Greetings,

I am considering landing in a rental car (from the US).
Are there any potential problems with this plan?

Also, I need to return a week after landing to the US for getting the rest of my stuff and will be importing my own car the second time around.

So my question is - is it better to take a round trip rental US-plated car from the US, or is it better to do two one-way rentals - Canadian plated car from US-Canada and US-plated car from Canada-US?

Thanks for any ideas.

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"Mah deah, there is much more money to be made in the destruction of civilization than in building it up."

-- Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind"

Potentially there is no problem if you go for a 2 way rental ....it will be cheaper as with AAA Hertz give unlimited milage within USD 200(if you don't take additional insurance and use your own insuarance).Having a car will make you more mobile in Canada and you will be able to complete most of your activities fairly quickly
Only problem which might happen during entry is at POE officer might not be happy if you tell them that you are landing and again returning back after one week.One of my friend explained the same situation and that POE officer did not allowed to take photo for PR card and told him to apply for it when he is re entering permanently
To avoid this conflict you could tell that your family will be staying and you will return for one week time to take care of your household stuffs and don't forget to give him a address in Canada(You can use your friend's address) if you say you don't have any address currently in Canada that might delay your PR card process
Although yod don't need a PR card if you're not travelling in a commercial vehicle but POE officers not always follow rules properly ..so be prapared and act accordingly if you POE stop you during your second time entry to Canada..that case you need to apply for a Travel doc
Finally I came via one way rental car as I sold my US manufactured car before I left US
Best of luck

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ani

Thanks, Ani, for your help.
My only concern with renting a two-way car is that Canadian law does not allow Canadian PRs to drive a US-plated car in Canada.
As soon as I complete my landing, I will be a Canadian PR and thus should not be driving the US car during the week in Canada.
I called a couple of rental car companies and they said the same.
See:
http://www.avis.com/AvisWeb/JSP/global/en/rentersguide/policies/us/US_Border_Crossing.jsp?ORI_Pub=SearchPub&ORI_SESSION_LANG=en&

People who live in border cities like Buffalo, Detroit, etc. can often rent a Canadian plated car, but here in Atlanta, it is almost impossible to get a Canadian car.

Any ideas?

Thanks for your help.

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"Mah deah, there is much more money to be made in the destruction of civilization than in building it up."

-- Rhett Butler in "Gone with the Wind"

Current law is if you are a Canadian PR you need to exchange the car at the border if you are renting the car for more than 24 hours.I know very well that Hertz provide the flexibility that you can go for a two way rental
car with exchange option .So after crossing the border you need to exchange your hertz US plated car with Canadian plated Hertz car and vice versa during return
Unfortunately all rental car doesn't provide this kind of flexibility to the Canadian PRs and even it varies across state
In August 2003 when I visited Toronto for 4 days I was able to do a two way rental car from Heetz ,CT but in Chicago they refused to provide me a USA plated Haertz car in Nov 2003 with more than 24 hours booking
So first check out the rule in your state/area

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ani

Hi pratickm,

Last weekend, I landed in Canada in a rental car in Niagara falls border and came back to US in this weekend.

When we asked Hertz, they said that we can take the car to Canada.
Get a insurance card from your US insurance company which should be kept in the rental car to use in Canada(which is different from US insurance card).

I am planning to import my car later, so I gave the list to be imported which had my car details also. So Canadian customs officer asked "Are u planning to bring your car later? Do you have a rental car now?".

The immigration and customs together didn't take more than 15-20 minutes.

Hi All,

I'm planning to land in Canada thru' detroit border very soon in April 2004.I will drive a rented car (will rent from Chicago and return in Windsor). I'm not planning to move permanently now.I will go and come back in few days.I have a honda car in Chicago,USA.Shall I list that car to be imported to Canada when I talk to the customs officer? If they asks when I will do that, what should be the best answer (because I do not know when actually I will move my car or if I will sell it before I move) to the customs officer?

Also if I list my car in the 'to be imported' list and later do not import the car, what can happen?

Thanks much,
Sunanda

hi,

When I landed a couple of weeks back by rental car, the customs officer didn't ask "When will you import the car?". So I assume that they won't ask the timeframe. If you give the list now and later if you don't import, it doesn't matter.