Moving abroad in 2026: where fax still helps

Short answer: a move between Europe and Canada generates, in six weeks, more paperwork than an entire year of ordinary life — and some of those documents have to land with people who have no portal for you. In 2026, the fax machine survives at five very specific points along this journey: international freight forwarders and moving companies (packing lists, customs clearance powers of attorney), the Canadian customs brokers who file your personal effects form, housing boards and building managers in Quebec, home and transit insurers who must be notified of damage within a short window, and the cancellation departments of European telecom operators and energy suppliers, which still often require a dated written notice. Everywhere else, official digital channels have taken over: Service Canada and the CRA for federal change of address, Revenu Québec's Mon dossier (My Account), the PEC in Italy, the registro electrónico (electronic register) in Spain, the eBox in Belgium, autenticação.gov in Portugal, DE-Mail and municipal portals in Germany. From Europe to Canada, dial 00 1 then the ten digits (514, 438, 450, 418, 819 in Quebec, 416, 647, 613, 905 in Ontario, 604 in British Columbia); for Germany 00 49, Spain 00 34, Italy 00 39, Portugal 00 351, Belgium 00 32.

About MondialFax. This article is an information guide, with no connection to any moving company, freight forwarder, customs agency or landlord. MondialFax sends faxes free of charge and without registration to seven destinations (France, Belgium, Germany, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Canada) from a browser, with a daily sending limit. It does not assign a number and does not handle incoming faxes. See the supported countries page and the dialling code directory.

Why an international move wakes the fax machine back up

A cross-border move has one characteristic that ordinary administrative tasks don't: for a few weeks, it connects players who share no information system whatsoever. A mover in Lyon, a shipping agent in Antwerp, a customs broker in Montreal, a building manager in Laval, a Spanish insurer and a Portuguese electricity company have no common portal, no common identifier, and often not even the same working language.

In that vacuum, three mechanisms bring the fax back to the surface.

The first is the logistics chain. International freight still works largely through documents transmitted "as is": bill of lading, packing list, power of attorney. Transit agents have historically used the fax machine because it guarantees that a signed page arrives exactly as it is, with no conversion and no dependence on an attachment that the recipient's mail server might block. Many port agencies still display a fax number on their letterhead.

The second is the deadline. A container arriving at port without the customs clearance power of attorney racks up storage fees by the day. When forty-eight hours are left, nobody waits for an account to be created on a portal: you send the page right away, you call back, you confirm.

The third is the landlord. In Quebec, part of the rental stock is managed by small management companies with neither an extranet nor a tenant portal. The fax number appears on the lease, next to the phone number, and it is used for notices — non-renewal notices, lease assignments, subletting — where the date of sending carries legal weight.

The five flows where fax still serves, Europe ↔ Canada

1. Freight forwarders, movers and customs brokers

This is the heart of the matter. On arrival in Canada, a newcomer's personal effects are declared to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA): the list of goods accompanying the traveller and of those to follow (the B4/BSF186 and BSF186A type forms). The filer is often a broker appointed by your moving company, and that is who you need to send:

• the valued packing list, a line-by-line inventory with estimated values;
• a signed power of attorney or letter of authorisation;
• a copy of the passport photo page and of the immigration document;
• purchase invoices for valuable goods (instruments, professional equipment);
• where applicable, proof of previous residence.

Almost all of these offices accept email, but several ask for fax for signed pages, and many switch to the fax machine when a 15 MB attachment bounces. On a practical note, scan everything while you're still packing: a portable sheet-fed document scanner is enough for forty pages of invoices without monopolising a desk that's already been dismantled.

Always check with the CBSA and your broker for the current version of the forms and the filing channel: personal effects declaration rules change, and an out-of-date form sends the file straight back to square one.

2. Transit insurance and damage claims

An international move statistically means one or two damaged boxes. Transit insurance policies (taken out through the mover or directly) impose short claim deadlines — often a few business days after delivery, sometimes "reservations" that must be noted the same day on the delivery note.

The winning reflex: note written, detailed reservations on the delivery driver's document, photograph them, then send the claim through the most traceable channel available. With Canadian insurers and European brokers, the fax machine remains an accepted filing channel for these queues, and it has one advantage: it produces a time-stamped transmission report. We go into the mechanics of proof in our guide to the fax delivery confirmation, and the insurance logic in the article fax and insurance.

3. Housing: leases, housing boards, property managers

In Quebec, notices relating to a lease must be datable. The Tribunal administratif du logement (Administrative Housing Tribunal) publishes model notices and sets out the deadlines (for example, for a notice of non-renewal of a twelve-month lease, three to six months before expiry). If your building manager offers nothing but a phone number and a fax number, sending by fax with a transmission report gives you a usable dated written notice — to be kept together with the notice itself.

In Europe, things are more uneven: German and Belgian property managers work by post and email, Italy goes through PEC (which has the legal force of registered mail between account holders), Spain through property managers' portals.

