember) and they told me it had to be at Lewiston. Okay, fine.
In huge bold letters, the email states that your car must be left in the US for 72 hours starting from the date of that email.
…Huh?
Now, if I were already living in US and moving up here, that wouldn’t be a huge problem. But for someone already established in Canada, how the heck was I supposed to just leave my car in the US for 3 days? The email also states that you can face a fine if you don’t follow this rule.
I work every day and thought there was no way I could just leave my car over the border when I rely on it for work, so I decided to ignore that rule and try anyway. My advice? DON’T DO THIS! Haha.
I drove across the border with my boyfriend (luckily it’s not too far of a drive) and we found the Lewiston car export office. The FIRST thing they will ask you is if you are coming from the US. I’ve watched enough Border Security to know that it’s a bad idea to lie to these folks, haha, so I was honest and said no. At this point I was willing to pay any fine just so long as they let me export it, but they told me I would have to leave it in the US and try again. I asked where I was supposed to leave my car and she suggested a paid storage, an airport, etc. Ridiculous.
It was a complete waste of a trip and I felt frustrated and anxious. But, it had to be done. I managed to arrange rides to work and made another trip out to the US.
I really didn’t want to pay tons of money to pay to leave it somewhere, so I took a risk and left it at the Seneca Niagara Casino… lol. It’s a huge lot, free to park, and there’s always people coming and going, so I left it there and hoped for the best.
Three days later, I returned, and voila, car still there in one piece, and no tickets! Haha. I’m not recommending anyone do this as it’s obviously very risky, but it worked out okay for me.
I returned yet again to the US export office for try #2. Again, they asked me right away where I was coming from, and I was honest that I had left the vehicle in New York for 3 days. She asked me specifically where, and I was honest that I left it at the casino. I guess this wasn’t a problem, because she printed off her paperwork, verified that my vehicle had the same VIN as on my documents, stamped it, and sent me on my way. It was actually very quick and easy if you do things by their rules. The US side also has no fees for this, unlike Canada.
So next is importing, which you can do at any Canadian border crossing, unlike with US where it’s only Lewiston. This is where I ran into a bit of trouble.
Have your title and registration ready. You also need to have a document with your Canadian address on it.
I ran into a particularly grumpy border agent. He asked me for this proof of address document, which I didn’t know I needed and did not have. (My COPR only has my sponsor’s address on it, which of course is mine too, but it technically does not say that it’s mine). He asked, what about your driver’s license? I told him I didn’t have an Ontario license, but my Florida one. Bad idea!!! He was yelling at me like I was a child. You are supposed to change your license over within 60 days of moving here, and I was going on two years. Haha. But only a police officer can reprimand you for that, so in the end I didn’t receive any “punishment” and he still processed my documents just fine. Oh well!
He had asked for my B4 goods to follow form, which I told him I never got when I landed as a PR. That made him grumpier, but in the end he did not charge me any taxes, so I guess he believed me. I was given a completed Form 1 and another blue and white document that I believe is to show Service Ontario that you already paid the taxes on it (in my case, I paid nothing, but I still needed the form).
I was also told that I cannot trade, sell, destroy, or do anything to the vehicle for an entire year, or else I owe them money. I wish I had known that prior to importing, because my car is a 2005 and on its last days, and if it doesn’t survive another year I guess I am stuck with it?! Ridiculous.
He told me I now needed to go to the RIV website and pay their fee so that I could get an inspection document from them, take it to the inspection, and then I can finally get plates. I believe you only have 45 days to do this.
Remember that recall clearance you got at the beginning? Now you will need that. Scan it and email it to RIV. It only takes about one business day for them to process it and put it on your file. Then scan and email your Form 1 that you got at the border. Then you pay the fee the border agent told me about. This fee depends on which border you imported at. I believe mine was Rainbow Bridge, and the fee was somewhere around $220. I actually made a mistake and put the wrong border code in and paid around $15 too little. This is where RIV’s stellar customer service came through. I gave them a call, they let me pay the difference over the phone, and the second the payment went through, they emailed me the inspection form.
This list varies depending on your vehicle, but mine was mostly straightforward. Appropriate child restraint capabilities, a French airbag sticker, km/hr instead of MPH. I knew I met all of these requirements EXCEPT for daytime running lights.
