At last, our shipping consignment arrives in Calgary tomorrow and we have to clear customs. Can anyone tell me about the process, what i need to take and if i'm likey to incur any costs???
I can't wait to be sitting on my sofa's, sleeping in my bed and have the rest of my clothes ..........YIPEE

We cleared customs in Calgary a couple of weeks ago. We took our forms showing our goods to follow, immigration documents and passports. We also took photocopies of our immigration documents and passports, as our shipping company had instructed, but they were not required. Surprisingly, we found that we didn't really need our goods to follow list. They were quite happy to complete a new document there, and only asked what the insured value of the goods was. It was all very friendly, speedy and light hearted.

We then had to take the forms to the cashier, who stamped them and confirmed that no payment was required.

Same with us , took passports and the copy of the itinery that the packers gave us, customs checked that it matched the copy they held at customs that came with the container, asked if we'd brought any firearms etc ( the banned stuff) and that was it.
Good luck
Terese

Our stuff arrives tomorrow but MIL has booked for me to go to theatre with her, does anyone know if its OK for just one of you to be present or do we both have to go?

I have heard that if you are unlucky and get picked for a random search you have to pay to un-load and re-load the container, and this can be several hundred $'s.

Though with us Customs came out in a van with an x-ray machine, as the movers unloaded the container into our house customs picked random boxes and either looked in them or x-rayed them, no extra charge, though we did give them a cup of coffee.

Just one of you will be fine - when our stuff was cleared, my DH went and sorted it - I stayed at home with the kids.

Yep !

The figure was somewhere between $600 and $700 I think - I've blanked it out which probably means it was nearer the $700 mark

Seems quite rare though, thankfully.

Maybe a really stupid question but if you are unlucky enought to be the chosen one to have your container opened does anyone have any idea what they are looking for?

Just curious so I know what not to pack!
Thanks
Jan

To be honest - it could be anything !

They unpacked every single item from our shipment all over a warehouse floor and then x-rayed the lot. Customs did open up a box of dried foods (herbs and spices, tins of baked beans, you know the stuff ) and which was marked up as "dried foods" - no issues.

They also opened up a box of old work equipment - maybe they wondered what an old wooden police truncheon really was?!

And they opened up the back of a large picture - no idea why.

The girl at the handling agents 'suggested' that we were picked in case we were trying to bring in weapons ( ) - I think that was rubbish. But hey - nothing we could do about it. Just put it down to experience.

I've written about our experience before on this site - but I guess just follow the main rules about clean garden equipment, not smuggling in alcohol or porn, firearms, etc. I see mixed messages from different shipping agents about food and liquids. Personally, I packed up a cupboard full of herbs and spices, a couple of squeezy salad creams and marmite, bisto, etc and threw in anything else that was unopened from the cupboard. No meat or fruit products (so even stuff like tins of ravioli or dog food) etc.

I was more concerned about a wheelbarrow that we forgot to list on the "Goods to Follow" - but which was scrubbed clean and shoved in at the last minute. No comment about that.

T'is a government agency and is therefore a mystery And as I say, luckily it seems fairly rare - I've only heard of about 3 other cases of a customs search since joining this site (ok, so that's probably not a fair representation, but it's the only one I've got at this time).

Thanks for that, sorry you were one of the unlucky ones but I suppose they have a job to do!

Will have to work hard on my list of goods to follow, its going to be a nightmare as all our stuff is already in packed up in storage, but luckily all boxes are marked so I have a pretty good idea of whats in each box!

Thanks again,
Jan

What sort of visa are you here on? We have TWP and they really didn't seem very interested in any of our goods, as the theory is that you will take it all away with you when you leave. They asked whether my bike was clean, and that's about it. We did come over via the US though, so most of it had already been cleared there (not sure if that makes a difference, but I'm guessing that US germs etc are going to get in regardless). We just had the packing list from the movers, which did not have many details (and some labels were wrong).