Moving to Canada on work permit after h1b expiry - Can I take my car to Canada? Or should I sell it?

Moving Here
1

Hello everyone.
My h1b expires on March 8th 2020 (6 years max out) and my perm, i140 etc is still pending. So my employer has applied for a Canada work permit.
My questions are:

  1. Can I bring my US car along while I work in Canada on WP 6 months or so?
  2. My h1b would be expired by the time I need to renew US car registration in June. Would this be a problem while being in Canada? Would I be able to use or export from US and import the car to Canada after it has already entered the country?

Thanks.

2

When you are on a work permit in Canada, you can drive your US purchased car without importing it in Canada for upto 36 months.

Registration renewal could be taken care online, so guess that should not be an issue and they should be able to ship your new year tags to your old US address or Canadian address if you wish so)

3

Thanks. Do you know if I can ship the car or ask a friend to drive it over to Toronto instead of driving it across? I might have to visit India before going to Canada and I was wondering if it was possible.

4
  1. I think that should be OK. Depending on your country of birth, your I-485 may be quick or might take ages. If you are going to live in Canada for more than 6 months I would recommend you import it.
  2. Depending on how long you will live in Canada and when you can got back to USA on a visa, you might be better off importing it into Canada for the US car registration expiration reason.

I would not recommend a friend driving it over. You should check the rules to confirm but I think the importer who holds the title (you) should be present in the car because they check the passport and all that. Better to just let a commercial transporter do it for you.

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