Returning Resident vs New Immigrant: How Canada Treats Your Bird Differently

Your immigration status decides whether you pay duty on your bird – it does not decide whether the bird is allowed into Canada at all. Those are two different agencies asking two different questions, and mixing them up is the single most common mistake in this kind of move. This article keeps them apart from start to finish.

Two questions, two agencies, two different answers

Everything below splits into two halves that never overlap:

• Question one: may the bird enter Canada at all? That’s the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), and your immigration status is irrelevant to it.
• Question two: do you owe duty and tax on the bird as goods? That’s the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), and your status is decisive.

Whether you’re a first-time permanent resident or a Canadian citizen coming home after five years away, half one treats you identically. Half two does not. Keep both halves separate as you read – a fact from one side is never a qualification on the other.

Half one: whether the bird can enter is a CFIA question, and it doesn’t ask about status

Section 13 of the CFIA Import Reference Document, which is incorporated by reference into the Health of Animals Regulations, sets out the only simplified route into Canada for a pet parrot or pet songbird. It applies only to a bird arriving from the United States, and it requires the person importing the bird to be its owner, to be accompanying it, to declare it to a Customs Officer at the place of entry, and to have had it in personal possession in Canada or the United States for the 90 days immediately preceding entry.

Read that possession requirement again with a returning Canadian in mind. Someone who has lived in Lisbon for three years, and whose bird has lived there with them, fails the 90-day in-Canada-or-US test just as completely as a first-time immigrant arriving from Lisbon does. Citizenship, permanent residence, and years spent living in Canada before you left buy nothing here. The rule looks only at where the bird has actually been kept for the last 90 days.

If the bird doesn’t meet section 13 – because it’s arriving from anywhere other than the United States, or because the 90-day possession test isn’t met – it falls to a paragraph 12(1)(a) Ministerial import permit. Conditions for that permit are set case by case and aren’t published as a blanket rule, and this holds equally for a returning resident and a brand-new immigrant. Our complete CFIA import guide covers section 13 in full, and our permit application guide walks through what applying for a 12(1)(a) permit involves. If you’re returning specifically and want the country-of-origin angle rather than the immigration-status angle, see Coming Back to Canada With Your Own Bird.

Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, whether a returning resident’s or new immigrant’s bird qualifies as exempt from a paragraph 12(1)(a) permit under any specific species or country circumstance. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.

Half two: whether you pay duty is a CBSA question, and status decides it

Once CFIA’s question is settled, a second and completely separate question sits with CBSA: do you owe duty and tax on the bird as imported goods? Here, unlike half one, your status matters directly – and there are two different tariff items, with two different tests, and you’re eligible for at most one.

Settler vs former resident: the two tariff items side by side

	Tariff item 9807.00.00 (settler)	Tariff item 9805.00.00 (former resident)
Who it’s for	A settler – broadly, someone establishing permanent residence in Canada for the first time	A person who was previously resident in Canada, returning after an absence of not less than one year
Ownership condition	Goods actually owned, possessed and used abroad by the settler prior to arrival – no minimum period stated	Goods actually owned, possessed and used abroad by that person for at least six months prior to return
Accompaniment	Must accompany the person at time of arrival	Must accompany the person at the time of their return

The six-month owned-possessed-and-used-abroad test is the concrete difference between the two items – 9807.00.00 states no minimum period, while 9805.00.00 explicitly requires at least six months. Which one applies to you depends on whether you’re a settler or a former resident, and that in turn depends on two rules that catch people out.

Rule one: “settler” excludes students and short-term workers

“Settler” is a defined term, and it excludes a person entering Canada for employment of 36 months or less, or to study – no matter how permanent the move feels to that person. If you’re arriving on a study permit or a fixed-term work contract, you are not a settler for customs purposes, and 9807.00.00 does not apply to you on that basis. That situation – temporary status, not a permanent move – is its own article; see the companion piece on students and work-permit holders rather than treating this page as covering it.

Rule two: for temporary residents later granted permanent residence, the application date governs

If you arrived in Canada as a temporary resident and were later granted permanent resident status, only goods that were owned, used and possessed by you prior to the date you applied for permanent resident status are classified under tariff item 9807.00.00. The governing date is the application date – not your arrival date, and not the date your application was approved. A separate provision applies where an employment authorization is extended beyond the 36-month limit: goods owned, possessed and used prior to that extension date become eligible as settler’s effects at that point.

The absence rules for 9805.00.00

For former residents claiming 9805.00.00, how the one-year absence is measured depends on what you did abroad. Someone who establishes themselves as a resident of another country for at least a year may make return visits to Canada as a non-resident visitor without losing the claim when they finally come home. Someone who does not establish residence elsewhere – CBSA’s own examples are extended vacations, voyages and world cruises – only qualifies if the absence is a continuous period of at least one year with no return to Canada during it.

