Moving to Yukon, Canada from the US

How much does moving to Yukon cost?

What a move to Yukon costs depends on the volume you're sending, how far your US home sits from the border and whether you want packing. But nothing is quoted as a flat rate. The method is the one we use for every move we price: survey first, written estimate second, and only the route logistics change.

What shapes the price of a Yukon move?

1. Volume. The survey turns your household into a cubic-foot figure.
2. Your starting point. A home near the Canadian line means a short US road leg; one in the Southeast means a long one.
3. Packing at pickup. If you'd rather not pack yourself, it goes into the estimate; see packing and unpacking.

What will importing the car cost?

Agency charges, kept separate from any moving estimate. For a car under 15 years old, the Registrar of Imported Vehicles (RIV) lists a Vehicle Import Form fee of CAN$325.00 plus GST/HST, and CBSA's vehicle memorandum lists a CAN$100 excise tax on cars with air conditioning. Since April 9, 2025, Customs Notice 25-15 has applied a 25% surtax to motor vehicles of US origin, used as well as new. The same notice spares goods under a Chapter 98 tariff item its Schedule 2 doesn't list, and the settlers' effects item, 9807.00.00, isn't on Schedule 2. With CUSMA (Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement) entitlement, only 85% of the value for duty is surtaxed by default. The classification of your car is CBSA's call.

How do you get a Yukon estimate?

Phone (855) 822-2722 between 08:00 and 20:00, seven days a week, to book the survey. And the written estimate comes after it. Starting from the far side of the country, say Florida or Texas? Read how the American leg is planned on the long-distance moving page.

Moving to Yukon: what you should know

The border part is federal and works the same for Yukon as for any province: household goods answer to CBSA, cars to the Registrar of Imported Vehicles and pets to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA). Our Canada moving guide covers those steps. Then Yukon's own deadlines start, for health care, licences and plates.

Do household goods enter Yukon duty-free?

They can, if you're a settler. CBSA uses that word for someone arriving to establish a residence in Canada for the first time and intending to keep it for one year or more. Students don't count, and neither does anyone entering for employment of 36 months or less, under the Definition of Settler Regulations. People in those two groups don't bring their goods in under the settler rules, so they should ask CBSA how the shipment will be treated. For settlers, the test is ownership and use: goods owned, possessed and used before arrival come in free of duty and taxes. But anything on a lease falls outside it: CBSA doesn't treat you as the owner, so duty and taxes apply.

Your own list comes first: two copies, item by item, with each value and any make, model and serial number. From it, the officer at your first point of entry fills in Form BSF186, the Personal Effects Accounting Document, gives it a file number and returns a copy as your receipt. Later shipments are claimed with that copy. You're allowed to fill in BSF186 before you travel, and the main conditions are on CBSA's moving to Canada page. CBSA says selling or giving the goods away within one year of import means paying the duty and taxes initially exempted.

Everything above assumes you have status in Canada. On that front, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) describes its mandate as managing the selection, settlement and integration of newcomers, and no mover plays a part.

Can goods follow you to Yukon later?

Yes, provided each item appeared on the list you handed in at your first crossing. CBSA calls them goods to follow, and only listed ones stay duty- and tax-free. No deadline for them appears in the Customs Tariff, though CBSA can confirm the details for your case. But that option doesn't exist for alcohol, tobacco or vaping products, which have to accompany you at the crossing.

What gets checked on the way into Yukon?

• Alcohol. You may bring 1.5 litres of wine or 1.14 litres of other alcoholic beverages as a settler, as long as it travels with you. The minimum age follows the province or territory where you enter, CBSA says: 19 at a Yukon port such as Beaver Creek and in British Columbia, but 18 in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec.
• Tobacco. The settler allowance is 50 cigars, 200 cigarettes, 200 tobacco sticks and 200 grams of manufactured tobacco, and it too must travel with you. The age CBSA's I Declare page gives for bringing tobacco in under a personal exemption is 18.
• Firearms. Declare every one on arrival. Residents need a Possession and Acquisition Licence for non-restricted firearms, and prohibited ones never come in with a visitor, CBSA says.
• Cannabis. Health Canada's position is plain: cannabis can't legally cross the border, medical or not.
• Soil, firewood, food and plants. Goods carrying soil are usually refused entry, firewood needs a permit, and food, plants and animal products all go on your declaration.
• Cash. Any sum of CAN$10,000 or more, in currency or monetary instruments, gets reported to CBSA as you enter.

Driving your car to Yukon

Start the car's paperwork south of the border. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) sets the first deadline: 19 CFR 192.2 wants your export papers in its hands 72 hours or more before the car leaves by road. Cars under a lease or a recorded lien need one more paper: written permission to export from the leasing company or the lienholder. Electronic Export Information (EEI) is required for any used car regardless of value under 15 CFR 30.2, and 15 CFR 30.4 puts its filing citation on the same 72-hour lead time.

Then Canada's federal check. The Registrar of Imported Vehicles accepts a car under 15 years old on the import date if it isn't flagged inadmissible on the Vehicle Import Compatibility List, has no outstanding safety recalls and comes with its original US title. The declaration goes on Form 1, the Vehicle Import Form, and RIV wants its inspection done within 45 days of import; miss that and a delinquent notice follows. An older car skips RIV, not CBSA. A financed car passes CBSA's ownership test for settlers. But a car leased in the US doesn't.

