Hello everyone,

Someone has just told me that you can't have your goods shipped into Canada without a visa, anyone know if this is true?

We are waiting for the PPR under PNP, we are booked on flights for the 16th Nov and the shippers come Monday!

It will be that we enter on a WP if we haven't got the COPR in time.( will have to book a return ticket i believe)

any help gratefully appreciated

best wishes,
Tina

Hi. Are you shipping loads of stuff or just a few boxes? Some friends here shipped a pallet (25 ish boxes) with no visa. Delivered straight to their door. Not sure how it works if you have a full container. Can't remember if Customs asked to see our visas when we went to sign for our container.

it is a full 20 ft container.......

I know Customs needed our copr when we cleared our goods

I believe you can ship stuff in on a work permit, as there was a tick-box for it on the customs forms my shipping company sent me.

In any case, you're likely to have to wait several weeks before they need customs clearance (unless you're sending a container air-mail ), so you may well have the visa before it arrives. In the worst case, you could pay the company to store it briefly before you get the visa.

Also I just remembered that the shipping Comp my wanted a Copy of all our Immigration paperwork before they Picked up our stuff.

'know that this doesn't exactly answer your original question but there may wen be a difference between what you can do legally and What the Shipping company will do.

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/E/pub/cm/....html#settlers

Thanks everyone.

OH spoke with Canada Border Services/Customs it appears that you do need to have your PR to claim it(without duty charges). You have 40 days to do so otherwise it becomes government property. You should have your shipping company to transfer it before the 40 days are up into inbound storage until PR is received. IF you wish, you can claim it without the visa, but will pay 6% duty on the goods. You can apply for a refund of this once you do get the PR status, but takes about 3 months and is long winded!

Tina

I believe that the 40 days is only if you leave the container in government-run storage; as I understand it, you can pay the shipping company to hold the container in their own customs-bonded warehouse and then it can stay there for as along as they'll let you keep it.

We moved out here without any residence status (got work permits several months after arriving) and shipped a 20ft container over without any problem. We just provided evidence that submission for visas had taken place and that we were being processed. Had no hold up at customs or any duty to pay.

If you are on a work permit this would apply
We shipped 40 foot shipping containers in 2002 and 2006 on WP outbound nothing required (apart from destination Address). To clear customs in Canada a copy of Visa and signature on declaration of temporary import of personal items was all that was required ( Means that you will pay duty if it is not exported by end of Visa validity).
If you come on PR Visa it will be a little different.

That contradicts everything in the link I posted - perhaps you got someone who didn't know the rules?

Hi all

I am very confused with some of the above threads.

We came over here in August with work permits. In fact we collected them on arrival at Calgary airport immigration.

We shipped a 20ft container before we left the UK. No requests for anything from the shippers other than our address in Canada.

Container arrived two weeks after we did. Went into Calgary customs to clear the container and then it was delivered to our house a few days later.

We do not have PR (medicals done last month - waiting for updated police check which are stuck in UK - thank you Royal Mail).

So I believe that you can ship goods here with just a work permit.

Yours very confused

Alro

I agree with JE

We are out on a 3 year WP and our container came early September - they just need the person who has dealt with the paper work UK side to go and claim it, with your passport and PR or WP.

They just ask you to complete a form about what is and isnt in the container and then they sign the release papers for your shippers to go get the container.

Gaynorx

Thats what I thought you only had to do Gaynor - I know that is all we had to do.

One thing our customs chaps asked us. Were the knives that we had listed ceremonial or used in sport? We thought what the hell was he talking about.

The shippers had only gone and packed computer games in with the litcken knives and the customs guy thought that they were a load of Sumari swords. My husband and I were astonished and explained that they were simply kitchen knives. God alive, we thought afterwards what must people pack.

Alro