Travel Is there a limit to how much wine you can take in checked baggage from Europe to US?

PixieGirl

Member
Nov 13, 2007
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I live in France at the moment and I know its early but I am thinking Christmas gifts already and since I will be visiting the US in a few weeks I thought I might start taking over bottles of wine for gifts. Is there a limit for your checked baggage of how much you can take in? Since they are gifts and they will not be pricey wines by any means, do I have to declare them at customs?

Thanks
 
I live in France at the moment and I know its early but I am thinking Christmas gifts already and since I will be visiting the US in a few weeks I thought I might start taking over bottles of wine for gifts. Is there a limit for your checked baggage of how much you can take in? Since they are gifts and they will not be pricey wines by any means, do I have to declare them at customs?

Thanks

I would not declare them. It just opens more doors. most likely they will not check, and even if they do, you should be fine.
 
U always declare EVERYTHING.....no matter what.
I didnt once and got FINES and my passport was tagged for OVER A YEAR>
NOT worth it folks!!!
The fines are ten times the customs fees,think about the math here

Trust me....even if u r OVER your customs limits..they ususally let u walk anyway.DECLARE everything.If its checkedluggage,i dont think there is a limit ....just pack carefully and mark the bag FRAGILE
 
You can only bring one litre of wine into the US duty free. I would declare the rest, and pay the duty should be pretty minimal like 3%-10% of the value. (and sometimes if you are lucky they will just let you through without paying duty even if you declare things) Better to declare and be safe.
 
Thanks for everyones input. I never know what to declare and not to declare! Since I live in France and have purchased many items here that I bring to and from the US I always just think of it as "my stuff" and not something that I purchased specifically in France.

Good to know I can bring in what I want. I'm not too concerned about paying duties as the wine isn't very expensive wine.
 
I would not declare them. It just opens more doors. most likely they will not check, and even if they do, you should be fine.

This is SUCH bad advice!! :mad: If there's one system not to mess with: it's the customs system. Your bags will be screened a number of times and they will surely see if you are bringing along more than your 1 allowed bottle of wine. If you do get caught, be perpared to pay loads in fines...right there and then.
 
This is SUCH bad advice!! :mad: If there's one system not to mess with: it's the customs system. Your bags will be screened a number of times and they will surely see if you are bringing along more than your 1 allowed bottle of wine. If you do get caught, be perpared to pay loads in fines...right there and then.
I'm so sorry!! I guess I had to travel more to understand. I just thought since they were gifts it would be ok. My bad...
 
Also, check the laws of whichever state you're flying into. If you're flying into Philadelphia the amount is NONE, because of PA liquor laws! I've flown into Ft Lauderdale, Newark, and JFK with a few bottles and it was just fine. I can't specifically remember declaring them, but I'm sure I did.
 
Where do I go to find the customs rules and whatnot? I will be flying into Dallas as my entry point into the US.

For those of you that said two bottles. Do you mean two bottles total or two bottles before you have to declare them? Two bottles seems like so little.
 
According to the US Customs & Border Protection website, you can bring in a total of one liter of wine without paying duty and taxes, provided it is for you or it's a gift, you are over the age of 21, and you are not violating liquor laws of the state in which you clear customs upon entry. Read more on page 24 of this PDF: http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/travel/vacation/kbyg/kbyg_regulations.ctt/kbyg_regulations.pdf

Here is information in simpler language: http://www.reidsguides.com/t_mo/t_mo_customs.html

It says you may bring more than one liter of alcohol into the United States, but you will be taxed on it.

US Customs & Border Protection website here: http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacation/kbyg/duty_free.xml
 
Redney...thank you! I had searched for information on customs but so many websites appeared and it was a pain to actually understand and figure out which sites were correct and which were incorrect.