In an immigration status pickle and needs ideas about how to move to Canada!

June 15, 2010 9:22 AM

HOW AM I GOING TO MOVE?! I have to make a one way trip to Canada and live there. Due to my visa/immigration status I don't know if I can come back into the US.

Here's the deal-

I'm moving to Canada in July. I'm here in the US on a student visa and I have to be out of the country by July 13th. I'm going to Toronto to do my Permanent Residency landing. I am not sure I'll be able to obtain a US travel visa and once I leave the border i can't come back in, so there's no guarantee that I can come back to move.

I have originally planned on Moving by train, but just found out that the train going into Canada doesn't allow checked luggage at all. So, I can take 2 bags that are 50lb. each. That's it.

I don't have much stuff. I can fit everything I own into a wall closet.
I don't own a car and strongly prefer not driving, but I can if absolutely necessary.

so my options are
1. use a company like PODS or UPack. The lowest quote I got is close to $2000 and that's really an insane amount of money for me

2. Ship my stuff. I can get rid of (selling, or store with friends temporarily) everything but the bare minimum essential, which amounts to about 150 lbs of stuff still. Does anyone know how much shipping that would be? I have an address in Toronto I can ship to. It doesn't need to be fast at all.

3. Store my stuff in a storage and hope to get back in to make the move. I am already storing some of my stuff with friends in the US (college notes, textbooks etc.)

Does anyone have any advices? Thoughts? ideas?
Also, unrelated but it matters, how likely is it for a Canadian PR (my original country is not on the visa-exempt list) to get a travel visa to US?

posted by atetrachordofthree to Travel & Transportation around Canada (15 answers total)

Can you do this with a friend? Preferably a friend with a pickup truck. That way you avoid the issue of taking a rental car (if that is what you were considering) over the border one way.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 9:35 AM on June 15, 2010

Box it, and send it UPS? I think you can use USPS media rates for media, even to Canada.
posted by theora55 at 9:45 AM on June 15, 2010

Yeah UPS your stuff or consider a freight liner such as Yellow or similar to get it there. USPS Media Mail will work but it will take a few weeks and there is the chance they will inspect it, so make sure you're sending only valid media.
posted by msbutah at 10:03 AM on June 15, 2010

Another option - can you make multiple trips? Take one load up now of lesser essentials, take some more when you go up again? Perhaps find a friend that wants to travel up to Canada for the weekend with you to increase your baggage limit.
posted by msbutah at 10:05 AM on June 15, 2010

What is your citizenship? I think - but I'm not sure - that it's generally fairly easy to get a travel visa to the US, if you can prove that you have enough $$ for the trip, somewhere to stay, and transportation in and out of the country. Being a Canadian PR would only make it easier, I think. IANAL, but I did do some work in a law office with travel visas to non-US countries.
posted by insectosaurus at 10:07 AM on June 15, 2010

If you don't have any reasons to be refused entry to the US, but need a visa to get in, the only limitation will be your tolerance for hanging around in line at the US consulate at Simcoe Street in Toronto. And form filling, of course. Oh, and the extreme bloody annoyingness of the border crossing process.

Do note that any time spent out of the country counts against the PR process.
posted by scruss at 10:12 AM on June 15, 2010

>counts against the PR process

Sorry, counts against the citizenship process. FTFM ;-)
posted by scruss at 10:14 AM on June 15, 2010

I have shipped a small amount belongings long distance before; it was quite a while ago and I forget exactly how much it cost, but intuitively for 150lbs of stuff, maybe on the order of $500? You should be able to get a better quote from a post office or courier.
posted by PercussivePaul at 10:34 AM on June 15, 2010

Inside Canada Greyhound ships boxes - I found this the cheapest option when I only have a few boxes to ship one way.
posted by Gor-ella at 10:37 AM on June 15, 2010

IIRC, you will need to have an itemized list of your belongings, even if they are not with you, when you make your landing. This may have changed in the couple years since I last researched this.

The last time I took Amtrak to Canada (about 2 months ago), there were a couple people with huge suitcases. Some of us had our stuff inspected in NYC, they checked a few more at the border. But, Amtrak didn't seem to be enforcing the size limit on baggage.
posted by QIbHom at 11:00 AM on June 15, 2010

If you can drive, you can rent a U-Haul to go from the USA into Canada, even one-way -- this is how my husband and I moved from New England back to Ontario. You can get small U-Haul vans for just boxes and stuff, or a truck large enough for furniture. You will have to check the math, but it was certainly cheaper for two people than two Greyhound tickets and shipping the rest. You could also advertise at your school to see if anyone else is headed that direction about that time and would like to share the ride (and part of the cost).

You are supposed to have an itemised list of everything you are bringing into Canada, but I will note that the key number is $10,000 per item -- that is, they want to know if any SINGLE item is worth $10,000 or more. (The contents of our entire truck were not worth $10,000).
posted by jb at 12:11 PM on June 15, 2010

Just to note -- you can't rent a car one-way from the US into Canada (something about preventing car smuggling) -- U-hauls, etc, are under different rules. Alternatively, a friend could come down with a station wagon, SUV, mini-van or truck -- this is how I moved back and forth before the last trip. (I've moved to the States and back again to Canada twice now).

I just noted that you would prefer not to drive (understandable), but as I recall package shipping by Greyhound USA into Canada was ridiculously expensive (like more than a ticket for a person would be, per box). I don't recall what US Mail wanted. A medium (one-bedroom) truck was $800 USD, which is still much less than $2000; a small van (all you would require) would presumably be a bit cheaper, and obviously includes your own transportation.
posted by jb at 12:17 PM on June 15, 2010

Don't send UPS unless you want to pay insanely expensive customs charges. I made this mistake myself -- use regular mail at the cheapest rate.
posted by Ouisch at 1:33 PM on June 15, 2010

Umm is the 150 lbs above the 100 lbs that you can take on the train with you? Otherwise you are just looking at shipping 50 lbs which is not too bad. Also, if you can fit it in 2 bags the train generally does not care at all about the weight as long as you can carry it. Also, there may be the option to pay $55 for an extra bag. Where are you coming from?
posted by saradarlin at 10:29 PM on June 15, 2010

Well, if it was me, I'd just rent a car and drive. You could easily fit all that stuff in a van. If you don't want to drive, I'd ship the stuff I couldn't carry onto the train (that'll be 50lbs after the 100 you can take in suitcases, right?). Call around to UPS, Fed Ex, and the regular USPS to get quotes on the cheapest, "slowest road to China" options. I doubt it will be more that $500. I've mailed heavy gifts to friends in Canada (on the order of 100 lbs), and it was definitely less than $500.
posted by bluefly at 7:54 AM on June 16, 2010