Any issue crossing US border with R32 for vacation(vehicle admissability)

[jdms13rhd]

I wouldn't call customs before you go. They will prob just suggest for you to get a TIB. temp import bond. Its kinda like a visa for your car. It goes through DC DOT and takes a month to get one and its just a lot of BS. Just when you go, DO NOT tell them stupid crap. Make it straight forward as you can and keep your anwsers as short as possible.

I have been through US customs hundreds of times and had lots of them with no issues and a few that were were terrible. Ive been denied access, fingerprinted, quarantined and filled out a hundred of those immigration forms. I once tried to take a RB26 GTS-T to SEMA back in 2005 and had to turn around, go home, barrow an astro van with 300k+km and make a trip that could have been a lot more fun a pretty lame drive. I used to know the port directors by name and half the people on all of the ab, Mt crossings know me by name. But 99% of the time, your good to go. Just dont be stupid. One word anwsers and your good to go. Keep it short and simple! Thats as best advice as your gonna get.

on a side note. Once while coming back into canada, they let me go through, I stopped to take a piss and had the guy from in the window come running to me asking for my form 1. I tried to explain that I cant get an alberta plate without getting insurance, I cant get insurance without and inspection and I cant get the inspection request without the form 1. He didnt understand. Ended up having to go back in but then I had a friend working there that day and cleared it up. Anyways, since then, I just keep a photocopy of the form 1 with my reg in case something stupid like that goes down again. Never has since that one time tho and was surprised to get it from canada :P

[nelsonmxmarc]

Right, it's simply in the manner you speak to them. I've gone through before while dating a girl in ohio. I had my truck loaded with canadian beer and ketchup chips, apparently rare commodities state side. Anyways, they just thought it was funny that i was going to see a girl in ohio. Obviously they were right when they said it wouldnt last.

My concern is i have a big trip to florida in may, and 2 trips to the tail of the dragon mid summer. If one of these events gets turned around it means a loss in business on my end (and leisure ). The trip to florida is more of leisure trip with business detours, but at any rate, a flop at the border would really set me back. I just don't need any surprises.

Best to admit business venture or leisure vacation? Either one seems like it could raise red flags. All trips scheduled around 1-2 week stays..

[jdms13rhd]

Best to admit business venture or leisure vacation? Either one seems like it could raise red flags. All trips scheduled around 1-2 week stays..

Vacation for sure!!!

Dont bring any business stuff with you. Make sure you can easily tell them your whole trip in point form. Where your going, who your seeing, how you know them, when your coming back ect ect. Dont tell them your leaving anything down there "even if you are" for whatever reasons. Dont bring anything over 10K cash with you or you will have to go in and fill out papers and might get TSA hand grabbing your nuts. Dont be a smart ass and show any kind of "WTF look on your face" no matter how stupid the officer is. Dont video tape anything! Make sure you have cloths "socks and underwear" for the amount of days you plan to spend there. All common sense stuff, or so you would think. I could write a book on how to cross the US boarders.

[nelsonmxmarc]

Vacation for sure!!!

Dont bring any business stuff with you. Make sure you can easily tell them your whole trip in point form. Where your going, who your seeing, how you know them, when your coming back ect ect. Dont tell them your leaving anything down there "even if you are" for whatever reasons. Dont bring anything over 10K cash with you or you will have to go in and fill out papers and might get TSA hand grabbing your nuts. Dont be a smart ass and show any kind of "WTF look on your face" no matter how stupid the officer is. Dont video tape anything! Make sure you have cloths "socks and underwear" for the amount of days you plan to spend there. All common sense stuff, or so you would think. I could write a book on how to cross the US boarders.

Hahah I like this, well said. I'll keep this in mind for my summer drives! appreciate the points

[GTS-James]

or just chill and be honest unless your peddling meth... they dont really give a ****

[Tony-R32]

I had my truck loaded with canadian beer and ketchup chips

WIN!

haha if you would have had coffee crisp they would have robbed you of "rare commodities" for sure!

[jdms13rhd]

WIN!

haha if you would have had coffee crisp they would have robbed you of "rare commodities" for sure!

isnt beer cheaper down there tho.

Dont forget eat-more's

[DarkCaporaL]

Just dont be stupid and be honest. The one thing you do not want happening is getting caught in a lie at the border. Trust me, I work for them.

[Tony-R32]

isnt beer cheaper down there tho.

Dont forget eat-more's

but it tastes like ****!

[doublejceballos]

lol i can shed some light on this situation. So i have crossed in my r32 about 50 times between aldergrove, peace arch, and truck crossing or pacific highway. Normally its not problem just tell them your going down for a few days or whatever. I go down alot cause alot of my family is down in the states. Anyway last time i went accross two months ago the officer at the booth aparently was a z32 guy and told my skylines werent allowed in the states at all and gave me a rvi. (random vehicle inspection) nbd i have had them before in other cars and its really just a waste of time you go inside wait they search your car and check your passport no biggie. But this time they went ape **** on me. Told me skylines and rhd cars for that matter are not allowed in the states becasue they are unsafe and they dont want them on their roads. keep in mind being hot tempered that i am i didnt exactly handle it as well as possible but when this fat excuse for a officer starting telling me my car wasnt safe for "his" roads i kind of gave him a piece of my mind. and for that matter i was detained for around 2 hours they searched my car for anything they could. (i had 500 cash in my glove box in my insurance papers cause i was renuing my insurance the next day) they kept asking me if it was drug money. anyway so they turned me around and said they wouldnt let me into the states in a skyline. So moral of the story is i dont think i will try and take my r32 to the states anymore or for a while at least. and if i ever do again i would go to the aldergrove/lynden crossing if your in bc. But it really just depends on the officer and what kinda mood they are in. just my 2 cents.

