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Customs Regulations for Entering USA |
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In general, customs officers are accommodating, even with small excess amounts of dutiable items, if you make a full and complete declaration and don't try to hide something from them. |
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Every adult visitor to the USA is allowed to bring in, free of duty: one liter of wine or hard liquor; 1,000 cigarettes or 100 cigars (but no cigars from Cuba) or three pounds of smoking tobacco; and up to $400 worth of gifts. If you exceed these amounts, you may have to pay some duty on the excess. Do not try to bring in foodstuffs, especially fresh fruit, vegetables, seeds or other "plant propagative material" without specific permission obtained in advance. If it's important to you to bring in a specific food, or an animal, contact a US consulate in your home country and ask how this can be accomplished. If you are carrying $10,000 or more in currency or negotiable instruments (travellers checks, bearer bonds, etc.) when you enter or leave the country, you must declare it. American passport holders complete immigration formalities when the customs agent examines their luggage. Those with other passports must pass through separate immigration and customs checkpoints, and this can take awhile if several wide-body aircraft arrive at the same time. It's best to allow at least two hours between the arrival time of your international flight and any onward flight. Coming from Canada, US customs and immigration formalities are much faster, whether you come by road, rail, or air. Some Canadian, Bermudian, and Caribbean airports have US customs and immigration officers who clear travelers even before they board their US-bound flights. For complete information, see these websites: US Customs & Border Protection US Citizen and Immigration Services US Department of Homeland Security |
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No matter how you arrive, you've gotta clear Customs...
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