Under customs declaration form, they have a section (question 15) asking Residents (which my fiancee is not yet until she marries me) or Visitors (I don't think she is a visitor) the total value of all articles that will remain in the US. As I understand it, her personal belongins like clothes, cosmetics, etc do not count in this, or am I wrong? Does she have to declare the value of her personal belongings as they will be remaining in the US obviously...

Generally most people leave it blank or put a nominal amount e.g. $100 or $200 on that line unless you are bringing in merchandise worth a lot of money. My fiance had her personal clothes, jewelery, etc. and she put down nothing for it. Unless the customs inspectors open up your baggage and then find lots of 'stuff' they are not going to bother you about day-to-day personal stuff. Don't sweat it. They are looking for illegal stuff, drugs and extremely valuable things being brought in without customs duty. Good Luck

I didnt declare any of my personal items!!!

My understanding is that personal items (as she is relocating and taking up residency here) are not included. If she's bringing in lots of jewelry and cash I think there are some limits before disclosure is required (i.e. over 10k in cash must be disclosed). Otherwise, my recommendation is to just leave it blank.

blank for personal items including jewelery.

To get in the cash (if you wish to bring $10,001+), then get it as separate US$ money orders of less than $10,000 each and mail them to US in separate envelopes.

I would be careful with this one. When I was arriving I did put that I was bringing more that 10K into the country in the form of a check and since when you arrive anyway you have to go to a seperate office they check things in there. I had to hand over the check that I had while the airport staff checked it out. But lets face it they would of known I had brought this into the country anyway if I hadn't of declared it since bank accounts are all tied up with SSN's. I also had a problem at first with my jewlery but I just explained that since I was moving permanently to America that of course I had all my life long possesions with me.

I am really mindful of making a false declaration on the customs entry forms since I just arrived with my husband from a trip back to Australia and I got in trouble for having a carton of cigarettes that we hadn't put on our form. The customs person in LA said that we need to fill the forms in correctly or the fine is huge.

Good luck,

Debby