Before travel: pack what your family needs

Documents and first-days essentials matter more than extra suitcases. Before shipping heavy items, compare the shipping cost with buying after you arrive.

1. Keep passports, entry documents, marriage and birth records, qualifications, and vaccination and school records with you in your hand luggage, with secure copies and translations if needed. These are the papers you need from day one.
2. Prepare a list of the goods with you and a goods-to-follow list under the settling-in border rules. Do it before travelling so you are not scrambling at the border.
3. Pack clothes for the season you arrive in, the child’s essentials, and a familiar item that comforts them in the new place. Think carefully before shipping heavy items.
4. Check that electrical appliances are compatible with Canada before shipping them; an appliance that will not work here is money wasted on shipping.
5. Check the medicine rules before travelling, and carry the prescription, original packaging and a medical report if needed. Not every medicine or quantity is allowed into Canada.
6. Declare food, plant and animal products at the border, and check the restrictions by product and country of origin. Commercial packaging alone does not guarantee the product gets in.

Caution: Do not put all original documents in checked baggage; keep the essentials with you.

Bottom line: Documents and first-days essentials matter more than extra suitcases. Before shipping heavy items, compare the shipping cost with buying after you arrive.

Last reviewed: 27 September 2026