Moving to Prince Edward Island from the US

What a move to PEI costs turns on how much you ship and where the load starts. No rate card covers Canada. Each move is priced after a survey and set out in writing, so the number follows your own volume and starting point.

What moves the price of a PEI move?

• Volume. Counted in cubic feet at the survey, one room at a time.
• Starting point. A load leaving Boston and a load leaving Denver are different American road legs.
• Packing. Hand the dishes and the bookshelves over instead, through our packing and unpacking service.

A car comes with an import bill of its own, and we don't collect any of it. 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 an air conditioning unit in the car adds a CAN$100 excise tax. And the bridge toll is a separate line again, falling due on the way out rather than the way in.

How do you get an estimate in writing?

Call (855) 822-2722. Someone picks up seven days a week, 08:00 to 20:00. We'll book the survey, take the measurements and send the estimate in writing. If the move starts a long way from New England, 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. Meet CBSA's conditions and a settler's personal and household goods come in without duty or taxes. People arriving to work for 36 months or less, or to study, sit outside that definition entirely.

Settlers' effects and Form BSF186

CBSA says the goods must have been owned, possessed and used abroad before you arrive for them to come in duty- and tax-free. Because CBSA doesn't treat you as the owner, anything leased fails that test.

Write out two copies of a list of everything you're bringing, showing 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 rolling somewhere behind you. From that list the officer completes Form BSF186, the Personal Effects Accounting Document, and your copy is what you present for the goods that arrive later. CBSA publishes Form BSF186A for the list itself, with anything still to come entered in its own section, and says BSF186 can be filled in ahead of your arrival. CBSA sets all of it out on its moving to Canada page.

One condition trips people up. On the settler declaration you undertake to tell 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.

What can follow you later?

Anything reaching Canada after you counts as goods to follow, and it enters duty- and tax-free only if 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 on goods listed to follow. But alcohol and tobacco are the exception under the tariff: they count as settlers' effects only among the goods accompanying you on arrival. Put any timing question to CBSA rather than to us.

What draws extra attention at the border?

• Alcohol and tobacco. Under tariff item 9807.00.00 a settler may include 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. CBSA ties the minimum age for importing alcohol to the province where you enter Canada, which is 19 outside Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. For tobacco or vaping products under a personal exemption the age is 18.
• Firearms. Firearms are declared to a border services officer, every one of them. Prohibited firearms, prohibited devices and prohibited weapons can't come in with a visitor under any circumstances, and a Canadian resident importing non-restricted firearms needs a Possession and Acquisition Licence.
• Cannabis. Leave it behind. Health Canada says carrying cannabis across the border is illegal, and that covers cannabis used for medical purposes.
• Food, plants, firewood and dirt. Food, plants, animals and the products made from them are all declarable. Firewood can't come in without a permit, and goods carrying soil, from garden tools to boots to vehicles, are usually refused. Any used mattress needs a certificate saying it was cleaned and fumigated in the country it left, although the tariff exempts mattresses arriving as settlers' effects.
• Cash. Bringing CAN$10,000 or more in currency or monetary instruments means reporting it on arrival.

Bringing your car onto the island

Under 19 CFR 192.2 the export documents go to US Customs and Border Protection at least 72 hours before a used 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 the time of export. A leased car, or one carrying a recorded lien, also needs a letter from the third party expressly allowing the export. And RIV advises sending the supporting documents to CBP at least 3 business days ahead.

On the Canadian side, a vehicle registered in the Registrar of Imported Vehicles program has to be less than 15 years old on the date of importation, must not be flagged as inadmissible on the Vehicle Import Compatibility List, and must be 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 on a RIV e-Form 1. Miss the inspection and RIV sends a delinquent notice once 45 days have run from the date of import. A car you leased in the United States misses the settler ownership requirement. But a financed one satisfies it.

Then the Island adds its own step. PEI requires vehicles to pass a motor vehicle inspection, and the page setting that out is dated December 2024, so confirm the current requirement and the registration steps with Access PEI.

What do dogs and cats need?

The United States isn't on the Canadian Food Inspection Agency's list of rabies-free countries, so a pet coming from the US falls under the rules for a country where rabies is present. 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 of 8 months or older. Send a dog of that younger age unaccompanied and CFIA wants a valid Veterinary Certificate of Health too. A domestic cat of 3 months or older needs the rabies certificate too. And dogs must have been at least 3 months old when vaccinated. CFIA asks for no microchip and no tattoo.

