Registering cars and trailers

[Chaplain Keppy]

I am an American, living and working in NY; my husband is a Canadian, retired, so he spends half the year at our Canadian cottage. Legally he is a Canadian resident and visitor to the US. We have several questions relating to registering our vehicles.

I am retiring next year, and we are expecting to spend time in both countries-- summers at the cottage up north, and winters traveling in the States in a travel trailer.

Up until very recently, I had a car registered in NY and my husband had a car he purchased in NY and registered in Ontario. We bought a trailer in NY, and it is registered in NY. We needed a car with enough muscle to haul the trailer, and my husband found a great deal on a used one in Illinois. We traded in his car, closed the deal, and drove our new car home to NY. A few days later, we got a call from the dealer asking for a 7501 form from US Customs and Border Protection, which we hadn't realized we needed. We went to the border crossing near us to ask for the form, and learned that we had to bring the car to a US Customs office so the Customs folks can check the VIN and fill out part of the form. The car, of course, is in IL.

The dealer wants us to come back to IL to handle this ourselves, and says we have to be the ones to handle it and that there are a bunch of forms that need to be filled out. The Customs folks did not tell us about any other forms and did not say we need to do it. As we look at a copy of the 7501 form, it looks to us like the dealership could do that themselves-- and it would be a whole bunch easier for them to go to the Customs office closest to them (probably O'Hare airport) to get that done than for us to drive the 590+ miles to the dealership, get papers to release the car to us, insure it again under our names, to get that VIN checked and the form filled out.

Question #1: Can anyone tell us if we are correct that the dealer could take the car to O'Hare to get the 7501 form taken care of? Does anyone know if there are any other Customs forms we have to fill out, as the dealer said?

At the customs office we learned that it does not matter that our cars are marital property-- my husband cannot drive a NY registered car across the border if I am not in it. And I cannot drive an Ontario registered vehicle across the border if he is not in it. Doesn't matter if both our names are on the titles.

This is a problem, because we were going to register the "new" car in NY. We would have to get work done on the car to make it comply with Canadian standards (for example there is a security-related module they require) and we would lose our warranty if we registered it in Canada. We're probably going to have to bite that bullet.

But this got us wondering--
Question 2: What about the trailer? If we are doing MOST of our traveling in the states during the winter, it seems like it makes sense to have it registered in the states-- but is it an issue if the trailer is registered in NY and the car in Ontario? Does that mean we'd both have to be present to get over the border?

I hate red tape, and this is making me crazy. I am trying to figure out how we are going to work it out to be able to move back and forth freely.

[mcsap]

I can't even begin to help but just wow.

[Chaplain Keppy]

Yup-- it's a volume, isn't it?!

[Chaplain Keppy]

I'm hoping there are some customs folks here that might be able to give us some guidance.

Or maybe traffic enforcement folks can answer the one about trailers and cars being registered in different places.

[kels]

maybe contact the customs people in Ill. and see if they can check the car there?

[Chaplain Keppy]

maybe contact the customs people in Ill. and see if they can check the car there?

The customs folks we talked to here said the IL customs folks could indeed check the car. It's the dealer that is giving us the hard time about it, saying it is not his problem.

[Sgt. Slaughter]

It's the dealer that is giving us the hard time about it, saying it is not his problem.

Customs paperwork isn't the dealer's bag. Their job is to sell a vehicle and process state registration.

FWIW - sounds like one of y'all needs to become a citizen of the other country and just register everything there.

[retdetsgt]

Off hand, I'd say sit down with someone from NY DMV and then with the DMV in Ontario to see what, if any laws you're bumping up against.

Perhaps there is some provision for dual registration.

[Chaplain Keppy]

Thanks, guys-- and thanks for the PMs, others. I'll let you know what I can get figured out.

So far we haven't been able to find any provision for dual registration-- neither of us want to surrender citizenship in our country of birth. Looking into dual citizenship, but the thought of paying taxes in both countries is daunting, particularly since we'll be on retirement income.