How To Self Clear Customs

[AlinNS]

Have read a lot of threads regarding clearing customs without a broker. Yes, it is possible. How do I know? I did it a couple of days ago for a $4000.00+ shipment.

First look up sufferance warehouse locations in your area (Google). You will find a port of entry code and destination code on the same website. Ask Vans to ship it there.

You need to bring the following to the customs office:

1. Shipping Manifest (comes from the bond warehouse);
2. Bill of Lading/Shipping details (comes from Vans);
3. Revenue Canada Certificate of Origin (comes from Vans);
4. Revenue Canada Customs Invoice (comes from Vans); and
5. Invoice (comes from Vans).
You don't even need to fill these forms out, yep, Vans does it. I didn't ask Vans for these forms, they knew to send them to me. No trip to the warehouse to pick up the paper work is required - email!

I expected a gigantic hassle and a very long wait. I couldn't have been more wrong. Walked right up to the desk, exchanged pleasantries and was outta there in under 12 minutes - most of the time was spent talking about......airplanes! Oh zero, nadda, zippo, fees, just the &%#@$ taxes.

This was my experience. I hope the details above help someone else contemplating this.

An additional note (Oct 2017): I much prefer this process to waiting for a truck to arrive on the farm and tying up my tractor to unload. This way I just leave my truck/trailer loaded and unload at my leisure.

[Ron B.]

Sounds great, glad it worked out for you. Would you know if after clearing your shipment , could you have hired a courier to pick up the box from the sufferance warehouse and had it delivered to your home?

[Paul Tuttle]

Too bad I discovered this information after I got my kit, but had other items shipped this way. My friend had a kit shipped here and it was pretty much hassle free using the exact method you described.

[Lemmingman]

This sounds like an excellent candidate to be sticky in the Canada forum.

[Ironflight]

Voila - it is stuck, you Canucks.....

[AlinNS]

Originally Posted by Ron B.

Sounds great, glad it worked out for you. Would you know if after clearing your shipment , could you have hired a courier to pick up the box from the sufferance warehouse and had it delivered to your home?

I had considered this but didn't look into it. The shipping was a bit less and I figured one less encounter with a fork lift wold be to my benefit. Still had a puncture wound though.

Can't see any reason why this wouldn't work. The bond warehouse wanted to see the stamped (by customs) manifest and the stamped customs receipt. I have the originals so they didn't keep anything other than a photocopy - maybe even a scanned email would work?

The bond warehouse is called Mathers Freight Management. They are in Burnside and are a fairly large shipping company. Give them a call. They were very helpful.

There appears to be a bond warehouse in Nictuax, if that helps you out any.

Also, I called the Canada Customs folks twice on two different days and spoke to two different people with my plan. I would suggest anyone considering doing a self clearance do due diligence for their respective area.

Ron, I haven't forgotten the invitation.

[Tom Martin]

I am just finalizing the shipment of my RV14 fuselage kit. I priced the shipment to Michigan, or direct to my door in southern Ontario.
The savings in freight and brokerage fees added up to $200.
I am busy this time of year, perhaps another time I might cross the border but for me it is not worth the bother. It is pretty nice to have the thing dropped off right at your door.
With more kits, the price difference may be greater.

[PipeDreamer]

I just want to clarify few things for those who are intimidated by the title of this thread " How to..." . You Show up with your parts at the border, declare (tell the officer) the value and purpose of the goods that are with you. Show your invoice , pay HST and drive home. This will only work if you tell the officer that you purchased the parts for personal use (non commercial use). Commercial import follows different routine .
So stop stressing, and do it yourself if you have time and don't want to pay few extra hundreds for brokerage and extra freight. I also suspect the less your cargo handled the better.
I forgot to add that you can disregard pretty much everything in the original top post. None of that is applicable for non commercial importation of kit plane parts.

[Ron B.]

Originally Posted by PipeDreamer

I just want to clarify few things for those who are intimidated by the title of this thread " How to..." . You Show up with your parts at the border, declare (tell the officer) the value and purpose of the goods that are with you. Show your invoice , pay HST and drive home. This will only work if you tell the officer that you purchased the parts for personal use (non commercial use). Commercial import follows different routine .
So stop stressing, and do it yourself if you have time and don't want to pay few extra hundreds for brokerage and extra freight. I also suspect the less your cargo handled the better.
I forgot to add that you can disregard pretty much everything in the original top post. None of that is applicable for non commercial importation of kit plane parts.

You're mixing up two different approaches to self clearing personnel goods. For you, that is sitting on the border , that is correct. Canada is a big country , we don't all live close to the border, Al was pointing out an alternative for those of us that are not sitting on the border, to self clear.

[PipeDreamer]

You are right, Canada is a huge Country, second only to Russia, > 80% of Canadians live within 100 miles of the border with US. So I posted an alternative for those who do.