Store the motorcycle in the USA for a year
 

Hello, we would like to fly our 2 Triumph Tiger motorcycles to Alaska in June 2024, then a 6 week tour through Canada to Denver. We would store our motorcycles there until April 2025. I've read everywhere that the motorcycle is only allowed to stay in the USA for 12 months and that we are no longer allowed to leave the USA without our motorcycle. What possibilities do we have?

Hello and welcome to the forum,
First piece of advice is fly your bike to Canada not the US, the paperwork is much simpler and they are much more used to dealing with temporarily imported vehicles. I flew mine to Vancouver and was out of the airport with my bike about two hours after I landed and customs took about 5 minutes. You can then ride over the border into the US which is much more simple than shipping or flying in with much less hassle and no temporary importation permit.
If you come in by this route you will be able to leave the US without your bike, I came and went several times while the bike stayed there, the other thing to remember is that you are required to keep you bike legal at home including road tax/registration and valid insurance, it is one of the requirements of temporary imporation.

Hi Minedo:

First, welcome to the HUBB community.

About leaving your motorcycle for a long time in the USA (or any other country) while you depart the country without it - it can be done, certainly, and many people, myself included, have done this many times, there is no way to do it legally unless you store it in a customs bonded warehouse, which is a very expensive and impractical solution for a motorcycle. The reasoning behind this is that the country you are visiting is allowing you duty-free import of your vehicle for touristic purposes, on the understanding that you will be exporting it when you leave the country. Leaving it behind when you go would change the transaction from a "temporary tourist import" to a "normal importation" that would then be subject to duty, taxes, possibly even conformation to safety and emissions standards, etc.

So, what you have to do is begin your trip by having the motorcycle enter a country that is not meticulous about tracking importation of tourist vehicles. As Mark stated in his post above, Canada is such a country - so it is far better to ship to Canada and then ride into the USA, because the Americans are less inclined to carefully inspect and record tourist vehicles entering via a land border crossing from Canada than vehicles entering by sea or air from another (more distant) country.

When you enter the USA from Canada, if questioned, advise the border control people that you plan to tour the USA for a little while and then return back to Canada. Don't mention anything about leaving the USA without the motorcycle.

Personally, if I were you, I would plan to store the moto in Canada, rather than in the USA. Canada is far less concerned about this kind of thing than the Americans are, although it's not legal to leave a tourist vehicle behind in Canada either. Plus, your airfare costs might be a bit lower because you will be arriving from your home country and departing to your home country from the same Canadian airport - you won't need to buy an 'open jaw' ticket.

As for where to store the motorcycle while you are gone, what I have always done when I have stored my Canadian motorcycle in Europe over the winter is to just find a motorcycle dealership (any brand) and ask them if they offer storage of motorcycles on a monthly basis. Most motorcycle dealers do offer this service, except perhaps those dealers in the center of large cities where real estate is expensive and space is limited. The advantage of storing your moto at a moto dealer is that they can keep your battery charged by plugging in a battery maintainer once a month, and also accomplish any services needed (new tires, oil changes, etc.) while the moto is in storage.

Michael

My understanding is that if you fly or ship your motorbike into the US, you will need to complete the proper customs formalities including importation permit, but if you enter overland this is often not done. I crossed from Mex to USA with a European plated bike and the border agents just asked me basic questions and then waved me through. Pretty sure if you do not receive or sign any paperwork you are not actually entered in the system, and this would probably be equally true crossing overland from Canada back into the US, after clearing customs in Alaska. Of course it could all be more complicated than that, at which point crossing to Baja in Mexico (where there is no TIP formalities), if you are nearby or possibly back to Canada may be a solution. I have heard something about a process to extend the TIP for up to 2 years in USA and that may also be possible but I dont remember the details or have any links for that, though possibly googling would dig up some other possibilities.

Hello, thank you very much for the nice reception and welcome. and thank you for the quick reply.
She helped us a lot with the decision.

Michael

I'm looking back at all the crossings BTW both nothern and southern US borders I did over the years and I believe that most especially small crossings don't even have customs on the US side. The only hard time we were given was at the inland port between Sascachewan and North Dakota, and I have avoided that crossing ever since. The Canadian side is a different story, but they're mostly looking for guns and before they legalized hemp for MJ. And some of them stuffed by A-holes at least that's what we came across a couple times once on WA/BC border and second time taking a small ferry across St Lawrence river. YMMV

Sent from my BV4900Pro which I haven't managed to drown yet