Racers here in Portland cross the border fairly often to go to Mission.
Here's a couple of tips that might be useful.
Don't cross at a major highway unless it's late at night or early
morning--the wait can be terrible. Use a small town crossing near to the
track. When security is high the wait at the I5 crossing can be six hours
or more.
Gas in approved cans has never been a problem, but who knows what some
bureaucrat will do. There are all kinds of laws about what custom you need
to pay (like burning U.S. gas inside Canada that are never applied to
private citizens unless you run into a weird situation.
Birth certificate and photo ID. Generally the border is no sweat going
into canada and only security issues and concerns about agricultural pests
coming back.
-----Original Message-----
From: Tom Strange
To: fot@autox.team.net
Sent: 6/20/2003 7:07 AM
Subject: mosport border crossing thoughts
Good morning,
I just got off the phone with the gentleman that signed the customs
letter
in our packet, allowing us to "temporarily" imprt goods into Canada.
In talking he brought up a good point. He suggested we have a
reasonably
accurate list of what all is in our posession when we enter canada.
That way
if a border guard questioned if we were bring stuff to sell, we could
present
the list to him. He thought this had the potential for saving a delay
or
problem. (no gaurantees though).. He suggested serial numbers on
applicable
items ... trailer, car, etc., and a rough value of what we are bringing.
This
was all just to alleviate potential concerns of whatever customs
inspector we
might get. This seems like a goood idea to me (but i really dont want
to know
the value... probably scare me..)
My specific question for him was bringing in fuel, (cheaper here, by a
lot)
which I have decided against doing. It sounds like it is okay with
customs,
but we may have to pay some tax on it as it will be consumed in Canada.
The
problem could occur in what a border agent may think of the method we
are
using to transport it if he thinks of it as a hazardous materia.. With
the
added issue of safety, I have decided just to buy fuel there. (I may
bring an
extra 5 gallons or so....)
Just food for thought, hope it helps someone... have a good day, & see
you
at mosport.
Tom
ps. Scott ... Matt .... one more thing to do yet I guess. ;o( .....
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