Roger

I am going to the States (California) on a TN visa and I was wondering
what the drivers' license situation is. I plan on taking my car which
is being leased in Canada. I understand that the car company requires
a leased car returned to them if the car will be out of the country
for more than 30 days. My plan is to purchase the car when the lease
expires.

My questions are:
Do I need to get to a California license right away?

Will I need to get California license plates?

Will there be any issues bringing the car through customs?

Thx

Ingo Pakleppa - See Web Site For Email

On Tue, 07 Oct 2003 14:31:45 -0700, Roger wrote:

    > I am going to the States (California) on a TN visa and I was wondering
    > what the drivers' license situation is. I plan on taking my car which
    > is being leased in Canada. I understand that the car company requires
    > a leased car returned to them if the car will be out of the country
    > for more than 30 days. My plan is to purchase the car when the lease
    > expires.
    >
    > My questions are:
    > Do I need to get to a California license right away?

You should visit the California DMV Web site for details. I believe you
have six weeks from the day you become a resident, although there are
exceptions.

    > Will I need to get California license plates?

If you plan on importing the car, yes. If you plan on just driving it
temporarily and returning it to Canada, no.

    > Will there be any issues bringing the car through customs?

There are many issues. Again, if you are just temporarily bringing it to
the US for a few weeks or months, it's pretty easy. There is a chance
customs may make you pay a bond that will get refunded when you prove that
the car has returned to Canada (and if you have an accident, you would
even have to take the totalled car back to Canada).

The main issue, though, even for people from other states, is that your
car needs to meet California emission standards and other laws specific to
this state. So there is a good chance that if you want to keep the car in
CA, you would have to spend a considerable amount of money to get it
retrofitted.

Again, as long as you return it to Canada on short order, that will not be
an issue.

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You should also check with your insurance company if you don't plan to switch to Cali plates and insurance.

Many insurance companies will not cover you for such a long stay away from your home province.

BTW: if you do import your car, you will probably need a compliance certificate form the manufacturer...this takes a few weeks, so plan ahead.