Household and car insurance

[samdonowa]

Hi all,

i have 2 questions:

1. i'm in the US on a TN visa but did not bring my household furniture wiht me....can i bring them to the US when I apply for my 2nd TN visa? And will i have to pay customs etc?

in relation to the above, does anyone know of a moving company that rents one way cross border?

2. Will be buying a car in the US and i have my US driver's license... can the US insurance companies check my driving record in Canada so that i can get cheaper insurance based on my cdn driving record?

thx.

[Reba]

No, they cannot/will not check your Canadian driving record, but you can easily have the provincial ministery of transport print that for you from whichever province you most recently had a license in. In Ontario it costs only $12 for a "driver abstract". You can even get them on-line.

No, you should not have to pay duties or taxes on your personal goods.

U-Haul is the only truck rental company that allows one-way cross border moves. Although you might also check with Penske, I think they *might* do cross border now, not sure.

If you want a proper "moving company" several do cross border moves, but you will have to go ahead of your stuff, and then send the moving company a copy of your approved entry (photocopy of your visa stamp from the POE) otherwise they can't move your stuff in.

You could also try UPak, a moving company where you pack your stuff into a container and they pick it up and take to where you're moving and you unpack. Again, you will have to go ahead of your stuff, and then send them a photocopy of your approved entry.

[Steven]

1. i'm in the US on a TN visa but did not bring my household furniture wiht me....can i bring them to the US when I apply for my 2nd TN visa? And will i have to pay customs etc?

Well a TN-1 entry is "temporary" and given that they're still your personal effects wherever you are, then they're still a duty-free entry. I can't see why not.

in relation to the above, does anyone know of a moving company that rents one way cross border?

Only U-Haul.

2. Will be buying a car in the US and i have my US driver's license... can the US insurance companies check my driving record in Canada so that i can get cheaper insurance based on my cdn driving record?

I don't think they can check your driving record unless they do it via a Canadian subsidiary but if you use the same insurance company in the US that you are using now they might be able to see what your record is in that regard.

This is a very tricky problem I've had myself. Sometimes if you're not using the same co. the agent will believe a record they get from the foreign company. Sometimes they won't. The other problem is that it depends on the law. Fraud using false insurance records is very common, so there may be a State law saying the records have to come from a local US company and not from you or from abroad. In addition in Canada, basic car insurance is a Govt. run thing in many Provinces, so because of the privacy laws in that Province they may release the records to you but not to your insurance agent, which means there is a potential for you to doctor them in transmission.

I had that one myself, my agent insisted the records came from the insurance agency, not via a third party Govt. agency (who don't tell you who the agency you use is) and I had a hell of a job getting them that way.