4. European cancellations

Leaving Europe means closing about a dozen contracts: energy, internet, mobile, gym, storage unit, health insurance. Many providers accept online cancellation, but several still require a signed written notice — and some German and Belgian customer service departments publish a fax number dedicated to Kündigungen (cancellations). Two pieces of advice:

• keep one page per contract, with the customer number at the top, the departure date, and the address for refunding any credit balance;
• keep the transmission confirmation: that's what saves you if an invoice turns up three months later, 6,000 km away.

A self-inking date stamp helps surprisingly much: it time-stamps the paper copy you file with the transmission report.

5. Health and medical records

Transferring a medical file between countries is the most stubborn flow of all. Canadian practices and hospitals ask for a signed authorisation to disclose, then exchange records with each other by fax; in Germany, practices use KIM but keep a fax for the outside world; in Italy and Portugal, facilities direct you to PEC and patient portals. The channel-by-channel detail is in our articles fax and medical emergencies abroad and fax in Germany.

What no longer goes by fax: the official change of address

This is the part where you have to resist temptation. In 2026, no organisation wants your change of address by fax if it has an online service.

The practical rule is the same as for universities or banks: fax is for completing a file, not for opening one. If the organisation has a portal, a document sent outside that portal is often ignored, and above all never attached to your file.

For the related consular formalities (registration on the register of French citizens abroad, certificates, powers of attorney), see our expat guide; for the list of Canadian federal bodies and their channels, faxing a document to Ottawa.

A practical timeline: who to notify, through which channel

D-60 to D-45: the departure file

Gather the documents in a single digital folder, named consistently (2026-11-passport.pdf, 2026-11-packing-list.pdf). An expanding accordion file folder for the originals avoids hunting for lost paper on collection day. Ask your mover, in writing, for the exact list of documents and the channel expected for each one: email, customer portal, or fax.

D-30: cancellations and freight forwarder

Send the European cancellations. Send the freight forwarder the valued packing list and the signed power of attorney. This is the point where sending from a browser pays off: if your contact only reads faxes, you need neither a machine nor a subscription. The sending form is on the MondialFax home page.

D-10: arrival address and housing

Sign the Canadian lease, save the manager's fax number in your contacts, and prepare a reusable notice template. Our cover page tool saves you rewriting the header every time.

D+1 to D+15: arrival

Change of address through the official portals, registration with RAMQ or the provincial health plan, opening bank accounts — and only then any forms to be returned "by fax".

Mind the time difference

There is a six-hour gap between France and Quebec; nine with British Columbia. A fax sent at 9 a.m. from Lisbon reaches a Montreal office at 4 a.m.: it will be read late in the morning, not before. For tight claim deadlines, always think in the recipient's local time, as explained in faxing across time zones.

The mistakes that cost you dearly

• Sending an illegible inventory. A handwritten packing list, photographed at an angle, comes straight back as "please resend". Scan at 300 dpi in black and white, or use a pack of fine-tip markers to fill in handwritten forms in clean characters.
• Forgetting the cover page. Without the recipient's name, a file reference and a page count, your fax ends up on an anonymous pile.
• Confusing fax with registered mail. A fax proves sending, not reading; for high-stakes documents (a contested lease termination, a formal demand), back it up with a tracked mailing.
• Dialling without the full prefix. From Europe to Canada: 00 1 + ten digits. To Europe, 00 + country code, without the national leading zero.
• Forgetting about power. A Europe–North America plug adapter in your cabin bag saves you hunting for a charger at 11 p.m. on arrival day.

Frequently asked questions

Can I declare my personal effects to the CBSA by fax?

The declaration itself is made on arrival or through your customs broker, not by sending something unprompted. Fax is for sending the supporting documents to that broker or to an office that has explicitly asked for it. Always check the current procedure with the CBSA.

My European mover only has a fax number for its claims department. Is that normal?

Yes, it's common in the transport sector. Claims departments have often kept a fax because it produces a simple time stamp. Send it, keep the report, and follow up by phone.

Do I need a fax machine to send these documents?

No. An online service is enough for sending. On the other hand, no free service assigns an incoming number: if you're expecting a reply by fax, you need a receiving service, as detailed in receiving a fax.

How do I prove that a notice to my landlord was sent in time?

Keep the transmission report (date, time, number dialled, page count) and a copy of the notice you sent. In Quebec, in the event of a dispute before the Tribunal administratif du logement (Administrative Housing Tribunal), it is this pair of documents that gets examined.

What if the recipient's line has been cut off by the copper switch-off?

This is increasingly common in Northern Europe. If the call fails every time, the number has probably been withdrawn: look for the replacement channel on the organisation's website. See the copper switch-off outside France.

Key takeaways

• Fax is no longer an administrative channel for changing your address: everywhere, the official portals (CRA, Service Canada, Revenu Québec, eBox, PEC, registro electrónico (electronic register), autenticação.gov) have taken over.
• It remains useful in the private chain of a move: freight forwarders, customs brokers, transit insurers, Quebec building managers, European cancellation departments.
• Scan everything before packing: once the boxes are sealed, every missing invoice costs you days.
• Think in the recipient's local time and dial the full prefix (00 1 + ten digits for Canada).
• The transmission report is your proof of sending, never of reading: back up anything that matters.