The honest gap: neither memorandum mentions a bird

Here is the finding that matters most in this half of the article. CBSA Memorandum D2-2-1 (settlers, 9807.00.00) and Memorandum D2-3-2 (former residents, 9805.00.00), read in full, contain no mention anywhere of a pet, a bird, a dog, or a live animal. Whether a living bird counts as “goods for personal or household use” under either tariff item simply isn’t addressed in what CBSA has published. We’re not going to guess in either direction here, and you shouldn’t either – ask CBSA directly, using the number at the bottom of this page, before assuming your bird rides in duty-free alongside your furniture.

Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, whether CBSA treats a live pet bird as goods for personal or household use under tariff item 9807.00.00 or 9805.00.00, and how it would be valued if so. Please confirm with the Canada Border Services Agency at 1-800-461-9999 before you rely on it for your own bird.

The rule that runs through all three instruments: the bird travels with you

Look back across everything above and one condition repeats three separate times, in three separate rules, written by two separate agencies. Section 13 of the Import Reference Document requires the owner to be accompanying the bird. Tariff item 9807.00.00 requires the goods to accompany the settler. Tariff item 9805.00.00 requires the goods to accompany the former resident. None of these are the same instrument, and none of them cross-reference each other, but all three land on the same condition: the person and the bird arrive together.

That means anyone planning to fly ahead and have the bird follow separately later isn’t failing one test – they’re failing several at once. A bird shipped as unaccompanied cargo can’t use the section 13 route at all, since section 13 requires the owner to be accompanying it; it also can’t be claimed as accompanying baggage under either tariff item once it arrives without you. See our article on what shipping a bird as cargo actually involves for how much harder that route is than travelling with the bird yourself.

Customs relief is not permission

Even if CBSA does waive duty on your bird under 9807.00.00 or 9805.00.00, that says nothing about whether the bird is allowed into the country. Both CBSA memoranda confirm that CBSA administers other departments’ import controls at the border and point readers to Memorandum D19-1-1, which covers food, plants, animals and related products. In practice that means CFIA and CITES sit entirely outside the customs question – getting your tariff item right doesn’t shorten the section 13 or permit conversation by a single day. Sort out entry with CFIA first; duty is a separate, later question.

Where boarding actually fits into this

If your bird’s move is turning into a permit wait or a housing gap once it’s already in Canada, boarding is the honest, narrow answer – not a way to solve the entry question. Bird Sitting Toronto boards birds and helps with rehoming when a bird genuinely can’t come at all; it doesn’t file permits, complete applications, liaise with CFIA or CBSA, act as a customs broker, or give immigration advice. That means the useful move, wherever possible, is aligning the bird’s travel with your own so the accompaniment condition holds – not planning around boarding as a substitute for it.

Where boarding does help is a bird already in Canada whose owner is between homes while things settle. Rates and details are on our booking page; see also our guide on long-term boarding for 30, 60 and 90+ day stays if that’s the gap you’re actually facing.

Frequently asked questions

I’m becoming a permanent resident of Canada – does that change whether CFIA lets my bird in?

CFIA: no, the entry test in section 13 of the Import Reference Document doesn’t ask about immigration status at all. It asks where the bird has been kept for the 90 days before entry, and whether it’s arriving from the United States. This is separate from whether you owe duty on the bird as goods, which CBSA decides using your status – the two agencies don’t share this test.

I’m a Canadian citizen coming home after three years abroad – do I get an easier CFIA process than someone immigrating for the first time?

CFIA: no. Section 13 requires personal possession of the bird in Canada or the United States for the 90 days before entry, and your citizenship or residency history has no bearing on that requirement. A returning citizen whose bird has spent the last three years outside Canada and the US fails the possession test exactly as a first-time immigrant’s bird would.

What’s the actual difference between tariff item 9807.00.00 and 9805.00.00 for my bird?

This is a CBSA customs question, separate from CFIA entry. Tariff item 9807.00.00 applies to settlers and states no minimum ownership period – only that the goods were owned, possessed and used abroad before arrival. Tariff item 9805.00.00 applies to former residents returning after an absence of at least one year and adds a specific test: the goods must have been owned, possessed and used abroad for at least six months before the return. You qualify for at most one of the two.

I arrived on a study permit and later applied for permanent residence – which date decides what qualifies?

