Canadian Band bringing merch across border Questions

[J Bone]

Alright so im playing in washington this weekend i live in vancouver Canada and i have dual citzenship if that makes any difference. How can me and my band go about bringing merch across the border and getting payment for the show basically are we gonna get in {censored} from the US border for doing that???

[justing]

Long story short, you can get in huge {censored}. They can also just confiscate your stuff if they suspect you are working (getting paid for playing) over there without the proper work visas and whatnot. In your case I'm not sure how that would all work, with dual citizenship. Last time my band had a show in the states, we wrote every serial number from every piece of gear down (with a description of what it was and about how much it was worth) and typed up a big list to give them... we walked into the customs office with the list and the guy just stamped it without even looking in our trailer, 'cause he said it was too much work....That's homeland security alright Anyway, if they WERE to look in our trailer, see our merch and question us about it, we were just gonna say that we were giving it away just to promote ourselves or whatever. As for getting paid, we got paid cash, so we just split the money and away we went.

 

As soon as you earn a penny through any means (and they know about it), allllll that legal {censored} starts coming into play.

 

edit: It's also good to not say that you're going to play...say you're going to record or something, or at the very least, that you are playing for free. Either way, but sure you have someone over there (in the US) who is going corraborate with your story..incase they decide to give the venue or studio a call while you're standing there at customs waiting.

[J Bone]

holy {censored} thanks for the heads up....how can they confiscate all your gear makes no sense to me??? anyway so pretty much write all your serial numbers down, tell them you're giving merch away, and make sure they can call the venue i take it

[justing]

Heh yeah it sucks, but the law is on their side. They're very touchy about stuff like working on the other side of the border, especially without the right papers. You probably wouldn't have a big problem (with dual citizenship) but your bandmates might. I've heard some bad stories about bands trying to get across.

 

The people at customs are pretty much ghey more often than not.. There was this one older lady who came into a restaurant I used to work at and she was fairly well off, she owned her own business and everything and her husband had just died the year before. Anyway, she was driving through customs in her BMW and for some reason they suspected her of drug smuggling, so they tore the entire car up, the upholstery, the flooring, everything in order to find the drugs.. when they decided they were done and they hadn't found any all she got was a "huh..guess we were wrong" and she got to deal with paying for fixing the car and everything.

 

Another time, I was going to a concert or something with my singer and the guy wouldn't let us leave until I said that I smoked pot that day. As much as I told him I hadn't (the truth) he called me a liar, said he knew more about us than we did, and threatened us, so I just told him that I had and he sent us on our way.

 

 

Moral of the story, customs is screwed.

[JacieFB]

Also, be careful of anything you have in your vehicle...This was going from the US into Canada, but I think it could work the same...I know of a band that had one of its members put in jail because she had just had her wisdom teeth removed and had prescription pain killers with her. Her bandmate had a switchblade knife and he got to go right to jail, too. And customs pretty much had their way with the merch. I don't know if they ever did get that stuff back.

[Prog]

You are better off just learning how to do it correctly. We had to enroll in Canada's welfare/health/social security program (I forgot what it was called) before we could play in Canada. We had to bring birth certificates, too. We made copies and brought the originals with an additional copy and left copies at home.

 

If you lose the original, you can get a new one (using your copies) to get it replaced when you get back home.

 

Go through the process and learn it. After that it's easy. The US used to be very liberal on the process and look what happened.

 

They look for people who are trying to cheat. Just do what needs to be done.

[Scheming Demon]

My band just played Canada this past summer.

 

We made up a list of everything we were bringing, serial numbers and all. It's called a Carnet document and of course our passports (not strictly necessary but soon to be). We had paperwork from the venue we were playing and they were available to back us up saying it was a free event and we were not being paid.

 

Merchandise is a little harder to talk away if they find it. We only brought so much and put it in our regular luggage. They could have confiscated that if they wanted but it never became an issue.

 

If you're on prescription medication bring it in the original bottle and it's best to keep it on you instead of in your luggage. It's also a good idea to only bring as much as you'll need for the stay of your visit.

 

Customs went through our luggage thoroughly and looked into our trailer of band gear. We were prepared to pull it all out but that didn't become necessary.

 

They questioned us politely and we answered them honestly, except for the getting paid part. We had no trouble at all.

 

Coming back into the States I thought might be a little more difficult but since we left Rashid Achmed Mohammed at the border we had no trouble at all on the return.

[J Bone]

 

Originally posted by Scheming Demon My band just played Canada this past summer. We made up a list of everything we were bringing, serial numbers and all. It's called a Carnet document and of course our passports (not strictly necessary but soon to be). We had paperwork from the venue we were playing and they were available to back us up saying it was a free event and we were not being paid. Merchandise is a little harder to talk away if they find it. We only brought so much and put it in our regular luggage. They could have confiscated that if they wanted but it never became an issue. If you're on prescription medication bring it in the original bottle and it's best to keep it on you instead of in your luggage. It's also a good idea to only bring as much as you'll need for the stay of your visit. Customs went through our luggage thoroughly and looked into our trailer of band gear. We were prepared to pull it all out but that didn't become necessary. They questioned us politely and we answered them honestly, except for the getting paid part. We had no trouble at all. Coming back into the States I thought might be a little more difficult but since we left Rashid Achmed Mohammed at the border we had no trouble at all on the return.

 

 

hahaha very entertaining, thanks for the info ill make sure leave shareef rahim our hype man at home

[hankypanky]

J Bone,

 

 

anyway so pretty much write all your serial numbers down

 

 

Head down to the border crossing tonight and ask for a 'green card' for taking your electronics into the US. They'll know what you're talking about - it's literally a green card. I have no idea what the lineups are like at the border so if they're really long, head out to the airport and go to the customs office there (the guys in Kelowna are pretty good about being there at all hours). It's the same kind of thing but it's actually an official Canada Customs doc. I don't know how much gear you're taking along but in order for it to be 'official' you'll need a customs person to initial the stuff - you may want to get the card, go home and fill it out, then bring the stuff back. It's a pain in the ass but you only have to do it once. If you're taking gobs of stuff you might want to ask the guard when a not-busy time would be that they can verify what you've written down - it will make traversing the border much faster.

 

Advice: get a few cards and get each guy to fill out his own. i.e. fill out one for your guitar and amp and effects (can't do much about cables) - then keep it with your stuff for when you cross next time.

 

The reason you do it is because that's your proof that you didn't buy the gear in the US. If you can't prove you owned the stuff when you went to the US, Canada customs can charge you import duties on stuff you already own! (and probably already paid the import duties on when it came to Canada in the first place)

 

As for working in the US - even if it's for an 'honouraruium' you could have problems. The principle is that you can't go into the US and take work away from a US citizen. Definitely call ahead and make sure somebody can vouch that you're doing it for free. The advice about saying that your merch will be free is good as well.

[Dave Martin]

 

Originally posted by hankypanky As for working in the US - even if it's for an 'honouraruium' you could have problems. The principle is that you can't go into the US and take work away from a US citizen. Definitely call ahead and make sure somebody can vouch that you're doing it for free. The advice about saying that your merch will be free is good as well.

 

 

So how expensive (and time consuming) is it to just to it right - work visa and all? I've done that for most of the international work I've done (Mexico, Canada, Japan, EU), but I don't know how it works for folks coming to the US to work. I remember that it cost over $100USD to work in Canada for one gig the last time I was there, but I don't remember the specifics; in all of these cases, someone else took care of the paperwork.