Thursday, December 6, 2012

Border crossings and Shipping

Whenever you want to go to another continent and take your motorcycle with you, you have to ship. Shipping is a complex business for those who are not into it. The regulations are complex and they change regularly. Crossing borders can be a frustrating undertaking too. I tried to find information on the web but found most sources very vague. Some based their opinion on others but presented it as if it was first hand experience. There are also quite a few misconceptions out there. Shipping into Canada is easy. As any Canadian will tell you, it isn't unless you are very lucky. Quarantine for New Zealand is similar to Australia. Again it isn't. Australia's quarantine has some logic behind it while New Zealand doesn't have any at all.

What you can read here are first hand experiences. We were there and it's ourselves and our motorcycles being transported. We don't base anything on hearsay or comments from others. Above you will find buttons per country. These could be countries that we shipped to or crossed the border to overland. Simply click on the tabs above for the country you are interested in.

USA and Canada
The border crossing overland to and from the USA and Canada is so straightforward that there seemed little point in writing a separate chapter about it. We have mentioned our experiences in the various posts in this case. The only point worth mentioning is that you do not need to apply for a 6 months visa to stay six months in the USA. If you are from one of the countries wherefore a visa waiver applies then it's simply a matter of filling in the green card, pay the 6 dollars and get 90 days access. These green cards can be renewed (first hand info from a borderguard that issued a second card to a cyclist from Chile). The maximum allowed is 180 days within 365 days and the green cards can be renewed at any Customs/border patrol including airports.

