How to import a Japanese Kei Truck!

hey guys welcome back to the channel today I'm going to be going over my experience importing a Japanese K truck to the us as well as some things I learned along the way so if you're thinking about importing a k truck stay tuned it's not going to be a comprehensive video by any means but it will give you a lot of the starting points if you're thinking about doing research and starting the process of importing a k-truck sorry this video took so long I was just trying to do it right I took a little bit longer than I expected but I know it was really requested in the comments so I definitely wanted to make it for you guys but it took a little bit longer and I just wanted to do it right and not skimp on any information anyways guys without all the way let's get started welcome before the window I'm Jonathan and uh yeah let's get started [Music] I'll start with the most important step and it also happens to be the first step of the process do your research if you're watching this video you're already taking a step in the right direction learning and observing anything and everything that is available about the process as well as following other people's documented experiences is vital if you want to avoid headache further down the road that being said if you don't enjoy the thought of trying something out of your comfort zone and doing a lot of research you might want to consider purchasing a truck that has already been imported into the US it's a lot less work and you may end up spending a little bit more for it but it's kind of all about what you prefer if you prefer Saving Time money blah blah blah or just enjoying the process of importing I will be formulating my basic outline for this video from an incredible guide that I'll link below while you're down there consider subscribing it helps a lot the guy is incredible and this video is really meant to be more of a jumping off point for your own research and less of a comprehensive guide like I said before thank you [Music] all right anyway if you still think importing is something you want to tackle a welcome lung for the ride and let's get started once you've looked up and watched countless videos and you're ready to take the plunge it's time to find a truck in an attempt to keep this video from being too long I'm not going to go over all the differences and pros and cons of all the different makes and models of K trucks there are some great resources specifically about that topic that I'll try to link in the description to help you make that choice I will say though that I chose a 1997 Subaru Sandbar ks4 and I'm very happy with my purchase and I'm a little bit biased but it's a great truck as far as importing goes the only real bearing that your choice of truck or van has on the process is the fact that trucks have a higher customs duty rate because they're classified as property carrying whereas Vans are qualified as people carrying Vehicles it's kind of weird and a haul has to do with htts codes and all that stuff but we'll get to that later in the video unless you find a way around that red tape which I'm not advocating for you will end up spending a little bit more money in customs duty if you're importing a truck rather than a van so that's really the only thing I'd say as far as finding a trucker van to start out with but I will touch on the custom process later so stay tuned don't get too worried yet anyway with all that out of the way it's finally time for the exciting step of choosing the specific vehicle that will consume your waking thoughts for the next few months in a good way of course I can really only speak to the website and process that I use which was car from japan.com there are plenty of websites and companies that list k-truck vehicles online at auctions or direct purchase overall I didn't have a negative experience working with car from Japan however from what I heard there are slightly more convenient or accommodating websites out there that would serve the same purpose I'll try to list some in the description but again I can only speak to the one I use so sorry again this is part of the process where you want to look for yourself at multiple different websites and older experiences to make your final source of website again just do your research I can only speak to car from japan.com but it never hurts to try and figure out what other people think about different websites and their experiences so yeah just go go crazy go research anything you want everything you want there's no harm in doing that regardless of what website you use when it comes to picking your specific truck I recommend taking some time to to find one with quality photos there's a little rust present in the foes as possible most of the time the photos on these websites are not going to be super high resolution so take your time and see if there's anything you can spot that has potential damage and rust from The Limited information and photos you have another very important consideration is to make sure your truck was manufactured at least 25 years old to the month that it'll arrive in the U.S once you order it so if it's not old enough Customs can and most likely will refuse entry and potentially crush your vehicle when it shows up on the port this just serves as another reminder too you guessed it do your research and take your time this is also a good time to mention how important it is to temper your expectations throughout this whole process I felt like I kind of lucked out with the condition of my truck when I received it but just like most things in life if your expectations are too high you will always be disappointed by something and trust me when it comes to importing Vehicles there's always something to be disappointed about if you want a perfect truck I would recommend finding one in the US that you can go check out and inspect in person importing involves a certain amount of luck which can be mitigated to an extent by taking your time and doing your research but you really just have to do research and hope for the best in some cases with all that being said once you find your truck that has the price you like and a condition that you're happy with pay for that bad boy let's get this process started on car from japan.com they accepted PayPal as well as major credit card companies so payment was a breeze however obviously be on the lookout for payment methods such as I don't know MoneyGram or something like that that may be suspicious anything that you don't think really looks right don't send them money there