Hi Michael,

Many thanks for your comprehensive details in this post. Clearly you have actually done this before (multiple times apparently), and that is exactly what I was looking for on this site. I need to find someone who literally looked into the eyes of a Customs Officer and successfully retrieved their bike in Toronto. But my situation has a slight snag requiring a few details and questions:

When your bike arrived, did you simply hand over your documents (registration, insurance, proof of ownership, etc.) to the agent and they looked them over and checked the VIN on your bike? Or did they enter the VIN into a computer to locate your machine? My (hopeful) entry into Toronto from Paris is complicated as follows.

I own the bike, purchased in the UK 15 years ago (F650GS), registered in my name at a UK address. But I live in Southern California, hold a US passport and US drivers license. The bike has never been to North America and obviously I’m not a Canadian Citizen. No Canadian paperwork, passport, license, etc.. My intent is to airfreight the bike from Paris to Toronto, ride it directly to the US border crossing, and ride across the US to California. So I have two problems: First with the Canadian Customs agent at the airport, and second with the US Customs agent as I try to enter the States. It sounds like I have to convince the Canadian agent that I’m not importing the bike to Canada at all, simply transiting Toronto for a few hours. Not sure how I can “prove” this to anyone, but that’s my goal. Then I have to convince the US Customs agent that the bike requires a temporary importation for 12 months…, which will be a challenge.

As you stated, it’s very likely the Customs agent will not be familiar with temporary import situations. And they will almost certainly never have had a US citizen bring a UK bike (which the US citizen owns but has been touring the UK, EU and North Africa intermittently for the past 15 years). I shudder to think what they’re going to do when they see me, if I even get as far as Toronto. But I have to make this work somehow. (My UK rider friends say I should just sell the bike in the UK and walk away. I’ve ridden it to many amazing destinations and don’t want to abandon it. There is much to explore in the US.)

Is there a way to converse with you offline and possibly engage your “services” to help me figure out how to approach this dilemma? I have an additional complication that I must solve at the US border, and if you’ve actually crossed the border to ride in the States you can help me answer some questions on that topic as well.

Is there a way we can connect offline?

Many thanks -

Chip
Southern California