Momof7yold

As HawkRiders said, check the FAQ for general answers on most of this. I'll give a cautionary tale based on my experience. You will want to check for the required compliance marks on your car (again, FAQ) and will probably need to get a Letter of Compliance from the manufacturer if the car meets Canadian safety standards. If the mark on the inside of the door mentions CMVSS but not FMVSS, it meets Canadian but not American safety standards. This is almost always due to TPMS which is installed by law on American cars since 2007 (ish) but is not a standard thing on Canadian cars. 
 
TPMS is where most peoples' issue lies. If you search for info online about this, you'll find plenty of people saying that CBP chose not to enforce the TPMS requirement and allowed the import, but this seems to be random and completely up to the CBP office. Peace Arch would not let me import my 2014 Camry without TPMS. I also got bad advice from a CBP officer on the phone who said any aftermarket TPMS would suffice -- I slapped on a cheap and cheerful Amazon TPMS based on this call and while the unit works great it also resulted in a frustrating 90 minute visit to Peace Arch secondary before being told I couldn't import it without a dealer-installed OEM TPMS. Luckily I was able to bring the car in *at all* because The Rules state that the one year grace period for importing a car only applies to temporary residents and at when I made my Peace Arch visit I had already been a permanent resident for 2 weeks, so they could have just told me to take my unimportable car back to Canada and that would be... very bad.
 
I called both Toyota USA and Toyota Canada and they cannot or will not install TPMS on this model of Camry. I checked the instrument panel and it doesn't even have a TPMS light, so it's also unlikely it has the harness or any other stuff required.  
 
In any case I'm 10 miles on the US side of the border with an unimportable car on which the Canadian insurance will no longer be valid in just over a week since Washington law says you have 30 days to register the car you brought in when you move, and ICBC says you have to confirm to the laws of the state you're in to have the policy remain active. I also have no idea how I can insure the car here since I can't get tags for it (register it) since it's not imported. And I can't just sell it in Canada because of what I feel are pretty obvious reasons lol. Basically I'm going to have to wait for the border to reopen or for quarantine requirements to be lifted, and presumably there's going to be some sort of vaccination requirement tied in there so I have to wait for that too, then figure out some sort of temporary insurance, then return to Canada and sell the vehicle.
 
If anyone has experience with or has a great idea about this kind of situation I'd love to hear it, but I think I'm kinda screwed haha. But I'm down here with my family so really this is just another thing to roll my eyes about in this process!
 
Oh man I'm so sorry this is so long, everyone.
 
TLDR: *as far as possible before your POE date*, check for emission and safety standards markings, if you don't have FMVSS certification get the letter of compliance from Toyota Canada, if your car is missing TPMS either sell it or see if Toyota can install it.  Or find the magical CBP office that will allow import without TPMS, but even then I'd be worried that a potential future insurance claim might get denied on the basis that the car wasn't FMVSS compliant.
 

Have you already consulted this group's FAQ and conducted a forum search? Both of those serve as invaluable tools for resolving the questions you have presented.

Hello, 
 
I have been a silent member but got immense help from this group. Thanks to everyone here for sharing their experiences! I had my interview on Feb 24 and received passport on March 7th in Vancouver. We plan to move to Seattle around March 20th. Have a few questions:
 
1) Is there a negative COVID test required at land border crossing?
2) What forms and documents are needed at POE for customs? 
3) I have a 2010 Toyota Camry (have not been able to sell it off), so looking for options to take it with me. How can I take the car with me without importing it at the moment? How will insurance and licensing work in Washington state during the one year before registration?
For the other option, if I import it, what are the documents that I need to have to present at POE? What are the next steps to do in Washington to register the car? Looking for firsthand experiences. Thanks!