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The U.S. Customs Service is America’s front line against the smuggling of drugs and other prohibited goods. Customs has discovered large amounts of drugs in baggage, vehicles, and on passengers themselves. When you return to the United States, Customs will treat you in a courteous, professional manner. They realize that very few travelers actually violate the law, but they may still need to examine your baggage or your vehicle, which, by law, are allowed to do. They may ask you about your citizenship, your trip, and about anything you are bringing back to the United States that you did not have with you when you left. If you need help clearing Customs, please do not hesitate to ask the Customs inspector for assistance. "Duty" and "dutiable" are words you will find frequently throughout this page: Duty is the amount of money you pay on items coming from another country. It is similar to a tax, except that duty is collected only on imported goods. Dutiable describes items on which duty may have to be paid. Most items have specific duty rates, which are determined by a number of factors, including where you got the item, where it was made, and what it is made of. To "declare" means to tell the Customs officer about anything you’re bringing back that you did not have when you left the United States. For example, you would declare alterations made in a foreign country to a suit you already owned, and you would declare any gifts you acquired overseas.
You must state on the Customs declaration, in United States currency, what you actually paid for each item. The price must include all taxes. If you did not buy the item yourself—for example, if it is a gift—get an estimate of its fair retail value in the country where you received it. If you bought something on your trip and wore or used it on the trip, it’s still dutiable. You must declare the item at the price you paid or, if it was a gift, at its fair market value.
Family members who live in the same home and return together to the United States may combine their personal exemptions. This is called a joint declaration. For example, if Mr. and Mrs. Smith travel overseas and Mrs. Smith brings home a $600 piece of glassware, and Mr. Smith buys $200 worth of clothing, they can combine their $400 exemptions on a joint declaration and not have to pay duty. Children and infants are allowed the same exemption as adults, except for alcoholic beverages.
Register Items Before You Leave The United States! If your laptop computer was made in Japan, for instance, you might have to pay duty on it each time you brought it back into the United States, unless you could prove that you owned it before you left on your trip. Documents that fully describe the item-for example, sales receipts, insurance policies, or jeweler's appraisals-are acceptable forms of proof. To make things easier, you can register certain items with Customs before you depart- including watches, cameras, laptop computers, firearms, and tape recorders-as long as they have serial numbers or other unique, permanent markings. Take the items to the nearest Customs Office and request a Certificate of Registration (Customs Form 4457). It shows Customs that you had the items with you before leaving the U.S. and all items listed on it will be allowed duty-free entry. Customs inspectors must see the item you are registering in order to certify the certificate of registration. You can register items with Customs at the international airport from which you’re departing. Keep the certificate for future trips.
The duty-free exemption, also called the personal exemption, is the total value of merchandise you may bring back to the United States without having to pay duty. You may bring back more than your exemption, but you will have to pay duty on it. In most cases, the personal exemption is $400, but there are some exceptions to this rule, which are explained below. Depending on the countries you have visited, your personal exemption will be $400, $600, or $1,200. (The differences are explained in the following section.) There are also limits on the amount of alcoholic beverages, cigarettes, cigars, and other tobacco products you may include in your duty-free personal exemption. The duty-free exemptions ($400, $600, or $1,200) apply if:
Tobacco Products: You may include up to 100 cigars and up to 200 cigarettes in your duty-free exemption. If you bring back more than these amounts, you will have to pay duty on them, even if you have not gone over your duty-free exemption. You may also have to pay state or local taxes on tobacco products. This tobacco exemption is available to each person. Tobacco products of Cuban origin, however, are prohibited unless you actually acquired them in Cuba and are returning either directly or indirectly from that country on licensed travel. You may not, for example, bring in Cuban cigars purchased in Canada.
