Guys - i need some advice and i apologise for the length of this message in advance.

I intend to emmigrate from Scotland to Canada, this year. My primary concern is my guns. The draconian laws over here mean that i can only bring them to Canada myself or leave them with a dealer in the hope that he'll send them to me once over there.
What are the laws like over there? If i import guns to Canada, must i have a Canadian licence before accepting them and can an immigrant be awarded a Canadian firearms licence?
It's my intention to seek employment as a teacher but it looks like i'll have to come over without the family first to look for work...due to the crazy laws here, i can't leave my guns at home and expect the wife to bring them over. I'll have to get it sorted before coming over......is it possible to import them on a temporary licence and have them stored by a dealer, etc?

The guns to which i plan to bring are:
Anschutz 2007 smallbore prone rifle -22lr
Schutz & Larsen rifle - 308win
Schmidt Rubin rifle - 7.5x55 Swiss
BSA martini action rifle - 22lr
Sako TRG42 rifle - 338 Lapua
Accuracy International rifle - 308win

A pair of Purdey 12Bore shotguns
Holland & Holland 20Bore shotgun
& Several Beretta shotguns.

Cheers

I moved here years ago before the registry and it was a bit of a pain then. Now It is likely much worse.

That said, start here with the fact sheet for nonresidents moving to Canada:

http://www.cfc-ccaf.gc.ca/info_for-renseignement/factsheets/moving_e.asp

Scots gun

Your firearms seem fairly straightforward, so that is not a problem.

Your bigger problem is; Are yousure youwill be able to immigrate?

You should be able to get a PAL, register your guns here, and then just bring them in.

Actually immigrating shouldn't be a problem....the wife an i have been planning it for sometime and we chose Canada very carefully...the list included New Zealand, Canada, Australia and USA...countries that offer both career advancement oppertunities and the promise a future for my child.
I have both a Degree and a Master's Degree and the wife also has a degree. I'm a qualified teacher of Physics, Mathmatics, ICT and Technology (up to and including college level). The Canadian Governments assessment scheme

stipulates that a certain number of points are required to be elligible...both the wife and I pass this assessment comfortably.

Also, we should be able to purchase our own home outright, due to the current favourable exchange rate (up to a value of approx $450,000 Canadian dollars).

Forgot to ask...what's a PAL????

Scotsgun,

A PAL is the same (more or less) as your FAC..The gunlaws in Canada are going more like ours every day...No handguns, each firearm listed on your ticket ect...

With regards the problem of you going over a head of your wife, I would contact your local Firearms Dept and ask their advice. I would imagine that the would issue your wife a temporary FAC to hold (but not use) the firearms...the ammunition you would probably have to get rid of..If your local Firearms Officer gives you any grief or is "difficult" contact BASC and i am sure they will advise and assist where they can..

regards,

Pete

First,
I wanna congratulate you on your decission.
I am myself an emigrant from Poland and I love Canada, except bloody lieberal politicans.

Call this number and ask the CFC adviser for help: 1 613 993-0892
If they can't help you ask to talk to their superiors.

Greetings,

Peter

Pete we can still own handguns, no problems wihtthat!!

There are some "prohibited" handguns, though, mostly .25 and .32 cal and short barrel handguns...

Some genius decided that the .25's and .32's had "No sporting purposes" and were just Saturday Night Specials...

He forgot to consult with the Olympic Pistol Team, though!

Scots, You can also go to www.canadiangunnutz.com It's a forum similar ot this, but Canadian only, and there are quite a few that would give you good advice, some folks that have been in your shoes already!

No handguns???? You're kidding! I thought that handguns were still legal in Canada and could be shot at ranges, etc. Damn....i was looking forward to getting my handguns back.

Am i wrong?

Scots,

hanguns are legal in Canada !

Tehy fell into restricted category if the barrel is longer then 105mm, which must be over 4".
In order to shoot hanguns you have to join a club and get the permit to buy and carry to the range and back home.
It is alittle hastle but people do it, and lots of guys shoot IPSC or PPC competition.

All shorter then 104mm/4" are so called prohibited firearms and it is almost inpossible to obtain a licence for those guns.

Greetings

quote:

Originally posted by ScotsGun:
No handguns???? You're kidding! I thought that handguns were still legal in Canada and could be shot at ranges, etc. Damn....i was looking forward to getting my handguns back.

Am i wrong?

You can purchase a million handguns in one day, if you wish.

The only hting is, they can only be shot at ranges, you can't hunt with them in Canada...

I went through the same ordeal about two years ago. You should be able to bring in your rifles and get a temporary license at the border, visiting hunters do it all the time and then try to get your PAL asap once you are here. Your temp license can be renewed a couple of times. However, isn't there always an "however", when I arrived with my shotgun and .22 at the Calgary airport, the customs officer on duty didn't want to let me in with the guns. He said that my situation was different since I was immigrating and not visiting. Now I know he was wrong, and I could have tried and directed him to the official government website that exactly described my situation, but I had a trick up my sleeve. I had managed to challenge the required safety exam during an earlier visit and I had applied for my PAL a few months earlier. The day before I got on the plane I received an e-mail that my PAL had been issued and had been sent to the address in Canada that I had provided them with. I showed the print-out of that e-mail to the customs officer, and he waved me through. He didn't even look at the guns.

BTW, my two rifles I had sent off in advance to a friendly dealer in BC, because these guns needed an export permit, and some other reasons that are irrelevant here. Corlanes imported the guns for me. A few weeks after arrival in Canada I drove to Dawson Creek, had Corlanes verify/register all four of my guns, and I took possession of my babies. Customs charged me GST, which I should have been able to reclaim because the guns were part of all the stuff we brought into the country exempt from GST, but due to some technicality they refused too give me my money back. Life is too short to fight this battle so I just let it be.

Finding a company that would ship the guns, finding the exact rules regarding exporting the guns, etc. brought me close to a heart attack. The ignorance is rampant, and the thickheadedness of most people you deal with is unbelievable. But it can be done!

Frans

I got that one wrong! I thought for sure you lost your hand guns just like us; glad to hear you haven't!

quote:

each firearm listed on your ticket ect...

Eh, what do you mean by that? The PAL doesn't list the specific firearms, but of course we have the joy of seperate registration cards for each individual firearm.

But I'm not complaining. Over in the Netherlands I had to go through an application process for each addition to the battery, and I had to justify why I wanted one more each and every time. Just as I was leaving the country they wanted me to justify my rifles by proving that I hunted "big" game in the Netherlands. Hunting across the border, e.g. on a lease in Belgium or Germany which many hunters do, was not deemed a reason to own rifles in the Netherlands. That btw was the reason for me to ship off my guns ahead of time: I never hunted deer in the NL, only abroad, so I was running the risk of losing my rifles that way. For handguns I had to join a shooting club, and register the number of visits to the range, or matches attended, to demonstrate that I really needed a handgun of my own. If I want to purchase a regular hunting gun, I just walk into the store, make my pick, they make the call, and you bring home the gun right away. Last time it took about 30 minutes to go through the whole process, including paying.

Even though the gun registry is a money-wasting joke, it could be much much worse.

Frans

I would agree that applying for the possession and aquisition license before arrival would be a ggod way to get around the import difficulties. There are also Custom Brokers that may be willing to hold the firearms until you arrive to claim them. Not sure on that last one though and realise this means putting valued possessions in others hands.