US Customs discussion - airports, importing
- Thread starter esyee
- Start date
TPF may earn a commission from merchant affiliate
links, including eBay, Amazon, and others
In a shocking turn of events, I only spent like 1000 euros so they waved me through lol.
Update: last time I did in terminal 2e and it showed all. This time i did in terminal 1 and I had to scan one at a time
When we moved to the United States many years ago, we did not pay import tax or duty on goods or possessions that we had had one year or longer. This information should be available to you on a US Customs and Border website.
Personal items/household goods are not subject to import duties. You'll be fine, particularly if the items are clearly used. There's a ton of information on the CBP website. (Bring a coat, Chicago winters are for real!)
Just want to say thank you to everyone who's shared their experiences. I have a couple trips to Europe coming up so this is top of mind!
I'll share my experiences post travel to keep things up to date.
I'll share my experiences post travel to keep things up to date.
I flew into JFK and declared my H items (including quota bag). Customs officer said they are supposed to charge 9% on leather handbags but he would only charge me 3% because of my honesty with declaring
Here's our experience from a recent trip to Europe. Flew out of BCN. We purcased about 24-25K (Euros) in luxury goods. Got to BCN about 4.5 hours before departure time. Give yourself plenty of time, it took us nearly 4 hours to do everything and get to the gate. We only had about 20 minutes to rest and we already began boarding. Scanned items and our largest purchase got flagged. The nice part is the rest of the items (from various stores) all showed up on one scan of one bar code since everything is tied to your passport. The large purchase had to get the stamp. We got in line for that and took about 30 minutes but it really started to line up the later part of the morning. We noticed them asking other indivduals to show their items and that is really what slowed the process. We got there and scanned the Global Blue document for the large purchase items which was from Cartier. They only wanted to see the largest purchase on the receipt which was over 10K. We were ready, brought out the item and showed it. He looked at it for 5 seconds and told us to put it away and stamped it. We had a lay over in Canada (YUL) on our way back to the states. We went through the whole transfer to get to our connecting gate with no stops other than to scan our boarding passes and then do the face recognition. There was no announcement on flight to fill out any forms or anything. On the connectig flight back to the US from YUL, we filled out the MPC app and declared our purchases were over the exceeded amount. When we landed, we took our pics on the app. It was weird becuase we just got off and started going to baggage claim. We got to baggage claim and right next to the kiosks were the doors outside. No one directed to us to any line, it was simply grab your bags and go. It wasn't until I looked it up that you do all this in Canada and there is nothing to do once you arrive to the US. In the long trek to our US connecting flight in Canada, they line diverged at one point and US passport holders went in one line and International passport holders went in another. I fear we might have done something wrong or skipped something we had to do. I also worry we may get an out of the blue invoice a year or two down the line. Overall, coming back was a samless as could be except for the long lines.
Lucky you. One of my close friends told me she recently flew back from Europe to Canada, landing at YUL. The CBSA searched all her luggage and charged her the full amount, even though she declared everything honestly. She only exceeded the exemption limit by $200 CAD. My poor friend said the CBSA even wanted to charge additional tariffs on that $200, which shouldn’t have been the case. In the end, she paid around $30 CAD. This is really poorly managed in Canada!
I disagree with the statement "this is really poorly managed in Canada". I flew back from Europe to my Canadian home city via YUL early June. We were over our limit & declared such accordingly. First contact CBSA agent thanked us for our honesty & sent us to secondary. At secondary the agent asked to show the receipts (which I did) & I showed him a spread sheet where I had itemized the items & listed FX. He looked the list, thanked us for our honesty and said he was waving the duty (5%). I think my experience and others on this thread describing their experience through US airports directly from Europe really just indicates it seems to be at the discretion of the agent whether if after you declare honestly you are taxed or not.
Of course if your friend feels Canada poorly manages Border Customs & Security, she always has the option of flying back to Europe to the US direct via a US carrier.
Of course if your friend feels Canada poorly manages Border Customs & Security, she always has the option of flying back to Europe to the US direct via a US carrier.
I recently returned from Paris and wanted to share my experience with US Customs and Global Entry flying into JFK.
