JaxDad wrote:
1) Licensing, if that is a temporary item, can be a “license” or a “permit”. A “permit” is rarely valid or honoured beyond the borders of the State or Province that issued it. That is why Ontario changed from a ‘trip permit’ to a 10 day license.
A temporary tag is a license. It's the license or tag you get for the vehicle until the permanent tag or plate is received. It's an official government document showing the vehicle has been properly licensed by a state.
2) Ownership, to enter Canada with a vehicle it is considered personal effects, no different than a suitcase of clothes. This is why you can’t drive someone else’s vehicle across the border without very specific documentation. If you have yet to receive a “title” from the DMV then you likely don’t have sufficient proof that you own the RV to cross the border with it. One interesting difference is truck campers. In Ontario, and I believe the rest of Canada too, they are not considered to be a separate vehicle and do not require plates or ownership documents.
It's not likely people ever carry the title to their vehicle. If you have a loan on a vehicle you most likely don't even have the title. The title is held by the lean holder until you pay off the loan. Even if the vehicle is lean free and a person has the title in hand it's not likely they carry the title with them.
To the OP, you can save yourself a lot of fret and worry by just calling the Canadian and the US Customs office. You're asking for legal advice from a bunch of anonymous people on the internet. Most likely none of them know a thing about the law. If someone gave you the correct answer how would you know? You wouldn't. If you decided to take Poster A's suggestion and it was wrong you can bet 2 things: 1) Customs won't care that you got your advise from some anonymous person on the internet. And 2) if you find yourself in legal trouble Poster A is not going to be the one to come pay any fines or get you out of legal trouble. Call the Customs offices and get the real answer to your question. You'll probably find the answer is a lot simpler than what you might read here.
