Moving to the U.S. on a TN visa: household goods, your car and your pets

Two systems: admission and importation

Canadians often plan the move as one event. At the border it is two. A CBP officer decides your admission in TN status under the immigration rules. Your furniture, boxes, car and pets are importations, decided under customs rules (and, for animals, CDC and USDA rules) that do not ask whether you hold TN status at all.

That separation cuts both ways. An approved TN does not make a shipment duty-free, and a problem with a shipment does not cancel a TN. Plan both tracks, on their own paperwork, before moving day.

Household effects: the one-year rule

The duty-free exemption for household effects is set out in 19 CFR 148.52. In the regulation’s words, “furniture, carpets, paintings, tableware, books, libraries, and other usual household furnishings and effects actually used abroad for not less than 1 year by resident or nonresidents, and not intended for any other person or for sale may be allowed entry free of duty and tax.” Three details matter:

• One year of use, not one year of ownership paperwork. The year of use “need not be continuous, nor need it immediately precede the time of importation,” and the regulation allows the port director to require proof of use beyond your declaration.
• Your household, your use. Effects used for at least a year by a family of which you were a resident member for at least a year during that use can qualify whether or not you personally owned them at the time.
• Not everything in the house is a “household effect.” CBP’s guidance treats clothing, jewellery, photography equipment, electronics and vehicles as personal effects rather than household effects. Duty is usually waived on personal effects more than one year old; vehicles are handled separately, below.

Items bought recently for the new home, and anything intended for someone else or for sale, fall outside the exemption and may be dutiable. When in doubt, list the item on your inventory and let the officer classify it; an item declared and assessed is a cost, while an item not declared can become a seizure and penalty problem.

Form 3299 and goods that travel separately

Effects entitled to duty-free entry do not have to accompany you; they can be shipped and cleared through CBP at the first port of arrival. When free entry is claimed, 19 CFR 148.52(c) requires “a declaration of the owner on Customs Form 3299, or its electronic equivalent,” to support the claim. Form 3299 is titled the Declaration for Free Entry of Unaccompanied Articles — “unaccompanied” is the moving-company case, where your goods cross on a truck you are not travelling with.

Support the declaration with a real inventory. CBP may require an inventory of the imported articles, and a list that says only “household effects” gives the officer nothing to assess. Describe the contents room by room or box by box, keep copies of everything you file, and keep your passports, immigration documents, medication and irreplaceable papers with you, not in the shipment.

Food, plants and other restricted goods. Some goods are prohibited, and others — including many food, plant and animal products — are restricted or need permits or inspection by another agency. Check the current CBP and USDA guidance for anything you are unsure about before it is packed; discovering it at inspection is the expensive way to learn.

Your car is not a household effect

Vehicles are the item movers and owners most often get wrong, because a car feels like part of the household. Under the customs rules it is imported separately, and duty treatment differs from furniture. CBP’s guidance on importing a motor vehicle states the nonresident route plainly: “Nonresidents may import a vehicle duty-free for personal use up to (1) one year if the vehicle is imported in conjunction with the owner’s arrival. Vehicles imported under this provision that do not conform to U.S. safety and emission standards must be exported within one year and may not be sold in the U.S. There is no exemption or extension of the export requirements.”

A TN period can run up to three years, so the one-year vehicle clock and the three-year status clock do not line up. Keeping the car beyond that route means a formal import: CBP clearance for the vehicle requires the EPA declaration (Form 3520-1) and the DOT safety declaration (Form HS-7), with proof of ownership and registration, and the car then has to be titled and registered in your state. Whether a particular Canadian-market car conforms to U.S. standards is a vehicle-specific question — check the manufacturer’s compliance label and CBP’s guidance before you commit to driving it down, and consider asking a licensed U.S. customs broker before you commit to the car plan.

Dogs and cats

Dogs: the CDC Dog Import Form

Since August 1, 2024, CDC’s rule for dogs that have been only in dog rabies-free or low-risk countries in the six months before entry has one document: the CDC Dog Import Form, completed online. Keep the receipt — printed or on your phone — to show the airline and CBP. CDC also requires that the dog appear healthy on arrival, be at least six months old at entry, and have a microchip detectable with a universal scanner. The receipt is valid for six months and can be used for multiple entries, as long as the dog has not been in a high-risk country or a different departure country in the meantime. CDC publishes only the high-risk list; a country not on it is treated as dog rabies-free or low-risk. If your dog has spent time in a high-risk country in the prior six months, a different and longer process applies — start with CDC’s dog import pages well before travel.

Cats: no APHIS animal health requirements

USDA APHIS states that its Veterinary Services “does not have any animal health requirements related to bringing (importing) a pet cat into the United States from a foreign country,” and refers travellers to the other agencies’ requirements. Read that narrowly: it removes one layer, not all of them. Airlines impose their own conditions for carrying animals, and destination states can set their own rules. Carry your cat’s veterinary and vaccination records, and confirm the airline’s and the state’s requirements before the move.

Other animals

Birds, reptiles, rodents and other animals are covered by their own agency rules, which can include permits and quarantine. Do not assume the dog and cat treatment extends to them; check the USDA APHIS pet travel pages for the species before you plan the move.

Declare, and keep the paperwork

• Declare everything you are importing, in the shipment and in the car. The duty-free categories reward a complete, accurate list.
• Keep your Form 3299 (where used), the inventory, the mover’s documents and your admission records together, and keep copies separately.
• Keep passports, TN packet documents, medication, chargers and several days of essentials with you, outside any shipment whose delivery date you do not control.
• If an officer assesses duty on an item you expected to be exempt, pay or resolve it as a customs matter and keep the receipt; it has no bearing on your TN status.

This guide is general information about the customs and animal-health side of a move. It is not a ruling on your shipment, your vehicle or your animal, and it does not replace the current CBP, CDC and USDA pages, which control.

Common questions

Sources

• eCFR: 19 CFR 148.52, Exemption for household effects used abroad
• CBP: Form 3299, Declaration for Free Entry of Unaccompanied Articles
• CBP: Importing a motor vehicle
• CDC: Entry requirements for dogs from dog-rabies free or low-risk countries
• USDA APHIS: Bring a pet cat (domestic) into the United States

Last reviewed October 19, 2026. General information, not legal advice. Rules change; confirm with official sources before you travel.