All cars in Canada are made with daytime running lights… NO cars in the US are. :/ This was complicated. I spent around $50 on the daytime running light kit from a Parts Source store (this same part was $150 at Canadian Tire) plus another $80 for my mechanic to install it for me. While at the mechanic, I had him do my safety and emissions tests to make sure everything was good to go (this is a requirement for registering the car in Ontario, I cannot speak for other provinces). Now, the safety and emissions test are NOT a part of this federal inspection through RIV, so could I do it again, I would have waited to do these, because they expire after 36 days. I ended up having trouble with getting the Ontario license, so I REALLY cut it close with these inspections and almost had to pay to do them again twice.
Anyway! Once I had the inspection form, I looked at the list of certified inspectors (you can’t just take it anywhere to be inspected), which were mostly Canadian Tires. I booked an appointment with my local CT and was in and out in around 20-25 minutes. I did not have to pay CT anything, I guess that’s included with the RIV fee. I believe if you fail the inspection the first time, it is $60 per recheck.
CT stamped my Form 1 (make sure you bring that with you!) and inspection form, and said they would fax the completed forms over to RIV, but I just did it myself again to be sure.
RIV will then send you a sticker in the mail to put on your car showing you passed the inspection, so you don’t have to worry about future border crossings.
I was SO relieved to have passed the inspection, but the nightmare didn’t end there!
Remember how I said to get your Ontario license ASAP? You will need that to get Ontario plates, and it can be quite a lengthy process.
In order to get an Ontario license, they require an ORIGINAL driver’s abstract from your relevant state (mine is Florida). Meaning you can NOT buy it online and print it out. I had to get a money order and snail-mail my request to the Florida DMV. Considering postal times, you are looking at a months’ turnaround. All of my safety and emissions documents were set to expire around that same time, plus it was Christmas time with everything closed, so I was getting serious anxiety that I would have to redo everything. The good news is that once you pass the federal RIV inspection, you never have to do that again… but safety and emissions aren’t cheap, and those DO expire.
Again, I tried skirting around the rules, but had no luck. My first trip to the Drive Test centre, they ALMOST gave me the license (I took the eye test, filled out all the paperwork), and at the last minute she double-checked with a coworker and said I needed the abstract. Crap.
Second try, I forgot my passport for one, which they require, so I wouldn’t have been able to do it anyway. Out of desperation, I had bought an abstract online hoping that it would be fine, but they could tell right away it wasn’t an original and sent me on my way.
Third try, the abstract FINALLY came in the mail (literally one day before my safety and emissions were set to expire!!), and I was prepared with my passport. Again, everything went pretty smoothly when I followed their rules. I did the eye test again, filled out the paperwork, they took my picture, and I was given a temporary paper license until the proper one arrives in the mail. Since I had the abstract to prove I have more than two years’ driving experience, I was given a full G class license, woohoo! They did keep my Florida license and apparently have to send it back, so that’s a bummer I didn’t get to keep it.
Next step was to get Ontario insurance. I met with my boyfriend’s broker, got on the same policy, and was out of there quickly.
Final stop was to a Service Ontario. Here is where you need to show your completed inspection paperwork- the signed RIV form, stamped Form 1, your new Ontario license and insurance, and that blue form you got at the border showing there are no taxes. I also needed to show a letter that had been mailed to me as proof of address. I paid the fee for the new plates and sticker, and was on my way.
FINALLY it was done!
The entire process was lengthy, stressful, and expensive. My car is only worth $2000 and I definitely spent at least that amount on the whole process, from the fees at every step of the way, constant border trips, and lots of maintenance on my car to pass these inspections. Had I known it would be so complicated, I definitely would have just sold the damn thing in the US and bought a new one here haha. Especially considering the rule where you can’t sell/trade/dispose of the vehicle for a year. I don’t even know if my car will make it that long!
But oh well, it’s done now, and I feel fully Canadian finally having Ontario plates on my car
Again, I urge you to get on the license ASAP because that is really what held me back and caused the most stress. Since it has to be an original, you need to give the State’s DMV lots of time for processing and mailing times. Recall clearance is important too, but I luckily didn’t have too much trouble getting that done. And also prepare yourself on where the heck you plan to dump your car over the border if you’re already in Canada! I really hope this was helpful to someone! Again, please feel free to point out any errors you see or chime in with your own experience and advice. Best of luck to everyone importing, and to those still waiting on DMs
