CBSA Tips for Travellers this Long Weekend

Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) is giving Canadians travelling for the long weekend a little advice to help border crossings go smoothly.

Mostly, it’s business as usual. The advice the agency offers includes things like having your travel documents in order and handy, not packing restricted or prohibited items and bringing a letter for any minors travelling without both parents. 

Bringing Goods Home from the US

Something Canadians are not used to though, is the requirement to pay a surtax on some of the things they are bringing home from the U.S. Thanks to tariffs,if travellers purchase goods in the U.S. and are bringing them into Canada, they may have to pay a 25 percent surtax in addition to regular duties and taxes. The CBSA release states “For residents of Canada, this surtax applies only to goods exceeding your personal exemptions limit. Consult the lists of products surtaxed: complete lists of goods subject to the surtax. 

You can direct clients to the CBSA website for more details on how these surtaxes apply at the border.

Driving Across the Border

CBSA also shared some hints for those coming back into Canada in their vehicles, starting with the advice to check the wait times at border crossings online at: www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/bwt-taf/menu-eng.html

The agency also gives the following tips:

• Early mornings are the best time to cross the border to avoid wait times.
• The Monday of holiday long weekends tend to be the busiest.
• Consider an alternative port of entry with shorter wait times or less traffic.
• Check the port of entry's hours of operation on the official CBSA Directory of Offices and Services.
• If you are using a GPS application (such as Google Maps, Apple Maps or Waze) to direct you to a port of entry, consider checking different navigation options (such as fastest and shortest routes) to determine the preferred route of travel.

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