I'm from California and went through CAA to get a carnet for India. This is a very abridged version of the story. Almost every single step was like pulling teeth and have stories among themselves.

Carnet granted with Canadian $5,000 deposit or line of credit. It's good to have an old bike.

My credit union, who I used for 15 years or so, had given me a US$10,000 line of credit years ago. I figured it'd be no big deal to get them to let the CAA know I have a line of credit. They didn't know what a carnet is so they wouldn't. I wasn't allowed to talk to the people making the decision who didn't know what a carnet is. The basic idea was, I was fleeing the country, and how did they know I was coming back. Lots of stalling involved with this decision which put me to dealing with it on the last bank day before I left.

A bit pissed off, I pulled all my money out. I started going to banks with a cashiers check for tens of thousands of dollars, wearing dirty clothes from last minute putting stuff into storage, and asked about a letter of credit having to explain what a carnet was to each person in every single bank. It didn't help that the whole thing was making me laugh since it has SCAM written all over it.

Bike in Australia, registered in California, carnet from Canada, shipping to India. No luck. Too many countries involved for the Aussie government. And it was straining friendships with an Aussie friend who arranging shipping. He's another HU member so he's well versed in shipping paperwork. It became a US$3,000 gamble to get it to India sans paperwork. Then I'd have Indian customs to deal with. My guess is that *probably* would work, but with some baksheesh.

So I finally did what everyone recommended -- which I didn't want to do -- and bought an Enfield. I like them anyway, and it wasn't much more than the carnet application fee.

I'm getting a partial refund back from CAA. The bank I switched to just got sold to Citigroup but I'm covered by FDIC. And better friendship with no Ducati, then Ducati with no friendship.

Good luck.

-Dave

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Not Ted Simon since 1970!
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