Does the 2026 surtax touch household goods?

A surtax of 15%, 25% or 50% of the value for duty has applied to certain goods originating in the United States since September 8, 2026, under CBSA Customs Notice 26-23. The notice exempts goods classified under Chapters 98 and 99 of the tariff unless the tariff item is specifically listed in Schedule 4 to the Order. Settlers' effects, tariff item 9807.00.00, aren't in that schedule. On that reading the Chapter 98 exception covers a settler's household goods. But CBSA is the place to confirm it, particularly for anything falling outside the settler rules.

Your first weeks on PEI: a checklist

1. Apply for a PEI Health Card once you're there. PEI asks applicants to be physically present in the province and lets them apply as soon as they arrive, and says the card is what lets you use hospitals and other public facilities without a bill. Eligibility asks that you're legally in Canada and that PEI is your primary residence for six months plus a day each year. A Canadian citizen moving from outside Canada to reside permanently in PEI may be granted first-day coverage on a passport or citizenship certificate, and a permanent resident may be eligible for it with proof of status. Allow up to eight weeks for processing, apart from the same-day approval appointments Access PEI offers to eligible groups. The conditions sit on PEI's health card page.
2. Join the Provincial Patient Registry separately. A health card doesn't put you on the waiting list for a family doctor or nurse practitioner.
3. Swap the licence inside four months. PEI gives a new resident holding a valid licence from another province or country four months to transfer to a PEI licence. It lists the United States among the reciprocal jurisdictions, Class 5 among them, whose drivers can exchange without a written knowledge exam or a driving test. Bring two documents showing your current PEI address. PEI may also ask a US driver for a driver's abstract.
4. Budget for 15% sales tax. The Canada Revenue Agency lists the combined GST/HST rate in Prince Edward Island at 15%.
5. Know the provincial income tax. CRA puts the lowest Prince Edward Island provincial rate for 2026 at 9.5% on the first CAN$33,928 of taxable income.
6. Arriving on a work permit? PEI issues a Temporary PEI Health Card to international workers whose valid work permit entitles them to work in the province for at least 183 days. Check the permit dates before you count on coverage.
7. Read IRCC's own pages. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada lists permanent residence programs such as Express Entry, family sponsorship and regional programs, and keeps a separate work permit page. Whether you may live and work in Canada is IRCC's decision, not a moving company's.

Whether the Island suits your household comes down to winter, rent and scale rather than anything on a postcard. Charlottetown Airport averages 284.8 centimetres of snow a year, a two-bedroom there rented for CAN$1,300 last October, and the province's growth has slowed to its weakest in a decade.

How long is the winter on PEI?

Environment and Climate Change Canada's 1991-2020 normals for Charlottetown Airport give a January daily average of -7.3 °C and 284.8 centimetres of snow in an average year. That's a lot of shovelling for a province this small. And it's the kind of figure that should shape your opening fortnight, starting with the coats you keep out of the shipment.

What does a Charlottetown two-bedroom rent for?

CMHC's October 2025 Rental Market Survey put the average two-bedroom rent in the Charlottetown census agglomeration at CAN$1,300, across privately initiated apartment structures of three units and over, with a rental apartment vacancy rate of 1.6%. That is the primary rental market, so many private listings sit outside it. But that vacancy figure matters more than the rent. A market that tight means the unit you want may not be free the week you want it, so line the lease start up against the date your goods clear the border.

Is the Island still growing?

Less than it was. The province's 2026 budget paper reports that the population grew 1.6%, or 2,948 people, in the year to July 1, 2025, reaching 182,657, the slowest growth recorded on the Island since 2016, and that international immigration fell 31.4% to 2,843. Statistics Canada then estimated 181,715 residents as of April 1, 2026, a little below the year before. And the crowd you're joining is a small one.

What does the Island economy run on?

Potatoes, among other things, and the 2025 crop had a hard summer of it. The province's budget paper says dry conditions cut potato production 15.9%, leaving PEI the third-largest potato producer in the country behind Alberta and Manitoba. The ferry business is local too: Bay Ferries and Northumberland Ferries say they're owned by Maritime shareholders and headquartered in Charlottetown.

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