Alcoholic Beverages: One liter (33.8 fl. oz.) of alcoholic beverages may be included in your exemption if you are 21 years old, if it is for your own use or as a gift, and it does not violate the laws of the state in which you arrive. Federal regulations allow you to bring back more than one liter of alcoholic beverage for personal use, but, as with extra tobacco, you will have to pay duty and Internal Revenue Service tax. While Federal regulations do not specify a limit on the amount of alcohol you may bring back for personal use, unusual quantities are liable to raise suspicions that you are importing the alcohol for other purposes, such as for resale. Customs officers are authorized by Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) make on the spot determinations that an importation is for commercial purposes, and may require you to obtain a permit to import the alcohol before releasing it to you. If you intend to bring back a substantial quantity of alcohol for your personal use, you should contact the Customs port you will be re-entering the country through, and make prior arrangements for entering the alcohol into the U.S. Having said that, you should be aware that…… State laws may limit the amount of alcohol you can bring in without a license. If you arrive in a state that has limitations on the amount of alcohol you may bring in without a license, that state law will be enforced by Customs, even though it may be more restrictive then Federal regulations. We recommend that you check with the state government before you go abroad about their limitations on quantities allowed for personal importation and additional state taxes that might apply. In brief, for both alcohol and tobacco, the quantities discussed in this booklet as being eligible for duty-free treatment may be included in your $400 (or $600 or $1,200) exemption, just as any other purchase would be. But unlike other kinds of merchandise, amounts beyond those discussed here as being duty-free are taxed, even if you have not exceeded, or even met, your personal exemption. For example, if your exemption is $400 and you bring back three liters of wine and nothing else, two of those liters will be dutiable. Federal law prohibits shipping alcoholic beverages by mail within the United States.
Gifts you bring back from a trip abroad are considered to be for your personal use. They must be declared, but you may include them in your personal exemption. This includes gifts people gave you while you were out of the country, such as wedding or birthday presents, and gifts you’ve brought back for others. Gifts intended for business, promotional, or other commercial purposes may not be included in your duty-free exemption. Gifts worth up to $100 may be received, free of duty and tax, by friends and relatives in the United States, as long as the same person does not receive more than $100 worth of gifts in a single day. If the gifts are mailed or shipped from an insular possession, this amount is increased to $200. When you return to the United States, you don’t have to declare gifts you sent while you were on your trip, since they won’t be accompanying you. By federal law, alcoholic beverages, tobacco products, and perfume containing alcohol and worth more than $5 retail may not be included in the gift exemption. Gifts for more than one person may be shipped in the same package, called a consolidated gift package, if they are individually wrapped and labeled with each recipient’s name. Here’s how to wrap and label a consolidated gift package: Be sure to mark the outermost wrapper with:
Packages marked in this way will clear Customs much more easily. Here’s an example of how to mark a consolidated gift package:
If any item in the consolidated gift parcel is subject to duty and tax or worth more than the $100 gift allowance, the entire package will be dutiable. You, as a traveler, cannot send a "gift" package to yourself, and people traveling together cannot send "gifts" to each other. But there would be no reason to do that anyway, because the personal exemption for packages mailed from abroad is $200, which is twice as much as the gift exemption. If a package is subject to duty, the United States Postal Service will collect it from the addressee along with any postage and handling charges. The sender cannot prepay duty; it must be paid by the recipient when the package is received in the United States. (Packages sent by courier services are not eligible for this duty waiver.) For more information about mailing packages to the United States, please contact your nearest Customs office and ask for our pamphlet International Mail Imports or contact one of our Travel Consultants.
Your personal belongings can be sent back to the United States duty-free if they are of U.S. origin and if they have not been altered or repaired while abroad. Personal belongings like worn clothing can be mailed home and will receive duty-free entry if you write the words “American Goods Returned" on the outside of the package.
