Jo&Alex

Hi,

We are moving to Ontario from the US, and I was wondering if anyone could share their experience with obtaining Ontario license plates for an imported car... How long does it take, assuming we do everything as fast as we can and we don't need any adjustments or repairs...? On the same note, how long does it take to have a US driver's license replaced with an Ontario license, we both have enough driving experience in the USA to qualify for full license...? I would greatly appreciate any information. Thanks! J.

njdude26

Im also looking for this same info. Btw did you look into the taxes/duties on ur car. did you find it worth it to move the car ?

andy_sheila

Hi, i'm sure you already know that you have to give US customs 72 hrs notice that you are permanantly exporting a car from the US?
As for your other questions, i can only advise from a Nova Scotia angle, here you would be able to do a staight swap with your licence on the same day (takes about 10 minutes) To get a plate you will need to have it inspected (Crappy tire have a contract with the government to do it) then it's just a case of taking all your docs down to the DMV where once again it should all be done within 10 minutes if there's no problems.
HTH's and good luck

Calgal

Can't help you with personal experience - but these links might help with the legal stuff:

http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/importation/impusae.htm

http://www.riv.ca/english/html/how_to_import.html

http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/index.html

Edit to add: You don't say if your move is permanent or temporary? This will affect how go about bringing your vehicle into Canada, too.

sysclp

I moved from the US to Ontario back in 2001 and swapping the driver's license was maybe 5 minutes once you got to the window. I waited in line far longer than that.

I assume you already know how to export your car so won't go into that. Processing the paperwork on the Canadian side to import it took about 10-15 minutes. Then I had to wait for them to mail me a form to use for the import inspection here, took maybe 2 weeks to arrive. The inspection (at Canadian Tire) took maybe 10 minutes. Note that you also need to get a second "safety inspection" which is required for licensing used cars. I didn't know this and had to come back for it before I could get my tags. Once I had both inspections, I just had to take that to a registration office and it took maybe 10-15 minutes for them to process everything and give me my registration papers and tags. Oh yes, since my car was just over a year old I didn't have to get an emission test, but if your car is over 2 years old you will need to get one of those too.

As long as you already owned your car before moving, there is no tax or import duty, but there is a fee for processing the paperwork. Not sure what it is now, it was around $100 back in 2001.

njdude26

Wow this is something new that I have heard now !!!
Were you landing in the first time and so you dont have any duty/tax ?

sysclp

When you land, all your goods you already owned are duty and tax free. I landed in February 2001 and had the car as well as all my other stuff on my list of goods to follow. I moved everything in April 2001.

I believe residents who have been out of the country for a long time can bring back $10K in stuff duty/tax free, but I don't know the details on that, just what I have heard others say.