We have GE and it is a pretty seamless experience, scan your face at the machine and go through. The officer at the first desk asked if we had anything to declare (almost as if she was testing our honesty). I said yes, then she asked how much. I overshot with the amount by about 5% just in case. Then she flagged us to a second person who asked the same question(s). 🤦♂️ I gave him the same answer and then he told us to follow yet ANOTHER gentleman to a room. Jeez, it was like being interrogated for a murder, lol.
Fortunately, because I've read thru these posts and was prepared and organized, it wasn't as difficult as expected. DH and I both work in specific (different but related) fields that the Customs Officer appreciated due to some personal things he had/has going on. He and DH conversed for what seemed like eternity and DH gave him so pro-bono advice/information, which the Officer appreciated. By the end of the interaction, we were all very friendly and smiling like old buddies.
All in all, we spent over 45k Euros but because I had all of our purchases organized in a categorized spreadsheet and because of the connection and conversation, the Officer took off some type of "standard deduction" calculation & only charged us like $2%!!
He thanked us for our honesty, preparedness and organization and said it was fun chatting. I can confirm they can see our purchases because the officer hinted that if it's above a certain threshold, they ask (to test your honesty). It's funny because he actually said the words "I see you guys spent almost 50k, I should be charging you over 4 grand, but...I'll let you slide with $700 because I like you" (with a smile). I couldn't run to the payment window quick enough!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
If Officer "Dave" is reading this, you know you are...thank you so much for your kind break!!! Hope everything we talked about works out for you. ❤️
We have GE and it is a pretty seamless experience, scan your face at the machine and go through. The officer at the first desk asked if we had anything to declare (almost as if she was testing our honesty). I said yes, then she asked how much. I overshot with the amount by about 5% just in case. Then she flagged us to a second person who asked the same question(s). 🤦♂️ I gave him the same answer and then he told us to follow yet ANOTHER gentleman to a room. Jeez, it was like being interrogated for a murder, lol.
Fortunately, because I've read thru these posts and was prepared and organized, it wasn't as difficult as expected. DH and I both work in specific (different but related) fields that the Customs Officer appreciated due to some personal things he had/has going on. He and DH conversed for what seemed like eternity and DH gave him so pro-bono advice/information, which the Officer appreciated. By the end of the interaction, we were all very friendly and smiling like old buddies.
All in all, we spent over 45k Euros but because I had all of our purchases organized in a categorized spreadsheet and because of the connection and conversation, the Officer took off some type of "standard deduction" calculation & only charged us like $2%!!
He thanked us for our honesty, preparedness and organization and said it was fun chatting. I can confirm they can see our purchases because the officer hinted that if it's above a certain threshold, they ask (to test your honesty). It's funny because he actually said the words "I see you guys spent almost 50k, I should be charging you over 4 grand, but...I'll let you slide with $700 because I like you" (with a smile). I couldn't run to the payment window quick enough!!!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣If Officer "Dave" is reading this, you know you are...thank you so much for your kind break!!! Hope everything we talked about works out for you. ❤️
In most instances, for flights from Canada to the US, US customs & border patrol is inside the Canadian Airport. Sometimes they call this "pre clearance" but, it is actually the only border you will encounter.
I just flew back to San Francisco (SFO) from Vancouver (YVR). There were only about 5 or 6 travelers and about the same number of CBP agents. I walked right up to the front of the wait here area until someone noticed I was there. The agents were either looking at their phones or chatting to each other. The only question I was pressed on was weather the candy I was declaring was purchased at a store or say, an artisan market.
Philadelphia CBP officers catch Global Entry member with $183k in undeclared merchandise from Paris
Securing America's Borders
www.cbp.gov
so this news from CBP tells us to be honest
It says right in the article that they were able to see all of her receipts. That‘s what I‘ve been saying folks!Philadelphia CBP officers catch Global Entry member with $183k in undeclared merchandise from Paris
Securing America's Borderswww.cbp.gov
so this news from CBP tells us to be honest
Attachments
I am sure they have all the copies but they don't necessarily check one by one. When I declared, i was gonna give them all my receipts but they only took 1 (biggest) receipt that I gave first. They always appreciate us being honest.