Moving to Ontario from the US

What a move to Ontario costs depends on how much you ship and where the move starts. There's no published rate card for Canada that we could quote you from. Every move is priced after a survey and set out in writing, so the figure follows your volume and your starting point instead of a guess over the phone.

What moves the price of an Ontario move?

• Volume. The survey measures it in cubic feet, room by room.
• Starting point. A load leaving Buffalo and a load leaving Phoenix are different American road legs.
• Packing. Hand the glassware and the bookshelves over instead, through our packing and unpacking service.

A car carries its own import bill, and none of that bill is ours. For a car less than 15 years old, the Registrar of Imported Vehicles charges CAN$325.00 plus GST/HST for the Vehicle Import Form declaration, and a vehicle with an air conditioning unit owes a CAN$100 excise tax. ServiceOntario adds that you may need to pay the 8% provincial portion of the HST if you bring in or take delivery of a vehicle bought from a GST/HST registrant in a participating province or outside Canada. Whether settlers' relief changes that in your case is a question for the Canada Revenue Agency or CBSA, and it's worth asking early.

How do you get a price in writing?

Ring (855) 822-2722. The line's open seven days a week, 08:00 to 20:00. We'll set up the survey, take the measurements and send the estimate in writing. If the move starts a long way from the border, our long-distance moving page explains how the domestic road leg is handled.

Canada's border agency calls you a settler if you're entering to set up a residence for the first time, for a year or more. Settlers may bring personal and household goods in free of duty and taxes once CBSA's conditions are met. People arriving to work for 36 months or less, or to study, don't fit that definition.

Settlers' effects and the BSF186 form

CBSA says you must have owned, possessed and used the goods abroad before you arrive for them to come in duty- and tax-free. Leased goods don't qualify, because CBSA doesn't treat you as their owner.

Bring two copies of a list of everything you're bringing, with value, make, model and serial number wherever those apply. Hand it to the border services officer at your first point of entry in Canada, even when the shipment is still on the road behind you. The officer fills in Form BSF186, the Personal Effects Accounting Document, from that list, and your copy is what claims the goods that turn up later. CBSA says the form can be completed before you arrive, and it publishes Form BSF186A for the list itself, where anything still to come goes in its own section. The rules live on CBSA's moving to Canada page.

One condition catches people out. On the settler declaration you undertake to notify CBSA and pay the duties owing if you dispose of an item in Canada within 12 months of importing it, and CBSA says goods sold or given away within one year become subject to the duty and taxes you were spared.

Which goods can follow you later?

Anything reaching Canada after you counts as goods to follow, and it comes in duty- and tax-free only when it appeared on the list you handed over at your first point of entry. CBSA's settlers' effects memorandum says there's no time limit for goods listed to follow. But alcohol and tobacco work differently under the tariff: they count as settlers' effects only when they travel with you on arrival. Any question of timing belongs with CBSA.

What gets extra scrutiny at the border?

• Alcohol and tobacco. Tariff item 9807.00.00 lets a settler include either wine up to 1.5 litres or other alcoholic beverages up to 1.14 litres, plus set tobacco quantities, and only among the goods accompanying you on arrival. The minimum age for importing alcohol follows the province of entry, which CBSA puts at 19 outside Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec; for tobacco or vaping products under a personal exemption it's 18.
• Firearms. Every firearm is declared to a border services officer, without exception. Visitors can't bring in prohibited firearms, prohibited devices or prohibited weapons under any circumstances, and a Canadian resident needs a Possession and Acquisition Licence to import non-restricted firearms.
• Cannabis. Health Canada says taking cannabis across the border is illegal, medical cannabis included.
• Food, plants and anything with soil on it. Food, plants, animals and related products all have to be declared. Firewood can't come in without a permit, and goods carrying soil, from hiking boots to garden tools to vehicles, are usually refused. A used mattress needs a certificate showing it was cleaned and fumigated in the country of export, though the tariff exempts mattresses brought in as settlers' effects.
• Cash. Currency or monetary instruments worth CAN$10,000 or more have to be reported on arrival.

Bringing your car into Ontario

Begin on the American side, because that's where the clock starts. Under 19 CFR 192.2 the export documents go to US Customs and Border Protection at least 72 hours before a vehicle leaves by road, under 15 CFR 30.4 the Electronic Export Information filing citation runs on the same clock, and the vehicle is presented at export. A leased car, or one carrying a recorded lien, needs a letter from the third party expressly allowing it. And RIV advises sending supporting documents to CBP at least 3 business days ahead.

On the Canadian side, a car entering the RIV program has to be less than 15 years old on the date of importation, not flagged as inadmissible on the Vehicle Import Compatibility List, and free of outstanding manufacturer safety recalls, with an original valid US state certificate of title. You declare it on Transport Canada's Vehicle Import Form, known as Form 1, or a RIV e-Form 1. RIV sends a delinquent notice when the inspection isn't completed within 45 days from the date of import. A car leased in the United States fails the settler ownership requirement. But a financed one meets it.

Then comes Ontario. Under the Highway Traffic Act, section 15(2), a new resident's vehicle is exempt from Ontario registration for the thirty days immediately following the day they become a resident, provided it stays validly registered and plated under the previous jurisdiction's law. ServiceOntario wants the customs clearance vehicle import form 1, and a vehicle that came from another country needs a safety standards certificate before Ontario plates go on it. That certificate is valid for 36 calendar days after the inspection. Because that's a short window, book the inspection before the plates.

