Moving to the USA
hey folks, for a few months now, my location has read "and american in canada... until july." well, that day is fast approaching, and my wife just successfully defended her dissertation, so she's a ph.d. now and we're "free to go," so to speak.
now i have a question to those 'round here:
when we came to canada, they asked us to itemize our personal belongings and their value, but it was nothing too terribly specific. we managed to assign a value to everything, it was a pain in the butt, but no big deal. scrawled on some ruled notebook paper, we got through without having too much fuss thrown our way.
however, according to the us customs website, it's a different ballgame when we make our trip back -- everything must be cataloged as far as description (the examples they give are "men's wool knit sweater" and "gold and diamond ring"), age, country of origin, approximate value, and an implied categorization of whether an item is a "household, personal, or professional" item.
i was just wondering if anyone has gone through this process recently and can attest to how specific we need to be. i mean, their declaration guidelines can be taken to an absurd degree ("well, i have two 6-pin to 6-pin firewire cables i bought three months ago in canada for my own professional use... and then i bought this here extension cord, gosh, three years ago at..."), but i would go insane trying to keep up with all of that. i would like to think that their main intention is to prevent someone from buying big-ticket items just before moving in order to take advantage of the exchange rate for savings (and since we knew we were moving, we stopped buying large, expensive items well over a year ago).
typically, i would just call them and ask, but they're closed ont he weekends (not the border itself, just the agents in charge of deciding the true intent of these guidelines), and we really need to start packing, like, three days ago (especially if they're gonna be all nitpicky).
i have to assume that we won't have an enormous amount of trouble, since we are us residents who were only in canada for my wife to attend school (i.e. the move was always meant to be a temporary one), but i am just so swimming in details from their online documentation that i am just so shellshocked, i don't even know where to start.
anyway, any help folks can offer in these sorts of situations (or anecdotes they can share) would be greatly appreciated.
now i have a question to those 'round here:
when we came to canada, they asked us to itemize our personal belongings and their value, but it was nothing too terribly specific. we managed to assign a value to everything, it was a pain in the butt, but no big deal. scrawled on some ruled notebook paper, we got through without having too much fuss thrown our way.
however, according to the us customs website, it's a different ballgame when we make our trip back -- everything must be cataloged as far as description (the examples they give are "men's wool knit sweater" and "gold and diamond ring"), age, country of origin, approximate value, and an implied categorization of whether an item is a "household, personal, or professional" item.
i was just wondering if anyone has gone through this process recently and can attest to how specific we need to be. i mean, their declaration guidelines can be taken to an absurd degree ("well, i have two 6-pin to 6-pin firewire cables i bought three months ago in canada for my own professional use... and then i bought this here extension cord, gosh, three years ago at..."), but i would go insane trying to keep up with all of that. i would like to think that their main intention is to prevent someone from buying big-ticket items just before moving in order to take advantage of the exchange rate for savings (and since we knew we were moving, we stopped buying large, expensive items well over a year ago).
typically, i would just call them and ask, but they're closed ont he weekends (not the border itself, just the agents in charge of deciding the true intent of these guidelines), and we really need to start packing, like, three days ago (especially if they're gonna be all nitpicky).
i have to assume that we won't have an enormous amount of trouble, since we are us residents who were only in canada for my wife to attend school (i.e. the move was always meant to be a temporary one), but i am just so swimming in details from their online documentation that i am just so shellshocked, i don't even know where to start.
anyway, any help folks can offer in these sorts of situations (or anecdotes they can share) would be greatly appreciated.
Comments
ba-dum-bump!