The 72-hour rule: what Ontario dealers must file before driving a US auction car home

There is a persistent piece of misinformation in Canadian dealer circles that the US 72-hour rule applies when you sell a car to an American buyer. It does not, and believing it wastes time on filings that don't exist.

19 CFR 192.2 governs vehicles leaving the United States. Which means it has nothing to say about your export sales to Buffalo — and everything to say about the far more common transaction: an Ontario dealer buying at Manheim, ADESA, Copart, or IAA and bringing the car north.

Which direction the rule actually runs

The confusion is understandable. To you, buying an American car is an import — you're thinking about the RIV, the Transport Canada admissibility list, and what the car needs to be road-legal in Ontario. But every cross-border movement is two events, and the American half of yours is an export from the United States. That is CBP's jurisdiction, and 19 CFR 192.2 is its rule.

Run the mirror case to keep it straight. When you sell an Ontario car to a US buyer, the Canadian half is an export (governed by CBSA and the MVDA) and the American half is an import (NHTSA, EPA, and CBP entry). No part of that chain is a US export, so 192.2 never engages. There is also no AES filing and no ITN for you — that system exists for goods leaving the United States, so a Canadian shipper southbound never touches it.

What CBP requires, precisely

The ownership document

• US-titled vehicle: the original Certificate of Title, or a certified copy of it, plus two complete copies.
• Foreign-titled vehicle: the original document giving satisfactory proof of ownership, with an English translation where needed, plus two complete copies.

The word doing the work is original. A scan emailed by the auction is not a title. This is the number one reason a Canadian dealer's unit sits at a US port while the transporter charges detention: the auction had a title delay, or shipped it to the wrong address, and there is no original document to lodge.

Liens and leases

If there is a recorded lien, or the vehicle is leased, the title alone is not enough. You need a separate writing from the third party in interest — the lienholder or lessor — on its letterhead, expressly permitting the export, and setting out the vehicle details and the party's contact information.

Salvage and total-loss units bought from insurer-driven auctions are where this bites most often, because the paper chain runs through a finance company that has no particular urgency about your transport booking.

The timing, by mode

• Rail, highway, or under its own power — the way almost every Ontario purchase travels: documentation submitted at least 72 hours before export; the vehicle presented at the time of export.
• Vessel or aircraft: documentation and the vehicle itself presented at least 72 hours before export.

Note that 72 hours is a minimum, not a target, and it is counted against the port's working practices. Booking a Monday-morning crossing on a title that arrives Friday afternoon is not a plan.

The exceptions

Vehicles moving under in-bond procedures, under a carnet, or under a Temporary Importation Bond are excepted. These are specific mechanisms with their own paperwork — an ordinary auction buy headed for your lot is not one of them, and dealers occasionally talk themselves into thinking it is.

How this changes your buying process

The practical fix is to treat the title as the long-lead item in the deal rather than an afterthought:

• Confirm title status before you bid, not after you win. “Title attached” and “title absent” are different lots with different timelines.
• Get the original shipped to a US address you control or to your broker, and track it like freight.
• Check for recorded liens at the same time, so the lienholder letter is being chased in parallel rather than discovered at day 70.
• Make the two complete copies before the original leaves your hands. They're required, and reproducing them later means finding the document again.
• Book the transporter against the filing date, not the sale date.

Then the Canadian half begins

Clearing CBP gets the car out of the United States. Admissibility into Canada, the RIV process, recall clearance, and any modifications needed for Canadian compliance are a separate track under Transport Canada — and once the vehicle lands on your lot, the Ontario obligations start: garage register entry, section 52 vehicle records, and the disclosure of out-of-province history when you retail it.

That last one matters and gets forgotten on imported units. A vehicle registered outside Ontario carries a mandatory written disclosure when you sell it — the US auction origin doesn't disappear because the car now has an Ontario plate.

Keep the import paper with the car

The title, the lienholder letter, the customs entry, and the RIV documents all belong in the same place as the rest of the vehicle's file, because in six years' time the recall-clearance letter and the out-of-province disclosure are what prove you did this properly. Lot Jacket scans them in as the unit is created, so the import trail and the eventual bill of sale live in one audit-ready jacket.

Sourcing a lot of your inventory stateside? Book a free 15-minute demo and we'll walk an imported unit through end to end.

This is general information for Ontario dealers, not legal or customs advice. US requirements change and port practices vary — confirm with CBP or your customs broker before shipping.