Last comes Yukon registration, and the clock starts when the car enters the territory: 7 days if you're working, 60 days if you're not. Bring a copy of the previous registration and valid Yukon insurance to a Motor Vehicles office. For a car imported from the US, Yukon also asks for the original completed Vehicle Import Form; if yours was declared electronically, ask Motor Vehicles what to bring instead.

Do pets need papers for Yukon?

Dogs and cats do, and it's about rabies. The CFIA puts the United States outside its rabies-free group, so a cat from 3 months of age and a dog older than 3 months each need a valid rabies vaccination certificate. Puppies vaccinated too young don't qualify: the dog must have been 3 months or older when vaccinated. When a dog younger than 8 months travels apart from you, CFIA adds a Veterinary Certificate of Health to the list. Canada asks for no microchip or tattoo.

Does the 2026 surtax hit Yukon-bound goods?

CBSA's classification decides it. Customs Notice 26-23 is the newer measure: from September 8, 2026, certain US-origin goods carry a surtax set at 15%, 25% or 50% of their value for duty. Tariff Chapters 98 and 99 are exempt unless Schedule 4 to the Order names the item, and 9807.00.00, the settlers' effects line, isn't named there. Ask CBSA about borderline items.

Your first weeks in Yukon: a checklist

1. Apply for the Yukon Health Care Insurance Plan when you arrive. New and returning residents wait 3 months for health coverage to start, and the Government of Yukon advises applying on arrival because delays can affect your eligibility date. Its health care card page says you must be physically present in Yukon but don't have to have lived there 3 months before applying. Another government page words that timing differently, so confirm your start date with Insured Health Services. On a work permit, your wait may vary with the permit's issue date or your arrival date.
2. Buy travel health insurance for the move. Yukon's government says to buy it when moving to or from the territory, and notes that some US hospital charges can top CAN$1,000 per day.
3. Register in person. In Whitehorse that means the 4th floor of 204 Lambert Street; in rural communities, Territorial Agents have the forms. Bring a Canadian birth certificate, citizenship card or permanent resident status card, a qualifying work permit if you have one and a second piece of ID. For proof of residency, Yukon accepts a utility bill, a pay stub or offer letter from a Yukon employer, or a signed tenancy agreement in your name for at least one year.
4. Check eligibility. You need citizenship or immigration status and a permanent home in Yukon, and you must be present in the territory and not absent for more than 6 months without filing an extended absence form. A work permit must be open or Yukon-specific and valid for at least 1 year, and study or tourist visas don't qualify.
5. Switch to a Yukon driver's licence within 120 days. The United States is on Yukon's list of places whose valid licences let you apply. You surrender the old licence, pay the fee and show 1 proof of identity and 2 proofs of residency, and drivers 70 or older also need a current driver's medical. If you've held your licence for less than 2 years outside Canada, you'll need to enrol in Graduated Driver's Licensing.
6. Register the car inside the 7-day or 60-day window described above.
7. Budget for territorial tax. On purchases, the Canada Revenue Agency shows only the 5% GST for Yukon: the territory adds no sales tax of its own. Territorial income tax for 2026 starts at 6.4% on the first CAN$58,523 of taxable income and reaches 15% above CAN$500,000, on top of federal tax, and the territorial rate follows where you live on December 31, 2026.

Is Yukon a good place to live?

Life in Yukon means a territory of an estimated 50,356 people as of July 1, 2026, cold that keeps Whitehorse's daily average below freezing from November through March, and an economy that grew 0.6% in 2025 while mining fell. Here's what official sources report on the climate, rents, economy and languages, so you can judge the fit for yourself.

How cold and snowy is Whitehorse?

Yukon is one of Canada's three territories, which the Government of Canada describes as lying primarily north of 60 degrees latitude. In ECCC's 1991-2020 normals, Whitehorse averages -15.0 °C in January and 14.5 °C in July, with 147.6 cm of snowfall and 279.6 mm of total precipitation in an average year. Does that rule out a January move? Not on paper. But it makes the 511 Yukon reports the first thing to read before each day's drive.

How tight is Whitehorse's rental market?

The Yukon Bureau of Statistics put the median rent at CAN$1,500 across all types of buildings in Whitehorse in October 2025, with a 2.6% vacancy rate. In buildings with 3 or more rental units, the median came to CAN$1,364, up CAN$54 on October 2024. The 2021 Census counted 28,201 people in the City of Whitehorse; the wider Whitehorse area, which takes in the surrounding area and Marsh Lake, held 38,897 by the bureau's estimate for March 31, 2026.

Where does Yukon's income come from?

Statistics Canada put Yukon's real GDP growth at 0.6% in 2025. Mining went the other way, falling 28.3% as the Eagle Gold Mine began remediation in mid-2024, according to the same release. But those figures describe the territory's output, not any single job.

Does Yukon work in English and French?

English and French. Yukon's Languages Act accepts them as Canada's official languages, and it also recognizes the territory's Indigenous languages, which it calls aboriginal languages, and the wish to preserve, develop and enhance them.

If you're planning a Yukon move around the snow, call (855) 822-2722 and we'll book the survey, then put the estimate in writing. The US road leg runs under USDOT #4176875 and MC #1607491; the federal rules are in our Canada moving guide, and moves to other countries start from our international moving page.