Effective April 1, 2007, all commercial shipments (save for the exceptions shown below) entering Canada via the Windsor Ambassador Bridge must be pre-setup with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) on line release.

The most common line release option is PARS (Pre-Arrival Review System). The CBSA have advised that electronic transmissions will take priority over hard-copy paper transactions.

Shipments that are not pre-setup will be refused entry to Canada and returned to the USA to await line release processing.

The Ambassador Bridge has established a new Advanced Border Processing Center in Detroit, Michigan, to assist carriers who do not meet the new requirements. For more information, please call 313-965-8299.

(a) Goods subject to the requirements an Other Government Department (OGD) where there is no EDI link between the CBSA and the OGD;

(b) The invoice for the release transaction contains more than 999 invoice lines;

(c) There is more than one warehouse sub-location code per release transaction;

(d) The release transaction is covered by multiple highway cargo control numbers at the frontier;

(e) The CBSA has issued a paper Form Y50, Reject Document Control, to the importer/broker in the case of courier low-value shipments;

(f) Bonded warehouse RMD (grey wrapper); and

(g) Goods to be released from a Queen's warehouse.

View the official notice from the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).