ScotinCanada

J-A-UK

A general rule of good practice is to ask those that know - CBSA (Border control) will have the answers - Tell them you plan and respond to their advises

Siouxie

If you have already got a shipment on it's way I would suggest you prepare a proper goods to follow list to preclude your having to pay duty on your shipment when it arrives and potential issues getting your shipment released from the bonded warehouse!

Yes, you will need to get your GTF list stamped by the duty Officer (customs) at the airport - the goods are not with you so don't go on the landing card! If you explain that you have goods to follow, they will take it from there. Do make sure that you have the values etc., on your GTF list - don't just use the shippers inventory, you really need to create your own in the correct format either using the forms available online or creating a spreadsheet in the correct format and you need 2 copies!
https://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/publicat...sf186-eng.html

From the wiki, as you're having issues seeing it

https://britishexpats.com/wiki/Goods...and_BSF186A.3F

• In the case of items that can be identified individually, e.g., electronic goods that have serial numbers, you are supposed to itemize brand name, model and serial number.

• If you will be importing precious jewellery, provide detailed descriptions and preferably photographs.

• Beyond that, you do not have to complete the Goods To Follow forms in great detail.

• Let’s suppose you have six boxes of books. You do not have to itemize each book and give its value. All you need to do is type "Books" and state a value for all of the books, collectively. (You could write "Books, 6 boxes" if you want, but specifying the number of boxes of a particular item is NOT required.) If you have a golf bag with golf clubs, there is no need to list the golf clubs individually. Just type "Golf bag and golf clubs" and provide a collective value. If you have a toolbox with a bunch of different tools in it, type "Toolbox with assorted tools" and again provide a collective value.

• Please note that you do not have to list items in great detail. When you provide a collective value for clothes, you do not have to list your shirts, trousers, socks, underwear, etc. Similarly, if you provide a collective value for bed linen, you do not have to list pillow cases, single bed sheets, double bed sheets, etc. Again, in the case of bath linen, you do not have to list bath mats, bath towels, hand towels, and facecloths. In each of these cases, just provide a collective value for the category (Clothes, Linens, Utensils, Sports equipment, etc).

• If you will be shipping only a few items of sentimental value (photographs and the like), don't stress yourself over the monetary values to quote. After all, who's to say what some photographs and a 20-year-old teddy bear are worth? Just suck some numbers out of the air. Guess high.

• However, keep in mind that a copy of your Goods To Follow list can serve as the manifest that you lodge with your insurance company if you insure your goods during their passage to Canada.
  • If you are using your Goods To Follow list for insurance purposes, you'll want to list replacement values rather than secondhand values. In the (admittedly unlikely) event that your shipment came to harm, you'd want your insurance company to compensate you for the replacement value of your belongings.
  • Any items that would be expensive to replace should not be lumped together with general things. For example, if you have rare books that would be difficult and expensive to replace, it would be much easier to prove that you had shipped such books if you had submitted a detailed, itemized list of those particular books with the insurance company. The same goes for expensive pieces of clothing, expensive linens, expensive sports equipment, etc.

• Your list must list values in Canadian Dollars. You can use the market exchange rate at the time you are writing up your forms to get approximate values. You can get the exchange rate between British pounds and Canadian dollars at http://www.xe.com.

There's a good example on how to write it yourself and other useful info on this thread: B4/B4A forms

Please note if you are bringing a pet over they MUST be listed on your goods to follow document!

Failing to get your GTF stamped prior to your goods arriving may result in hefty duties and a delay in release.

ScotinCanada

Thanks again Siouxie - this was so helpful. Our shipping company told us we didn't need anything other than the inventory they prepared and that we didn't need to do anything on arrival, just bring our permits to them when we had to release the goods. Obviously that's not correct!

I literally just (hand) wrote a rough list of all our stuff, amounts and values for goods to follow and for our accompanying goods. The customs officer (who was lovely) didn't want to even see a good accompanying list and just took my GTF list, photocopied it and stamped it. Job done.

Was really easy! (and here was me stressing about it all!)

Siouxie

Perfect!
Best of luck with your ongoing adventure