Household effects include furniture, carpets, paintings, tableware, stereos, linens, and similar household furnishings. Tools of trade, professional books, implements, and instruments that you’ve taken out of the United States will be duty-free when you return. You may import household effects you acquired abroad duty-free if You used them for at least one year while you were abroad. They are not intended for anyone else or for sale. Clothing, jewelry, photography equipment, portable radios, and vehicles are considered personal effects and cannot be brought in duty-free as household effects. However, the amount of duty collected on them will be reduced according to the age of the item.
Items mailed to the United States are subject to duty when they arrive. They cannot be included in your Customs exemption, and duty on them cannot be prepaid. If you are mailing merchandise from the U.S. insular possessions or from Caribbean Basin countries, you should follow different procedures than if you were mailing packages from any other country. These special procedures are described, under "Unaccompanied Purchases." In addition to duty and, at times, taxes, Customs collects a user fee on dutiable packages. Those three fees are the only fees Customs collects; any additional charges on shipments are for handling by freight forwarders, Customs brokers, and couriers or for other delivery services. Some carriers may add other clearance charges that have nothing to do with Customs duties. Note: Customs brokers are not U.S. Customs employees. Brokers' fees are based on the amount of work they do, not on the value of the items you ship, so travelers sometimes find the fee high in relation to the value of the shipment. The most cost-effective thing to do is to take your purchases with you if at all possible.
Unaccompanied baggage is anything you do not bring back with you, as opposed to goods in your possession-that accompany you-when you return. These may be items that were with you when you left the United States or items that you acquired (received by any means) while outside the United States. In general, unaccompanied baggage falls into the following three categories.
Most countries have laws that protect their cultural property (art/artifacts/antiquities; archaeological and ethnological material are also terms that are used). Such laws include export controls and/or national ownership of cultural property. Even if purchased from a business in the country of origin or in another country, legal ownership of such artifacts may be in question if brought into the U.S. Make certain you have documents such as export permits and receipts, although these do not necessarily confer ownership. While foreign laws may not be enforceable in the U.S., they can cause certain U.S. law to be invoked. For example, as a general rule, under the U.S. National Stolen Property Act, one cannot have legal title to art/artifacts/antiquities that were stolen, no matter how many times such items may have changed hands. Articles of stolen cultural property (from museums or from religious or secular public monuments) originating in any of the countries party to the 1970 UNESCO Convention specifically may not be imported into the U.S. In addition, U.S. law may restrict importation into the U.S. of specific categories of art/artifacts/antiquities: 1) U.S. law restricts the import of any Pre-Columbian monumental and architectural sculpture and murals from Central and South American countries; 2) U.S. law specifically restricts the importation of Native American artifacts from Canada; Maya pre-Columbian archaeological objects from Guatemala; Pre-Columbian archaeological objects from El Salvador and Peru; archaeological objects (such as terracotta statues) from Mali; Colonial period objects such as paintings and ritual objects from Peru; Byzantine period ritual and ecclesiastic objects (such as icons) from Cyprus; Khmer stone archaeological sculpture from Cambodia. Importation of items such as those above is permitted only when the items are accompanied by an export permit issued by the country of origin (where such items were first found). Purveyors of such items have been known to offer phony export certificates. As additional U.S. import restrictions may be imposed in response to requests from other countries, it is wise for the prospective purchaser to visit the State Department’s cultural property website: http://exchanges.state.gov/education/culprop. This website also has images representative of the categories of cultural property for which there are specific U.S. import restrictions.
Automobiles imported into the United States must meet the fuel-emission requirements of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the safety, bumper, and theft-prevention standards of the Department of Transportation (DOT). Trying to import a car that doesn’t meet all the requirements can be a vexing experience. Here’s why: Almost all cars, vans, sport utility vehicles, and so on that are bought in foreign countries must be modified to meet American standards. Passenger vehicles that are imported on the condition that they be modified must be exported or destroyed if they are not modified acceptably. And even if the car does meet all federal standards, it might be subject to additional EPA requirements, depending on what countries you drove it in. Or it could require a bond upon entry until the conditions for admission have been met. So before you even think about importing a car, you should call EPA and DOT for more information. Information on importing vehicles can be obtained from the Environmental Protection Agency, Attn.: 6405J, Washington, DC 20460, telephone (202) 564-9660, and the Department of Transportation, Office of Vehicle Safety Compliance (NEF 32), Washington, DC 20590. Copies of the Customs Service’s pamphlet "Importing a Car" can be obtained by writing to the U.S. Customs Service, P.O. Box 7407, Washington, DC 20044 or checking the Customs Web site at http://www.customs.gov. EPA's Automotive Imports Fact Manual can be obtained by writing to the Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC 20460. Cars being brought into the United States temporarily (for less that one year) are exempt from these restrictions.
