International shipping to Canada

Unless you’re moving to Canada from the United States, Canada will be far from where you’re moving from, making shipping to Canada quite costly. And yet, you may want to bring particular pieces of furniture, your skis, or a much-loved bicycle or musical instrument.

Most airlines will include one checked bag at no extra cost on long-haul flights. However, if you’re looking to bring extra clothes or bulky items, you may considering shipping these items to Canada.

One excellent resource for calculating international shipping costs is The Relocator. The Relocator will search a database of more than 500 shipping companies worldwide to find you free quotes for your move. This is a free service that can save you tons of money on international shipping! Get your free quotes by completing this form:

Shipping to Canada: Customs

Items being shipped internationally need to be cleared for entry by the destination country’s customs, and Canada is no exception. You will need to declare the goods you are shipping.

Declaring the value of the goods you are shipping to Canada is important, as Canadian authorities will need to calculate how much tax and duty needs to be applied to those goods. Anything worth over $20 CAD — and your goods are in all likelihood going to surpass that value — will be subject to tax and duty. Anything below $20 CAD won’t be subject to taxation. The Goods and Service Tax (GST) is set at 5 percent, which is automatically applied to any import valued more than $20 CAD.

Some provinces, including British Columbia, Manitoba, Quebec, and Saskatchewan, may also apply a Provincial Sales Tax (PST). This differs depending on delivery destination.

Other advice on international shipping to Canada

There are other providers, if you’re interested. Victoria Janssens has offered her experiences in international shipping to Canada, from Vancouver back to Europe. She writes:

“It is difficult to find a company that ships to the west coast. You can send boxes by air quite easily, but that is a lot more expensive. We did quite a bit of shopping around and the best quote we got was from Excess Baggage Company, based in London.

“We sent three boxes (13 ft^3 total) door-to-door from Dublin to Vancouver, which cost about £350 GBP and arrived three months later. When calling for quotes you need to specifically request the rate for international shipping to Canada and that you are prepared to wait three months for your stuff, as this seems to be the standard travel time. All of the companies are quick to quote the air freight rate unless you request shipping.

“Finally, most airlines allow you to purchase extra checked baggage, which can work out cheaper if you don’t have too much stuff. Only for the fact we needed to bring some heavy books, this would probably have been more economical than shipping boxes.”

Be prepared for your move

• Check out our 5 golden tips on how to reduce the stress of moving.
• Get up to five free quotes through Sirelo.
• Claim your exclusive Send My Bag 5% discount for Moving2Canada readers.
• Search for flights to Canada.
• Make sure you don’t forget anything! Read this essential packing for Canada checklist.

If you’re considering a move, we recommend getting started with The Relocator. The Relocator will search a database of more than 500 shipping companies worldwide to find you free quotes for your move. This is a free service that can save you tons of money on international shipping! Get your free quotes here.