are plenty of websites so find another one that looks a little bit less sketchy websites like car from Japan arrange Freight for you so you end up paying the website a total amount that includes your vehicle cost Freight and insurance for the trip across the Pacific mine came to just under 3 300 1400 for the truck and under 2 000 for the freight the last thing I'll mention about price and purchasing that is important later is that in the US shipment's worth less than twenty five hundred dollars can be qualified as an informal entry when it comes to customs the only reason this matters is that if your check price is greater than 2500 you will end up being required to get a customs broker and Customs bond for your truck which simply adds some more complexity of the process but it's completely normal and people do it every day keep in mind that the 20 2500 is not including your freight cost so just make sure that your actual vehicle costs before shipping is below 2500 if you want to avoid getting customs broker and bond my truck was like fourteen hundred dollars before Freight so I definitely didn't need to get a custom spawn uh but yeah stick around I'll let you know about a website that makes a custom spawn process fairly painless so either way you're going to be all right it's going to be okay we're gonna figure it out once you send the money to whatever website you're buying the truck from as well as giving them any information they need such as which Port you actually want the truck shipped to as well as your shipping address that you want your paperwork mailed to on the airplane you're basically good to go the process is officially started so let's take some time to talk paperwork [Music] foreign Japan there was a representative that would message me about important updates or missing information that I needed to submit this was actually really helpful and I think it's basically the norm for a lot of these larger k-truck selling companies online that you might order from they kind of know what they're doing so most of the time they have a fairly streamlined I think once the truck is paid for you'll be sent a bill of lading as well as a commercial invoice and an export certificate via physical mail in Japan they are required to return the original title into the government before exporting the vehicle so you will receive an export certificate instead of a title this is not an issue you will use this to register a vehicle in the United States the first bit of paperwork that you'll need to submit is the ISF 10 plus 2 to let the US Customs know that the truck is on its way as well as some basic information about it you can do this all online through a myriad of websites that offer the service I use turboisf.com and it was relatively painless the important thing is to do this before your truck leaves the port in Japan turbo ISF or any other website will handle the submission as well as you'll receive a confirmation once it's done overall it's fairly affordable and can usually be done for under 100 bucks or so once you got this submitted it's a bit of a waiting game one thing you can do while the truck is on the boat crossing the ocean is to make sure you get an English translation of the export certificate some exporters will give this with your paperwork packet but in my experience car from Jan didn't but it may vary I really don't know I've only imported one honestly I ended up using rushtranslate.com to translate my export certificate it worked out okay when I went to register the truck at the DMV in South Carolina but it may vary depending on the strictness of your DMV in your state I'll mention more about state laws regarding registration later in the end I would just make sure that you end up with two Originals of the build leading a purchase invoice an export certificate and an English translation of that certificate all of which you should be getting from your exporter or shipping company by airmail the only other thing of note that will happen while your vehicle is on the boat is that you will see of an email from your shipping company asking you to pay for some port fees before the ship arrives these fees are typically under 200 but it may vary per situation I paid Norton Lilly who were acting as agents of the auto liner they usually prefer wire transfers or mailing them a business check for the amount you owe so they will also require you to send them one of your original bill of latings to the address that they mentioned in the email once you pay them and send your bill of lading the shipping company will release the truck on their end once it arrives in this port so you shouldn't have any issues with them as long as they've got your money after this you'll receive an arrival notice from your shipping company that will include the holding location of your vehicle at the Port that you chose I received my arrival notice about two weeks from my arrival date but your mileage may vary you're not done yet though it's Customs time Customs might seem daunting however there are some ways to make the process easier in general though you will need a completed CBP Form 7501 dot hs7 short form and an EPA 3520 form when it's all said and done make sure you have at least three copies of each the dot and EPA forms are pretty simple and self-explanatory for the most part but again follow the guide in the description for a detailed walkthrough of all of the forms as far as the CBP 7501 form it's the big scary one the guide in the description goes into a lot of detail if you'd like to fill this out for yourself however I ended up just using easyimport.com to fill out my 7501 and submit it for me it was surprisingly afford for me and it was worth it because I wouldn't have to stress about filing things wrong or filling in things wrong or doing it myself in general if you choose to use a service like easyimport.com they can also act as a customs broker if your vehicle value ends up being over the 2500 informal entry limit so this is what I was talking about earlier there are websites that'll make it fairly easy for a customs Pond or customs broker so don't let it scare you from getting a little bit more expensive vehicle it's usually worth it but anyways to use a service like this you'll need to get a notarized power of attorney that enables the company to basically act on your behalf to customs I just went to the UPS store to get mine done for like 10 bucks using the form that easy import provides so it wasn't that big of a deal once they have the power of attorney you will need to compile a decent amount of