This is a CBSA customs question, not a CFIA one. Because a person who enters Canada to study is excluded from the definition of settler, the relevant date is the date you applied for permanent resident status – not your arrival date, and not your approval date. Only goods you owned, used and possessed before that application date are classified under tariff item 9807.00.00.

Does my bird count as a “settler’s effect” for customs purposes?

This is unresolved as a CBSA matter. CBSA Memorandum D2-2-1 on settlers and D2-3-2 on former residents don’t mention a pet, a bird or any live animal anywhere in their text, so whether a living bird is “goods for personal or household use” under either tariff item isn’t addressed in what CBSA publishes. Ask CBSA directly before assuming your bird travels in duty-free with your furniture – don’t assume either answer.

If CBSA waives duty on my bird, does that mean CFIA has cleared it to enter?

No – these are two different departments doing two different jobs. CBSA administers other departments’ import controls at the border but doesn’t decide them; both memoranda point readers to Memorandum D19-1-1, which covers animals. A duty exemption says nothing about whether CFIA’s section 13 or a paragraph 12(1)(a) permit condition has been met, and nothing about CITES.

Should I fly to Canada first and have my bird follow later once my permit or immigration paperwork is sorted?

CFIA and CBSA both say no, and this is the single most common way people fail the rules on this page. Section 13 requires the owner to be accompanying the bird, and both tariff items 9807.00.00 and 9805.00.00 require the goods to accompany the person on arrival. Flying ahead and shipping the bird separately breaks the accompaniment condition in all three rules at once.

How long does a paragraph 12(1)(a) import permit take to process?

This is a CFIA question we can’t answer with confidence here – processing times for case-by-case Ministerial permits aren’t published as a fixed figure in what we’ve verified. Unconfirmed: we could not verify this against an official source — specifically, current processing time for a paragraph 12(1)(a) import permit. Please confirm with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency at 1-800-442-2342 before you rely on it for your own bird.

Related guides in this series

• Importing a Pet Bird to Canada: The Complete CFIA Guide (2026)
• Moving Abroad and You Can’t Take Your Bird: Board, Rehome, or Wait
• Long-Term Bird Boarding While You Relocate: 30, 60 and 90+ Days
• Taking Your Bird from Canada to the United States: Driving vs Flying
• Two Unsettled Questions About Taking a Parrot to the US (and How to Get an Answer in Writing)
• Will Your Bird Be Quarantined Coming Into Canada? What the Rules Actually Say

Who to call before you travel

Confirm every requirement below with the agency itself. These are the people who
can actually authorise your bird’s movement — we cannot.

Every number below was checked against the agency’s own website on
27 July 2026. Government phone numbers and web pages still change without notice.
If one does not connect, find the agency through its own official site rather than trusting
what is printed here.

• Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) — import and export of live
  birds, health certificates, permits: 1-800-442-2342 from
  Canada and the US, or 1-613-773-2342 local and
  international, 8 am to 7 pm EST Monday to Friday except holidays. CFIA names
  services related to travelling with pets as something its area offices handle —
  for the GTA that is the Mississauga animal health office,
  289-247-4100, 8 am to 4 pm
  · inspection.canada.ca
• Environment and Climate Change Canada — CITES permitting — export and
  import permits for CITES-listed species, and what documents exist for repeat crossings:
  1-855-869-8670
  · cites@ec.gc.ca
• Canada Border Services Agency — what happens at the border itself,
  declarations and inspection fees: 1-800-461-9999, Monday to
  Friday 8 am to 4 pm local time. Press 0 to reach an agent; CBSA’s published
  service standard is to answer within 20 minutes
• USDA APHIS — the US pet-travel hub, with separate paths for import,
  export and interstate movement, and the list of which birds count as pets at all:
  aphis.usda.gov/pet-travel
• US Fish & Wildlife Service — CITES and Wild Bird Conservation Act
  permits, applied for through the ePermits portal at
  fws.gov/permits. The agency
  contact centre is 1-800-344-9453
  · info@fws.gov

What we can and cannot help with

We cannot help with paperwork. Bird Sitting Toronto is a bird
boarding and care business. We are not a customs broker, an immigration consultant, a
veterinary practice or a legal adviser. We do not file permits, complete applications or
deal with any agency on your behalf, and we cannot guarantee any outcome at any border.
Everything on this page is information only.

There are two things we can do. If your bird cannot travel with you
— because the paperwork is still in progress, the airline will not carry it, or the
timing simply does not work — we can board
your bird in the GTA for as long as you need, including by the month. And if it
becomes clear the bird genuinely cannot come with you, we can help you
rehome it to a good home rather
than leaving you to sort that out alone.

We publish this guide because our boarding clients ask us about it constantly, and
because the answer is genuinely hard to assemble from the primary sources.