Can I Cross Borders On A Bike Registered In Another Persons Name
 

i am trying to get a canadian bike here in argentina and its proving really difficult. I cannot register the bike in my name in canada because I am not physically there. I can have my brother in law register and insure it for me. Then he can ship me the plates and paperwork. Would they let me through borders on a bike registered in another persons name? even if I have a notorized letter giving me full use of the bike and insurance papers with my name on them as the primary driver? I want to ride from argentina to Canada? has anyone done this? Please help
thanks
dan

I can't remember but...
 

Hi

I can't help you but I know there have been lots of discussions on crossing borders is South America on someone elses bike. (maybe a year ago). I remember that it is a major problem for some countries and for others not so much. I remember thinking that going all the way up SA was not possible using a bike bought in SA. There are lots of people selling their machines that they used to get to SA.

There was lots of good info from one guy (legal guy I think) in Argentina.

You need to search through the forums

Sorry I can't be of more help.

Wheeee!

I did something pretty similar recently. I bought a californian Bike in Argentina from a guy from New Zealand (I am german).
The vendor flew to LA for some days before heading back to NZ, so he took the papers with him to transfer the Bike on my Name. As far as I know that was no problem, all he needed was a copy of my passport.
Before leaving he wrote me a Document that said that he gifted me the motorcycle because he had to fly home for urgent family reasons. We didn't get a notary stamp or anything for that, just signed it both.
Because i had to get to Chile and couldn't wait for the papers to be sent to Argentina we also scanned in the papers, changed the name, and printed them out on some regular ink-printer (didn't even laminate it or printed both sides).
Because many many people in Argentina told me that I won't get across the border with this because the importation documents still are in the vendors name and the writing that said that he gave it to me had no notary stamp or anything that proves it as genuine i looked for a smaller border to cross over to Chile.
I crossed at, i think it was called Paso Vergara, a bit south of San Rafael. Beautiful landscape on the way an absolutely no problems at the Border. It took me about 10 minutes to get across the argentinian Border and into Chile.

I would not recommend to do it as I did. It is definately better to get a notary Stamp or to take the ferry to Uruguay together with the Vendor. But there are definately possibilities to buy a foreign motorcycle in Argentina.

I also read some threads here in the HUBB before buying the bike, and there are people who always say that there's absolutely no way to do it. That just simply isn't true! There is always a way, and in that case it isn't even that hard.

Oh yeah and you can also get an insurance in argentina for all of south ameria if you have problems with that in canada. It's super easy, just go to ATM in Buenos Aires (I think it's Av. Florida 833 (not sure about the number)) They will give you an Insurance for 60 Pesos per month (may have changed) in 10 minutes (for the extension for all of South America you'll have to wait 2 or 3 days).

I can only tell you what I experienced, but in my case it worked fine like this. ;)

Good Luck with your stuff!

you must have a properly written & notarized Power of Attorney document giving you permission.

I doubt this would get you all the way to Canada, they usually have a maximum time period as well, like 3-6 months.

My advice is to hop on a bus to Bolivia, buy a new XR250 Tornado or something (I assume you're on a budget) and ride that back to Canada.

That is all I have ever needed in the past 10 years. My bike is registered in my wife's name (it's a long story...), and when I first went overseas, I just got a notary to write up a Power of Attorney document that specified that it was perfectly OK for me to ride the bike all over the world, without time limit, and that I had P of A for anything related to the motorcycle.

FWIW, I have only had to show the document twice in 10 years. My experience with border guards, cops, etc. is that they tend to only look for the presence of an ownership or insurance document, and/or the validity of an ownership or insurance document - they really don't bother looking at the details.

Michael

thanks for everyones help
 

This is great thank you everyone. I will be riding a bike in my brother in laws name. I traveled in africa no problem like this but have read lots of conflicting stories here about it. Thanks again