Crossing the Canadian Border
One of my biggest stress on this trip was the point where we would have to re-enter Canada. We are driving this train back in Canada and I have no idea of how it actually really works… I read on some websites, forums and more how foreign people can come live in Canada, but it focuses mostly on getting a VISA… But I am Canadian, I have a passport and I was gone for a little over 18 months… Can’t be that hard to come back, right?
Well, to our own surprise, it turned out well. But we were quite prepared. Here’s what I did to make it work:
- I gathered all of my paperwork from when I moved to Seattle 18 months ago, including the bill of transport with inventory from that first shipment
- I gathered all of my original paperwork for my car, to prove that I had bought it in Canada prior to moving to Seattle in the first place, including bill of sale, immatriculation, copy of drivers license, etc…
- I gathered all of my new car data from the State of Washington
- We made a complete list (inventory) of what was in the cube van, detailed by box or item number, on a single page spreadsheet
- Put all that together in a folder with our passports, driver license, U-Haul rental paperwork
Once we showed up to the border, we were ready. We showed up in the wrong section, commercial trucks instead of recreational vehicles… But we had a truck… Anyways. They sent me to immigration to get some paperwork officialized there, then I went back to get our train searched. They asked me a few questions but never searched the train. They just told me: Welcome back, glad you are back!
I was stunned. It actually took me a good 5 minutes to realize that we were in Canada, fully legal, on our way home! Overall, crossing the border took less than 20 minutes. It took me more than that in the past just to go visit family for a weekend in the US!
Anyways, we made it. It was easier than expected but we were quite ready. And I have to say that the Canadian border agents were very very nice. They welcomed me back in Canada, they were smiling. They weren’t like typical US border and immigration agents. Now I knew I was in Canada!
Dakx
