Importing from US, best entry points?

[Karmann]

Hoping some with experience can provide me some guidance. As if the garage wasn't quite full enough already, I've purchased a nice low mile 914 from California as basis for a project this winter. Plan is to fly down, and drive her home to Calgary in early August.

Its been a few years since I did the same thing with my 912, so I know most of the drill, particularly the need to have the signed off transfered title to the US border people 72 hrs in advance, need for Alberta OOP inspection, etc.

My questions: Assuming I could plan my return route to hit almost any border crossing from Peace Arch in BC through Coutts, would experience dictate there's one better than another? Anybody have recent US Border contact information (phone/fax number, maybe a person?) for some of these crossings?

Thanks in advance.

[stealthn]

Hey Ian, congrats, give Dale Good a call from Goodcarsolutions.com and tell him Bob James suggested you can him. He brings cars up from CA all the time, in fact his hobbie became a business.

Good Luck

[haycait911]

osoyoos has been very good to me. but I have no real point of reference. summertime is always interesting. there's a lot of summer workers ( students) so the process is straightforward, if a little 'by the book'. in B.C. they seem to bang them thru pretty quick and depend on ICBC to worry about things. they didn't even look at my SC when I brought it in, just wanted the tax $.

[Purrybonker]

http://www.ucanimport.com/

Check out this link. At the bottom of the main page there's a set of links to the various US Border Services websites and contact information and procedures.

I've used Coutts, Peace Arch and Kingsgate, BC crossings and find them all to be just fine. The only differences are on the US side, Idaho and Montana exports are managed out of Whitlash, MT US customs office and Washington exports are managed out of Blaine, Wa.

These US customs regions are like little fiefdoms with each having their own rules and hours. Here's a couple of +, - 's:

Blaine/Peace Arch - 9AM to 3PM only for exports (iirc)
Coutts - 24 hours, but they want signed-over bill of sale in advance of 72 hour wait period.

On the Canadian side I haven't seen any differences from crossing to crossing. I've always had excellent experience with Canadian customs on vehicle imports - they are pleasant and efficient when you tell them you're importing a car.

In my experience this is a dramatic contrast to the arrogant, pushy, rude (almost downright beligerant) attitude I have been subject to at Canadian border crossings.

[Karmann]

Originally Posted by Purrybonker

http://www.ucanimport.com/

Check out this link. At the bottom of the main page there's a set of links to the various US Border Services websites and contact information and procedures.

Thanks for the link, lots of information in there. Answers my questions regarding contacts/locations pretty thoroughly.

Appreciate greatly all who responded (or who still might) on their experiences at the various crossings and other advice.

[billybek]

I came through at Wildhorse crossing south of the Hat. Out of your way, I know, but coming from the eastern states back to Calgary it was a good choice. Minimal traffic.. Decent people to deal with on both sides of the border.

[Purrybonker]

Oh yeah, the other "fiefdom" difference between crossing from Washington into BC vs crossing from Idaho or Montana into BC or Alberta -

The Washington state US border guys only count business days for the 72 hour export waiting period. The Montana/Idaho border guys count all days, including weekends and holidays as part of the 72 hours.

Go figure!

[Purrybonker]

Originally Posted by billybek

I came through at Wildhorse crossing south of the Hat. Out of your way, I know, but coming from the eastern states back to Calgary it was a good choice. Minimal traffic.. Decent people to deal with on both sides of the border.

Wildhorse - that's a good one. Here's a long, funny story about Wildhorse.

A few years ago three of us from Calgary met up with each other in North Dakota to do some pheasant hunting. We each had different things to do on the way to ND, so we took separate trucks/routes on the way down.

After we finished hunting we drove back together, in convoy and crossed the border at Wildhorse. Three guys, three dogs, three trucks.

The first guy in our convoy made the mistake of mentioning to the customs officer that he was travelling with the two trucks/drivers behind him. The officer asked him to pull over and stop in the office for "further discussions". I was next in line and the the officer immediately started questioning me on the purpose of our trip and where/when/how we had travelled from Calgary to North Dakota.

He kept asking over and over again (in slightly different ways) why three of us would take three trucks and drive all the way to North Dakota to go pheasant hunting. It made no sense to him. Yet all three trucks were completely normal in appearance with empty rear boxes and only our gun cases and small duffel bags and the dogs in the cabs. The whole thing blew the guy's mind I suppose.

He asked me to pull over and gave the same instructions to the third member of our group. Now there were only 2 or 3 border guards at the Wildhorse station, so they had a heck of a time examining our trucks, interrogating us and dealing with new traffic approaching the crossing. They made every effort to keep us separated from each other (so we couldn't compare stories, I suppose) while they went back and forth from the station office.

We were getting increasingly aggitated with the delay and tried to explain to the customs guys that they were being paranoid. But of course, they would listen to no reason - we had to be up to some kind of malicious misdeed. Eventually they kept us on ice until they had called in RCMP back-up and completed thorough searches of the trucks. In total we only ended up being delayed a few hours, but the process was very frustrating.

Yeah, small - less busy border crossings can be a blessing - but if things are unusual or "get off the rails", they can quickly become a curse. I find that's generally the rule with border guys - hand them anything out of the norm and you're asking for trouble.

Last time I went on a car shopping cruise to California I made the mistake of mentioning to the US guard at Peace Arch that I was going down on a "bit of a vacation" and to shop for Porsches. He immediately jumped on this "shop for Porsches" remark and starting quizing me about how much US cash I was bringing in. The answer was none - but it was too late, I was sunk.

I was directed to "the office" for about 30 minutes of interrogation and mild humilation while they searched my car for that hidden stash of cash that I was trying to launder by buying Porsches. They even pried off my airbag covers and now one of them doesn't go back on properly.

Watch what you say, always watch what you say...

[Tim Polzin]

We crossed at Coutts on July 1. We got into line at 11:00 AM and waited nearly 3 hours to cross into Canada. They had one line open. Don't know what the problem was.

In the future, this site might be handy:

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/general/times/menu-e.html

We exported, then imported with absolutly no trouble except getting back into line after going in to export.

Tim

[billybek]

Can't remember the name of the little crossing by Grand Forks in BC.
I went through there a few years back in my truck and camper just doing some bush time and riding the mountain bike.
The US border guard asked me where I am heading to... Like a knuckle head I tell him that I don't know exactly where I am going. He asks me the same question 3 times before I finally catch on and tell him Spokane. Never went to Spokane, but he obviously didn't want to deal with me and gave me lots of chances to give an answer...

[dvkk]

You need to investigate which crossings allow car imports.
You can't import a car through the Peace Arch crossing in BC. You have to take it over to the truck crossing at 176th st (½ mile east). Then again in the Fraser valley, only 1 of the 2 crossings there allow imports.