Help needed in understanding steps to move to US on L1

Hi,

I will be moving to California from ottawa, on L1 Visa. I want to take my cars and other household stuff to US. I have hired a mover to transport households. I plan to take cars to US border town (syracuse) for shipping to california to save money compared to shipping directly from Canada. It means I have to import cars in to US right?

I have following questions?

When going for L1 stamp can I import my cars at the same time and come back to canada for couple of weeks to wind up? Plan is to drive back to canada in same cars after L1 stamping for final wind up and just before final move date take cars to US for shipping to California.

Which form is to be filled for car importation? Any online link for form? Is manufacturer's letter for EPA/NHTSS and ontario registration enough for importing cars?

Do I need to take a list of all households which were to be later taken by mover to US border post?

TIA

Read this: Bringing a Canadian Car over to the USA

If you ship the cars from NY then you will have to do the final clearance at a CBP office in California.

California has funky rules on what they will register, make sure your cars are California-compliant before bothering, but the gist of it is that they must have at least 12,000km on them to be exempt.

Once you've got your L-1 you will get a multiple-entry I-94, so you can return if you want.

If your using a Land Border, they will have all the forms. You will need to show that the car meets EPA standards. If it was made in the USA or Canada, then it usually is. If it is foreign, then you will obtain a letter from the Manufacturer, usually through the dealer. Either way, it is pretty simple.

Hi All,

My experience for L1 stamping and car import was good and painless. I went to Ogdensburg, NY Port of Entry. There was a nice officer. He asked couple of questions like what you do? etc. and then started processing L1. As my L1 documentation was done in March so he proceeded to do some cross checking. It took around 45 min for L1 and L2 processing. You need to give two checks of $500 and $320 for L1 processing along with $6 x no. of people in family for I94.

After L1/L2, I requested them for import of cars. I already had letter from manufacturers and HS-7 and 3520-1 forms filled. Officer asked for approximate value of cars and then gave me Custom Entry form for taking it to DMV for registration. He also gave back HS-7 and 3520-1 forms. I imported 2 cars and nothing was charged as duty. One of car of made in Japan.

We drove back to Canada and told Canada custom that we went to get L1 Visa and car import in US.

Now next month I will take cars to Syracuse, NY for shipping to California.

Thanks for help.