Pirated copies of copyrighted articles-articles that are produced unlawfully without the authorization of the copyright owner—are prohibited from being imported into the United States. Pirated copies may be seized and destroyed. You may bring back genuine copyrighted articles (subject to duties). The kinds of copyrighted products most travelers are interested in include CD-ROMs, tape cassettes, toys, stuffed animals, clothing with cartoon characters, videotapes, videocassettes, music CDs, and books. Many copyrighted items may only be imported by distributors licensed by the copyright owner. Because most travelers are unaware of items covered by copyright distribution licenses, Customs is allowed to grant a waiver for the importation of one item protected by copyright every 30 days, as long as the item is for personal use. The copyright owner can grant more generous waivers—however, unless you have checked with Customs in advance, don’t plan to bring in more than one copy of a copyrighted item.
It is illegal to bring drug paraphernalia into the United States unless they have been prescribed for authentic medical conditions—diabetes, for example. Customs will seize any illegal paraphernalia. The importation, exportation, manufacture, sale, or transportation of drug paraphernalia is prohibited by law. If you’re convicted of any of these offenses, you will be subject to fines and imprisonment.
Fish, wildlife, and products made from them are subject to import and export restrictions, prohibitions, permits or certificates, and quarantine requirements. We recommend that you contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service before you depart if you plan to import or export any of the following:
Endangered species of wildlife, and products made from them, generally may not be imported or exported. You’ll need a permit from the Fish and Wildlife Service to import virtually all types of ivory, unless it’s from a warthog. The Fish and Wildlife Service has so many restrictions and prohibitions on various kinds of ivory—Asian elephant, African elephant, whale, rhinoceros, seal, pre-Endangered Species Act, post-CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), and many others—that they urge you to contact them before you even think of acquiring ivory in a foreign country. They can be reached at (800) 358-2104. But you may import an object made of ivory if it’s an antique; that is, if it’s at least 100 years old. You will need documentation that authenticates the age of the ivory. You may import other antiques containing wildlife parts with the same condition: they must be accompanied by documentation proving they are at least 100 years old. (Certain other requirements for antiques may apply.) If you plan to buy such things as tortoiseshell jewelry, leather goods, or articles made from whalebone, ivory, skins, or fur, please, before you go, contact the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Division of Law Enforcement, 4401 North Fairfax Drive, Arlington, VA 22203-3247, or call (800) 358-2104 or visit: http://www.fws.gov. Hunters can get information on the limitations for importing and exporting migratory game birds from this office as well. The Fish and Wildlife Service has designated specific ports of entry to handle fish and wildlife entries. If you plan to import anything discussed in this section, please also contact the Customs Service. Some states have fish and wildlife laws and regulations that are stricter than federal laws and regulations. If you’re returning to such a state, be aware that the stricter state laws and regulations have priority. Similarly, the federal government does not allow you to import into the United States wild animals that were taken, killed, sold, possessed, or exported from another country if any of these acts violated foreign laws. *information compiled from the United States government web site |
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What
is the mission of the Customs Service? They are the guardians of our Nation’s
borders - America’s Frontline. They serve and protect the American Public with
integrity, innovation and pride. They enforce the laws of the United States,
safeguard the revenue, and foster lawful international trade and travel. 