information and send it to your broker but you should have everything you need from all the paperwork that your export or in your shipping company gave you whatever service you use should specifically detail what information they need from you so just follow whatever they need and get it to them another reason I enjoyed using a service like easyimport.com is that you can simply pay them the custom Duty and fees and they basically calculate it based on the information you give them about the truck they do have the ability to pay customs duties directly so they can do that on your behalf that's basically what the power of attorney helps with as well I should also mention that they can also handle the ISF filing that I mentioned earlier even though I didn't actually end up using them for that it is definitely helpful to have everything all in one place they have a pretty cool portal I'm not sponsored or really advocated necessarily for easyimport.com but it was pretty easy and it worked for what I needed to do so I can't complain this is a good time to Circle back around to the different customs duty rates between K trucks and K vans that I mentioned at the beginning Vans are passenger vehicles get taxed at 2.5 percent whereas trucks are taxed at a whopping 25 percent of your vehicle price this is designated by the HTS code of your vehicle check the guide for more information about calculated Vehicles HTS code I can't get into that unless I want the video to be like hours long so sorry my truck was only 1400 so I ended up paying around 360 for my customs duty but if you're spending a lot more on a truck keep this in mind the duty will be 25 percent of that purchase price as much as I am advocating for learning how to do everything yourself Customs is the part of the process that I genuinely think it's worth it to let a customs broker or a website take care of the consequences for messing up Customs paperwork can be a nightmare to resolve by yourself if you don't know what you're doing so just keep that in mind again weigh the uh the pros cons risk reward it's all up to you guys your broker or broker website will give you a completed entry summary form once they get everything figured out and filled out print this out along with your other form sign where your signature is needed and get them ready for pickup again check the guide for more details about all these forms it can be a lot and I am not going to explain it all in this video so make sure you check the guide it was amazing it helped me out greatly that being said if you do have any questions about Customs paperwork and all that and that's not covered in the guide definitely leave a comment and we'll try to figure it out as a community I don't know all the answers but I'm hoping people who are watching this video may be able to kind of contribute that's kind of the goal of the video all right right well with all your paperwork underway it's almost time to pick up in your arrival notice the shipping company should let you know where your vehicle will be located once it arrives at the Port this is where you have to do some research for your specific port to make sure you arrive at the right place when you show up to pick up the truck I ship mine to jaxport in Jacksonville Florida this port does require a quick escort or a TWIC card yourself I opted to apply for the TWIC card myself since it also serves as a TSA pre-check credential it was around 125 if I remember correctly but could technically change depending on when you watch this video just like everything in this video I imported my truck in April of 2023 so as far as I know this information is still current as far as when this video is uploaded but it could change at any time the laws right now are shifting fairly quickly it's kind of scary but just make sure you do some research and find the specific guidelines and laws of your time of importing if you don't opt to get a twit credential yourself you will need to find a company that offers an escort service into the port some ports do not require a TWIC card to access the holding area so you will just have to do your research based on your own port that you're picking up from and find the specific details about the port I really can't help you with that because it changes per Port anyways in Jacksonville most of the used roll-on roll-off vehicles are held at the import terminal Services lot inside the port as far as I know again do some research on your specific port and find exactly where it's being held based on the firm's code on your arrival notice a pro tip Google Maps is actually quite helpful with this sometimes you'll be able to spot the K trucks on the GPS imagery so it'll kind of point you out where you think the actual lot is if you can't if you're having trouble finding it just look for all the K trucks on the Google Maps imagery and just kind of plot that way but obviously confirm and make sure that it is actually where you're picking up from one thing I learned that helped me on the day of pickup was to create a delivery order for your pickup I was able to do this within the easy import website but it essentially streamlines the process immensely by making it seem to the port that you're just a truck driver with a delivery order for pickup it has all the information that they would need as far as your name and all that to make sure you're legit and you actually have something to pick up so you're not just trying to do that by scratch when you get there I was able to basically simply hand the port worker the delivery order when I got to the lot that my truck was in and I stamped it and let me go and find my truck my truck was released roughly two to three days after it was dropped off in Jacksonville I lucked out and didn't have any issues those custom holds or like the EPA dirt finding thing but doing your research and being proactive goes a long way in this step you'll have roughly 15 days to pick up your truck before it gets moved to a general order warehouse at which point you will start paying a lot of money per day so needless to say give your truck some time to clear customs and then after that pick it up because you do not want to wait too long and start having to pay a bunch of money for them to hold it in a general order Warehouse anyway speaking about day of pickup plan to get to support fairly early most ports take a sizable lunch break and you will have to wait for them to get finished around one or two o'clock to get any kind of service I got to support around 9 30 a.m and it worked out really well I was able to leave