Confused vehicle situation!!

[Jrozzler 17]

Hey guys was wondering if anyone can shine alittle on this vehicle import thing. 

 

My wife is from Canada, we are currently waiting for her green card so we are in between statuses. She has her work and travel permit as well. When she crossed the border on her k1 visa, the border said nothing about her Canadian jeep.  They didn’t ask for papers, hey didn’t say anything about importing the car, they just let her  through. 

 

She has been driving it for about 6 months with zero issues. Now we are trying to get the title in Colorado so we can sell the vehicle.  The man at the port of entry freaked out on us and said we needed to import he car within 30 days of her moving here. And said he couldn’t help us. I was under the impression that it needed to be imported within 30 days of her getting the green card. She still technically isn’t a Perminent resident yet.  Does anyone know the laws on this??? 

[Peot 161]

Yes, this was definitely done incorrectly - the import should have happened at the POE and requires documentation, and you may also pay Duty on the car's value. Unfortunately FCA can be very fickle about getting the required documentation - I recently imported my Dodge and wrote about that here:

 

I would gather the required information (See my post), and simply drive the vehicle out of the country - then drive it back in. At the POE, you will make it clear that you are importing the vehicle. I'm not sure at all where their "30 days" number comes from, but it looks a lot like you would have to pay Duty on it since it wasn't imported at arrival - though they minus your daily exemption from the amount owed. You may also need to have a bill of sale - consider selling the car to your spouse for $1 if you don't have one. 

 

Their info site:
https://www.cbp.gov/trade/basic-import-export/importing-car

[Jrozzler 17]

very interesting. thank you for the info. we may drive back up to canada and just sell it there and be done with it.

[Peot 161]

3 minutes ago, Jrozzler said:

very interesting. thank you for the info. we may drive back up to canada and just sell it there and be done with it.

Of course, that's always an option too. Drive it up, consign it for sale, and call it a day. 🙂

 

Would definitely beat the huge headache of trying to get FCA to comply with this. I had to jump through hoops - definitely not fun.

Edited September 13, 2018 by Peot

[TBoneTX 45,498]

Thread is moved from the K-1 Process forum to the Canada regional subforum.

[NikLR 13,227]

You have a year to import a vehicle after immigrating, not 30 days.  As an american made vehicle you should not pay any duty on it. 

 

Jeeps, specifically wranglers, are worth a small fortune in Colorado and there's so much to do with them.  Make sure it's compliant and import it at your nearest CBP office.  (possibly at Centennial airport?)

[Jrozzler 17]

On 9/13/2018 at 11:10 AM, Peot said:

Of course, that's always an option too. Drive it up, consign it for sale, and call it a day. 🙂

 

Would definitely beat the huge headache of trying to get FCA to comply with this. I had to jump through hoops - definitely not fun.

So my wife’s brother may come down and drive the Jeep back up to Canada. It’s registered in her name. How would we go about doing this? 

[NikLR 13,227]

Sell it to him?

[Peot 161]

On 9/24/2018 at 10:57 PM, Jrozzler said:

So my wife’s brother may come down and drive the Jeep back up to Canada. It’s registered in her name. How would we go about doing this? 

Though not "mandatory", it's recommended by CBP that your wife give her brother a notarized letter of permission to take with him across the border - just in case the vehicle's ownership comes into question.

 

Because vehicles that haven't been properly imported are SUPPOSED to leave the country, it shouldn't be an issue.

Edited September 28, 2018 by Peot

[NikLR 13,227]

If she owns it and he doesnt they will need a bill of sale for him to register it and insure it in Canada.  

She cannot continue to have Canadian insurance or registration as a non-resident. 

[Boiler 45,659]

I was wondering how you were handling the Insurance aspect.

[Jrozzler 17]

So I got it all figured out! We needed a letter from jeep Canada saying the vehicle complied with US safety and Emissions standards. Once we received that in the mail we drove to a CBP office about 40 minutes away from us and the officer their inspected the vehicle then went into his office for 30 minutes and came out with all the paper work we needed. My wife signed a few times and away we went with a legally imported jeep. It was actually very easy. We got the vehicle registered that same day. Thank you all for your help! 

[NikLR 13,227]

So you decided to just import it? Good!

[Jrozzler 17]

4 hours ago, NikLR said:

So you decided to just import it? Good!

 Yes and we didn’t need to pay any duty or anything like that either. I guess I was stressing for no reason!