Help with Canadian Customs

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So my boyfriend, an American citizen, is coming up to Canada to stay with me for a few months. I spent the summer there, and there's a bunch of stuff that needed to be brought up here to my apartment. Some of the stuff is mine that I either brought to the States and am now trying to bring back, or that I bought there but the value of which is under the personal exemption for duty taxes. The rest is used furniture (dresser, coffee table, night stands) that he gave to me over the summer and is permanently staying in Canada. His personal stuff includes a bed (which we have documentation showing that he needs for a bad back), a desktop with a couple of monitors for work, a computer desk, and clothes. His stuff is obviously going with him when he returns to the States.

After searching for a mover, we found someone who is vaguely related (mother's friends son-in-law), who said he could do the job. We gave him all the documentation he said he needed and he assured us that he's done this before and that it will all go through fine. This stuff was supposed to be delivered on the 10th and we're still waiting for it.

It turns out that it got through the Niagara border, but for some reason when it reached the trucking company's warehouse in Toronto it was bonded by customs (after countless back and forths we still don't know exactly what this means???). The mover told us we had to drive to Toronto to sign for it, which was out of the question since the night before this happened he told us we could go ahead and drive 2+ hours out of the city and that we'd be able to sign for it from where we were. We told him that he was going to have to bring the shipment to a customs place near us so we could sign for it, and he agreed. We also consulted a lawyer about the situation and he told us that they likely just wanted to check our inventory sheet against what was actually in the shipment and get an explanation about the bed, and that it will be fine.

This was supposed to happen this morning. Now we find out that the customs officer who was supposed to accompany the shipment didn't want to come because he said it would likely not get cleared and will be sent back to the States, along with the boyfriend. The truck driver will also not make the trip because he thinks his truck will be sealed.

After speaking to someone at the truck company who is a friend of our mover's and was contracted to drive this stuff to us, we learn that our mover has never done this before and had no clue what needed to be done to get a shipment across, and he [censored] everything up.

So now we're sitting here with our stuff stuck in Toronto, and it looks like we're going to have to make a drive that is most likely going to end up with our stuff sent back to the States, and a possible deportation.

Anybody know what the [censored] we can do?

[By-Tor]

terrorist ban

[poorolrich]

You guys do have lawyers up there don't you????

[mrkilla]

I've dealt with customs many times and can help, but i require a pic of your boobs as payment

ok really Im confused

Where do you want the stuff to be, I assumed Canada?

So if i follow, you shipped the stuff from the US to CA, but never declared your items and are in violation of the NAFTA acts? Now its stuck in the Customs house at Toronto.

If you sign for it , can you get it out?

Really this is just gonna come down to paying fines and tax

[mosdef]

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You guys do have lawyers up there don't you????

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We only have lawyers that specialize in the legal issues surrounding hockey-related fatalities and Tim Horton's Lineup Rage violence. Otherwise, we ask Americans.

[evank15]

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You guys do have lawyers up there don't you????

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Tim Horton's Lineup Rage violence.

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LOL. This is totally lost on Americans. Funny.