for lunch and get home I would also plan on swinging by the CBP office for the port you're picking up from with all your CBP Dot and EPA forms in hand the glad they take a look at them and then have a snazzy CBP stamp that they'll stamp all your paperwork with which is super helpful when you get to your State's DMV just to make sure that they know that everything is legit because CBP said it's good to go as far as getting your truck home I would plan on trailering the truck from the port to your house I use the U-Haul 6x12 cargo trailer without ramp for towing the truck not having the built-in ramp made things a little bit more complicated but according to some people online the 6x12 cargo with ramp from U-Haul does fit k-trucks however since there's a gate that kind of intrudes into the cargo space you have to have like about an inch of clearance on each side when driving the truck on the trailer the risk is yours I guess but I just wanted to be able to drive it straight onto the trailer so I was happy with the performance of the trailer and I only spent like sixty dollars total for two days in unlimited miles I will say though if you're using a halt make sure you find a trailer that isn't about to fall apart these things have been used and abused so make sure you get a trailer that is not going to just detach or crumble while you're driving your truck home foreign [Music] I cannot explain to you how relieved I was when I finally pulled out of the port with the truck in tow for most situations the hardest part will be behind you at this point however if you do intend to drive your truck on us roads you will need to tackle the process of getting it titled and registered in your state it is important for me to mention that my experience is limited again to registering within Greenville County in South Carolina luckily for me South Carolina currently doesn't have any limiting regulations in regards to k-truck so I'm basically able to fully register it and use it on any roads within the state this is where Googling your state-specific regulations is very important before you start the importing process obviously I can't talk about every state in this video but a few states only allow them on certain roads and other states simply just don't allow you to register them at all so I'll link some resources in the description to help you out with that but obviously I can't tell you all the information in this video anyway assuming you are allowed to register you will need to bring a few things with you to the DMV first of all you'll definitely need at least one copy of your stamped Customs EPA and Dot forms that you made copies of you shouldn't need things like the bill of lading or anything like that but I basically just put everything in a big folder and brought it anyways just to make sure an ideal scenario they will only need to see your stamp 7501 your commercial invoice Dot and EPA forms as well as your export certificate the DMV will also keep your export certificate so unfortunately you can't keep it and frame it or anything like that in South Carolina they not only require an English translation of your export certificate but they also require an scdmb translation verification form I don't think this is necessarily the norm for all states but I would definitely check to see if a form like that exists for your state and bring it as well depending on your state you may need to get your truck tested by emissions here in South Carolina we couldn't care less apparently so that wasn't something I needed to do but again do your research the trucks are fairly old so make sure it can pass or at least do what it needs to do based on your State's regulations in my County I also had to go pay taxes on the truck before I could actually register it so it added some complexity but you'll just have to follow the guidelines for whatever state and County you're in and talk it through with the government workers I know it's not fun but it is what it is just remember to always be nice you may encounter a DMV worker that has never handled the Japanese import before so if there this is the case just be pacing with them even though you've been obsessed with this process for months at this point it's not usually a common occurrence for them depending on where you live so just be prepared and try to accommodate them with anything they may need from you last thing I'll mention as far as state paper where it goes is insurance so you're technically required to have insurance to register the vehicle so in my case I ended up getting a progressive plan just because it was the quickest ish it still wasn't super easy to get but I've since changed to Hagerty to lower my rate basically so you'll have to do a little shopping around but in most States you'll be able to find something I know it's a little frustrating sometimes but just keep going try different places try different agents if you have to and you'll eventually find something I'm sure all right I know that was a lot but once you get the plates and registration screw some new holes into your plate and slap it on you are ready to start the next chapter of your k-truck journey thank you guys so much for watching I'm super excited for those of you who are going to give this process a try I know it's a lot to think about and a lot of work but in my experience it was a great learning experience and made me feel a lot more connected to my specific little Subaru so I hope it'll do the same for you again definitely feel free to leave a comment with any questions you have and I'll try to reply with an answer I want this video to be less of an exhaustive guide and more of a place for helping others in the comments section so if you have gone through this process like me please also comment with any corrections or additions that you may have that are vital to the process that I may have just missed completely or a specific difference in uh based on your state or your Port it also mean a lot to me if you check out other videos on my channel And subscribe if this video helped you I'm planning on continuing making k-truck on this channel for a while I know it's been quite a gap since I made the last video before this one but I am planning on continuing so stay tuned for that but yeah I mean I'm Jonathan from for the window and I will see you guys in the next one peace [Music] [Music] thank you

Channel: ForTheWindell

Views: 18,563

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Id: 6Mhv8DgKAMo

Length: 20min 20sec (1220 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 04 2023