That seems odd. out of place to me.
of course i cross the boarder with a US passport even though I live in Canada, they cant refuse me entry. I roll through all the time. never had one single comment about the car, just relevant inquiry's about other stuff.

If they mention it not being safe ask them to provide documentation on their laws regarding this.
the reality is its just registration issues, NOT driving issues, US postal service vehicles are RHD.

[Jezu21]

I just got back from a trip to PA in my Skyline.

I crossed at the Kingston crossing. They pulled us out of the car and had us wait inside while they searched the car. It only took about 25 minutes but it was still a pain in the ass.

Asking questions like what kind of car it is, where'd I get it, how much did I pay, then got into personal stuff about me like where I work, where I'm from etc.

I've never been arrested or even have any tickets. The only reason they searched was because of the nature of the car.

It's not really worth the hassle. If you have another car, I say take that.

[MR666]

I would mabe take a copy of the :Vienna Convention on Road Traffic

These Lines own the US border guards:
The vehicle must meet all technical requirements to be legal for road use in the country of registration(Canada).

Any conflicting technical requirements (e.g. right-hand-drive or left-hand-drive) in the signatory country where the vehicle is being driven do not apply.
(Suck it USA Border, your Country signed onto this agreement in 1968)

Good for you !

I like sh*t like this !

I was taking my GT-R across the Peace Arch and Truck boarder crossing twice a week ti fill up with gas and I've never had an idiot at the booth (lucky). The best come backs I got were " The steering wheel is on the wrong side ! " for which I replied, " No ! . . . It's on the RIGHT side." Typical stupid Americans,

[CelicaKidd_205]

I should've posted this earlier, but a few weeks back I crossed in the Celica to pick up some wheels I bought off Tire Rack.

I had them shipped to a small shop in Niagara Falls, NY, just on the other side of the Air Force base. When I told my sister I was going to do that, she wanted to come along as well just for the ride. I was hesitant to take her at first but then decided it was better than going alone. Turns out that was a good idea.

I made sure to bring with me a copy of the shipping receipt from Tire Rack showing what I had bought and the address of the shop it was shipped to, as well as my credit card bill showing that I had paid for everything. I figured this way I could prove my business in crossing the border, and given the amount of money I had spent would be enough to assume I wasn't going to just throw that away by selling the car.

Anyway, pulling up to the booth at Queenston/Lewiston the guard asked the regular questions - "where are you going?" "what's your purpose?" "how long?" etc... - Then he paused for a few minutes and was talking on his radio to someone and I could read his lips saying "right driven vehicle." Then another border guard walked out from the building on the left and stood in front of the car with arms crossed. At the moment I was a bit confused but then the guard in the booth asked me to shut of the car and give him the keys. I complied without question, but both the guards got antsy when the turbo timer engaged and the car didn't shut off. I explained it to them and they gave me a dirty look and asked both of us out of the vehicle and to follow the guard in front of the car.

He led us to the building on the left and I politely asked him what was happening (do I not have a right to know?) he simply replied with "Every time you cross the border you are subject to a search." I didn't reply, but I was thinking I've crossed the border many times before and have never been subject to a "search." But whatever, I sat down in the building where there were lots of other people waiting to be questioned (none of them Caucasian mind you), and waited to be questioned. They made both me and my sister empty our pockets and they temporarily confiscated everything on us except for our wallets and papers. Both of us had to fill out a customs card even though we obviously had nothing of significance to claim. I had $100 USD and $200 CDN in cash to pay for install of the wheels and for the duty on the way back, but nothing else valuable. Then the customs officer hand wrote on the back of the card four questions. I don't remember them word for word, but it was stuff like "how long have you owned the car?" "what is your place of employment?" "where did you buy the car?" and "do you plan on selling the car in the USA?" I answered each question and had to initial each answer. Then both my sister were interrogated, asking me stuff like "have you owned any other cars like this?" "what kind of cars do you work on at your place of employment?" "where did the car originally come from?" "why haven't you crossed the border in this car before?" "what type of vehicles have you used to cross previously?" etc...

Afterwords my sister told me she was asked about cars that she has ('95 Neon, and a '81 280z) and how she can have 2 cars even though she's currently unemployed, if she was going shopping with me, if she'd ever taken drugs etc... Anyway, between being questioned and waiting for the car to be searched we ended up waiting for nearly 2 hours. When the search was done we were told to exit the building and go to the car. We walked out the door and there were no guards or anyone else around so I just started walking back to where we had come from while looking around for the car. Finally I spotted it in an inspection station, so I walked up to it. An inspection officer was sitting in the driver's seat waiting for us. I handed him the paper that the customs officer gave us and he said we could go. First I asked him if I could look over the car before we go to make sure everything was okay before we took off. He let me do a walk around, which was very appreciated, and he even wiped a greasy handprint off the spoiler when I spotted it. Everything was in good order, a few things were shuffled around in the glove box and centre console, but that was to be expected.

We left, and got the wheels installed and went straight back to Canada. A brief stop at the duty centre to pay up, and we were home free.

Overall it was much more of a hassle than it should've been, and next time I do something like that I'll take my parent's van to pick stuff up.

My recommendation to anyone wanting to cross is to expect a hassle, and bring anything with you that will help you prove to them that you aren't going to sell your car. Be polite and respectful, and don't lie, they work there for a reason, they are good at finding people out.

I wouldn't cross again with the Celica unless I had a better reason than "visiting" or just "picking something up" or "shopping".

[dah_hunter]

wow thats a hassle..

Good thing its nothing like that here in the west..

I get more "Random" Searchs when i go down in my IS300.. since it looks all baller..

skyline they dont care about.. or RHD honda CRX.

[Robski]

The paranoia of these guards is rediculous. You can't look at them wrong or else they will think you are an illegal arms trader or something.