Importing/Keeping Canadian Car Registration

Hi All,

I will be going for my TN visa next week, and moving to California for the year. I just wanted to know what everyone's experience is with driving and taking their car with them:

- Are you required to import our cars and insure it in our destination city/state
- Or is it ok for me to keep my car registered and insured here in Vancouver, BC?

Thanks!

You need to check with the California DMV on their residency requirements, pretty sure you need to get a California DL within a month or two, so that kind of leads you into getting car insurance there, and that means getting the car registered there will help and it might be legally required anyway. States usually have an exemption for students but not for people on work permits. (And it will help you with various other things to have California ID).

Also check with CBP, but make sure when you enter the US that you get their form and declare it as personal effects otherwise you can get hit with import duty and possibly sales tax too when you swap the title in California.

What if there is still a lein on the car by a bank in canada? Would I still be required to import the car?

Also if I do import the car, will i have to go through emissions there at the border or is that upon transfering/registering the car in California itself?

Thanks for all the info.