Carnet de Passages en Douane - FAQs
Q: What is a carnet?
A: The carnet is a customs pass and has the same purpose as a passport: identification of a specific vehicle to travel in international traffic. A Carnet can be issued for motor vehicles, travel trailers, motorcycles and boats.
Q: Why is it necessary?
A: It allows vehicles to enter foreign countries on a temporary basis, without the need to deposit duty and taxes with the customs of each country entered.
Q: Why do we have to leave a guarantee amount in order to have a carnet issued?
A: If for any reason the vehicle entered under cover of the carnet did not leave one of the countries entered the Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) would have to pay the duty and taxes owed on the vehicle. In order for the CAA to protect themselves they ask for the guarantee amount up front before the carnet is issued.
Q: How do I set up this guarantee amount?
A: You can purchase a bond indemnity, have a letter of credit issued by your bank or provide us with the cash in the form of a bank transfer, money order or bank draft.
Q: What do you mean by purchase a bond indemnity?
A: Instead of providing the CAA with a huge sum of cash or going to your bank and getting a letter of credit issued you can purchase a bond amount for 10% the value of your vehicle plus taxes and you get 5% back when you return the discharged carnet to us.
Q: What does this indemnity bond cover, the carnet, the vehicle, the guarantee or me?
A: It covers the guarantee amount.
Q: Where do you obtain the duty and tax rates for the countries I will be travelling through?
A: The insurance company who are the underwriters for the indemnity bond provides this information to us.
Q: How much will this indemnity bond cost?
A: That will depend on the value of your vehicle and which countries you will be travelling through
Q: How do you figure out the value of my vehicle?
A: We have all kinds of books, we have on-line memberships and if we cannot get an accurate value, we will ask the client to bring his or her vehicle to an appraiser and have the vehicle appraised.
Q: Does it happen often that you are unable to obtain a value?
A: No, we can obtain a value 99.9% of the time. The other .1% is usually for very rare or classic vehicles.
Q: Which amount of duty and taxes will you use if I am going to several different countries?
A: We will use the highest percentage of duty and taxes of the countries you will be going through as the guarantee amount.
Q: I am an American; do I still have to pay the taxes on the bond amount?
A: Yes
Q: What happens if I will be travelling for longer than one year?
A: You will have to purchase a second carnet and therefore get a second bond for the next year.
Q: Can the money from the first carnet bond be put toward the second one?
A: No
Q: We are a group of vehicles gong to the same countries can we be placed on the same bond?
A: Yes
Q: Do I still need to purchase regular automobile insurance?
A: Yes
Q: What if my vehicle is worth almost nothing, how do you figure out my guarantee?
A: The minimum guarantee we will require is $5000.00 Cad.
Q: What happens if my vehicle is too valuable?
A: We would contact the indemnity company directly to ask for direction in this type of situation.
Q: Do I have to pay any other fees besides the guarantee amount to have a carnet issued?
A: Yes, you still have to pay our fee for issuing the carnet.
Q: What does that fee cover?
A: The work involved in issuing the Carnet document and all courier fees to send your carnet back to you.
Q: How long will it take to get a carnet issued?
A: 2 weeks to a month
Q: What does a discharged carnet mean?
A: A discharged carnet will have an entry and exit stamp for every country that the vehicle has entered and either Canadian or US Customs will endorse the Certificate of Location.
Q: Once I return the discharged carnet to you how long does it take to get my money back?
A: Once the properly discharged Carnet is returned to us, you will receive what is owed to you within a one-month period.