Pets at the Canadian border

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency doesn't place the United States among its rabies-free countries, so a pet travelling from the US is handled under the rules for a country that isn't free of rabies. A personal pet dog older than 3 months but under 8 months arriving with its owner needs a valid rabies vaccination certificate, and so does a dog 8 months or older. A dog of that same younger age travelling without its owner needs a valid Veterinary Certificate of Health as well. A domestic cat 3 months or older needs the rabies certificate too, and dogs must have been at least 3 months old at the time of vaccination. On identification, Canada asks for no microchip and no tattoo on personal pet dogs or domestic cats.

Does the 2026 surtax reach household goods?

Since September 8, 2026, CBSA Customs Notice 26-23 has applied a surtax of 15%, 25% or 50% of the value for duty to certain goods originating in the United States. Goods classified under Chapters 98 and 99 of the tariff are exempted unless the tariff item is specifically listed in Schedule 4 to the Order, and Schedule 4 doesn't list 9807.00.00, the settlers' effects item. Read that way, household goods that qualify as settlers' effects fall under the Chapter 98 exception. Confirm it with CBSA, particularly for anything that doesn't qualify.

Your first weeks in Ontario: a checklist

1. Apply for a health card once you meet the conditions. Ontario says there's no longer a waiting period for OHIP coverage, and that eligible people have immediate health insurance coverage. But eligibility is its own test: Ontario asks you to be physically in Ontario for 153 days in any 12-month period for coverage, and for at least 153 of the first 183 days immediately after you settle in the province, to make Ontario your primary residence, and to hold an eligible status such as Canadian citizen or permanent resident. The conditions sit on Ontario's OHIP page.
2. Take three originals to a ServiceOntario centre. Ontario asks for 3 separate documents in person: proof of citizenship or OHIP-eligible immigration status, proof of Ontario residency, and proof of identity. Photocopies aren't accepted.
3. Keep driving on your US licence for 60 days. Ontario says a new resident can use a valid licence from another province, state or country for 60 days, and then needs an Ontario driver's licence.
4. Ask DriveTest what your American licence is worth. Ontario lists US states, though not US protectorates or territories, among the jurisdictions whose licences can be exchanged, and says the process depends on licence class and driving experience.
5. Register the car inside the thirty days. The s.15(2) exemption runs only while the car stays validly registered and plated in your previous jurisdiction. Allow time for the federal RIV steps and the safety standards certificate before the ServiceOntario visit.
6. Budget for 13% sales tax. The Canada Revenue Agency lists Ontario's harmonized sales tax at 13%, which includes the federal 5% GST.
7. Know the provincial income tax. CRA puts Ontario's 2026 provincial rate at 5.05% on the first CAN$53,891 of taxable income, then 9.15% on the portion up to CAN$107,785.
8. Read IRCC's own pages. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada lists permanent residence programs such as Express Entry and family sponsorship, and keeps a work permit page for people who want to work in Canada for a few years. Your right to live and work in Canada is IRCC's call, not ours.

Whether Ontario suits your household turns on rent, winter and work more than on anything in a brochure. The province counts more than 16 million residents, its population fell over the past year, a two-bedroom in Toronto averaged CAN$2,045 last October, and the economy leans hard on a single customer. Here's what each official source reports.

Where do newcomers to Ontario settle?

The province's fact sheet puts the Toronto CMA at 7,108,874 in 2025 and the Greater Toronto Area at 7,680,093. The 2021 Census counted 2,794,356 people inside the City of Toronto and 1,017,449 in the City of Ottawa. But the direction of travel has changed. The Ministry of Finance reported that in the 12 months to April 1, 2026 Ontario's population declined by 152,648 residents, an annual decrease of 0.9 per cent, and that the first quarter of 2026 was the third consecutive quarterly decline.

What does a Toronto two-bedroom rent for?

CMHC's October 2025 Rental Market Survey put the average rent for a two-bedroom unit in the Toronto CMA at CAN$2,045, row and apartment counted together. That figure describes the primary rental market, meaning purpose-built rental buildings, so it won't match every listing you find online. Renting first? Line the lease start up against the date your goods clear the border, not against the day you load.

How cold are Toronto winters?

Environment and Climate Change Canada's 1991-2020 normals for Toronto Pearson give a January daily average of -5.0 °C, an annual average of 8.6 °C and 114.5 cm of snow a year, 31.5 cm of it falling in January. And that's the sort of detail that should shape the first fortnight, from the utilities you switch on to the coats you keep out of the shipment.

How is Ontario's economy doing?

Ontario's fact sheet reports 2025 nominal GDP of CAN$1,246,721 million, or 38.4% of Canada's total, with services at 79.0% of GDP in 2024. Unemployment averaged 7.7% in 2025, on employment of 8,227,000. And one number frames the others: the United States took 71.7% of Ontario's international exports in 2025, motor vehicles and parts the largest line at 22.6%.

Ready to start planning? Ring (855) 822-2722 and we'll book a survey and send an estimate in writing. The American road leg runs under USDOT #4176875 and MC #1607491, and our international moving page covers the overseas side of what we do.