How to cross the border with a U-haul trailer ?

Hi

This is a great site and I have found lots of useful information already, but still have some unanswered concerns.

I will be attending graduate school in the US this fall and plan to bring my belongings over the border at Buffalo in a 5'x10' U-Haul trailer.

Other than providing my school documentation and a detailed description of the contents of the trailer, are there any procedures / forms / notifications I need to do before turning up at the border?

Thanks

You'll need your student visa with you of course, and I think they'll have the customs declaration forms there for you to fill out at the border crossing.

Here is the CBP website with the page for info re: non-US students http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/id_vi ... _exchange/

They may or may not inspect the contents. Usually not, but give yourself lots of time just in case.

Hi Reba,

Thanks for the information.

I think I am OK with all the required forms, and now that I know that I don't have to submit info on the trailer contents to the border ahead of time and the crossing should be straight forward, I can now relax a bit and downgrade from migraines to ordinary headaches.

Hey bud,

I have been across the border twice with Uhaul's, and the stress is greater than the reality. US customs warns you to have an itemized list of everything you are bringing across, yet neither time did anyone even ask or look in my trailer.

However, a few friends of mine on return have had trouble. Heres the thing: Entering the US with a trailer full of stuff isnt the problem, its retuning to Canada that is a nightmare. Upon re-entry, the Canadian Customs WILL inspect your trailer.

Why? Because of our taxes. The Can govt wants to make sure you arent going down to the US, buying a trailer full of stuff, and coming back in beating the GST/PST.

Example: my friend Paul and his wife moved to the US for 1 year to work, and thought "why move everything down there.we will just buy new stuff when we get there. (yes, they had a few bucks.) They bought a Car, TV, stereo, etc, etc, while in California. A year later they moved back to Canada, and got a big bill. Canada Customs wanted reciepts for everything purchased in the US. Everything they didnt have reciepts for was assigned a "value" by Customs, and a tax fee assigned. They were stuck at the border and told they could not re-enter until they forked over approx. 5000$. No joke.

So do yourself a favor, itemize everything you have, but more importantly be prepared to declare it on the return trip.

One tip I was told by another college student was that Customs only bills you for what you buy . not what you "replace." ie: if you bring down a 25$ couch, and buy a new couch in the US for 1000$, you arent billed, because you are still declaring 1 couch back and forth. I don;t know if that is true or not, just something a student at Bowling Green (a canadian) told me about his trips back and forth every year.

Hope that helps!

Aaron

Hi,
You didn't say which state, but make sure you have any USDA forms for anything like gypsy moth (-Calif.) for where you are headed (Usually the USCPB forms have mention of this too).
Good luck,
Marc

I moved back from Seattle WA, to Vancouver after living there for about 8 months in February.

When I entered the US on a TN visa, I took all my stuff with me in a 14' Uhaul. At US customs, I just had a detailed list of what I was taking.

When I returned from the US, I had a detailed list again of the furniture in my Uhaul. Whilst living in the US, we bought a bedroom suite worth 5K, and some other knick knacks, appliances, linens etc. The customs guy did not even ask us to pull aside to inspect our trailer.

Therefore, we did not pay any duty. It was easy.

I had the same experience (just to reassure you). My husband called border patrol before we moved from Canada, and they told him to have an itemized list of everything in the trailer. We got married a few days before we moved, so our list was BIG and I made sure it was very detailed. We arrived at a 24 hour border in Alberta at about midnight, and the guard didn't so much as look at our list, much less open the trailer. I would be sure to have an accurate list just in case.

By itemized list, do you mean item and approx value?

For CBSA purposes, it means Form B4 and Form B4A. The CBSA agent was asleep when I showed up with mine, I had to bang on the window to wake her up!

The real advantage of it is if you have to leave something behind and fetch it later, if they've signed off your B4As then you can easily fetch it. If you've got everything in a U-Haul, they can match it up with the B4 on the spot so it's not a big deal.

don't need the value, just a list of what all the stuff is.