Sending personal belongings for K1 VISA - custom form to fill up is a nightmare

[Dragonsarereal 10]

Hi there,

I don't know which forum is correct for my question, so pleas Admin be kind with me.

I have all sorted, tickets, VISA etc and now dealing with a company that will send via airplane a few boxes of my personal belongings.

I have many questions but one is this, I am listing now box number 6 and I get this message

'Please ensure that your items do not exceed £850.00'

This happened after listing two camera lenses and valuing them £200.

So now I am blocked and every time I send a question to my sending agents it takes 30 minutes or more to get a reply so I am wasting so much time.

 

Also, many items are not coming up in the dropdown list.

Say, bike seat/saddle. Not there. Bike lights. Nothing. Contact lens liquid - not there.

And the agent confirmed that I can send up to 100ml of liquid (after checking with managers) but then another lady at the same office said, that all liquids are prohibited.

 

I mean, what am I supposed to do? It's 12$ for a bottle of contact lens cleaner at Walmart while I get 3 for a fiver here...so I was trying to bring 1000 ml spread over 40 boxes.

 

Such a waste of time...any suggestions? They don't have things like random art materials, wire for craft, nothing.

[Crazy Cat 39,929]

***Moved topic to Moving to the US...." forum

[NorthByNorthwest 243]

1 hour ago, Dragonsarereal said:

Hi there,

I don't know which forum is correct for my question, so pleas Admin be kind with me.

I have all sorted, tickets, VISA etc and now dealing with a company that will send via airplane a few boxes of my personal belongings.

I have many questions but one is this, I am listing now box number 6 and I get this message

'Please ensure that your items do not exceed £850.00'

This happened after listing two camera lenses and valuing them £200.

So now I am blocked and every time I send a question to my sending agents it takes 30 minutes or more to get a reply so I am wasting so much time.

 

This seems mainly like an issue with your agent rather than anything else. There is no 850 GBP limitation for used household goods that you are bringing with you - technically you could be required to prove that you have owned the items at least a year, but that's pretty much it. Is your agent treating this like a general shipment of goods rather than household goods for a relocation? They are supposed to know how to handle the paperwork but it sounds like their online system is limited.

 

I wouldn't worry about not finding exact matches to all your stuff, just go with the closest match. 

[JeanneAdil 6,313]

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/know-before-you-visit/customs-duty-information#:~:text=Thus%2C any articles imported under,a flat 4% duty rate.

 

you are limited to how much (in value) u can freight in (other than personal belongings over a year old) 

reason the stop at $850 is the  value of the items

import duty is charged on the overage 

 

US CBP protects also our merchants from people buying cheaper outside the US so  they tax items over a set amount and some things (especially when not declared) are fined 

 

If your package has been mailed, the U.S. Postal Service will deliver it after it clears Customs. If you owe duty, the Postal Service will collect the duty along with a postal handling fee. If a freight service transports your package, they will notify you of its arrival and you must go to their office holding the shipment and complete the CBP entry procedure. If you owe duty or tax, you will need to pay it at that time in order to secure the release of the goods. You could also hire a customs customhouse broker to do this for you. However, be aware that customhouse brokers are private businesses and are not CBP employees, and they charge fees for their services

[Dragonsarereal 10]

1 hour ago, NorthByNorthwest said:

 

This seems mainly like an issue with your agent rather than anything else. There is no 850 GBP limitation for used household goods that you are bringing with you - technically you could be required to prove that you have owned the items at least a year, but that's pretty much it. Is your agent treating this like a general shipment of goods rather than household goods for a relocation? They are supposed to know how to handle the paperwork but it sounds like their online system is limited.

 

I wouldn't worry about not finding exact matches to all your stuff, just go with the closest match. 

I am now thinking that the limit has been set because I set a low limit for the insurance up to £250 of value, as I didn’t want to spend £££ on insurance 

[Dragonsarereal 10]

6 minutes ago, JeanneAdil said:

https://www.cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/know-before-you-visit/customs-duty-information#:~:text=Thus%2C any articles imported under,a flat 4% duty rate.

 

you are limited to how much (in value) u can freight in (other than personal belongings over a year old) 

reason the stop at $850 is the  value of the items

import duty is charged on the overage 

 

US CBP protects also our merchants from people buying cheaper outside the US so  they tax items over a set amount and some things (especially when not declared) are fined 

 

If your package has been mailed, the U.S. Postal Service will deliver it after it clears Customs. If you owe duty, the Postal Service will collect the duty along with a postal handling fee. If a freight service transports your package, they will notify you of its arrival and you must go to their office holding the shipment and complete the CBP entry procedure. If you owe duty or tax, you will need to pay it at that time in order to secure the release of the goods. You could also hire a customs customhouse broker to do this for you. However, be aware that customhouse brokers are private businesses and are not CBP employees, and they charge fees for their services

Wow this is totally different from what I read and I was told from everyone.

in my understanding, as a holder of the K1 visa I can bring even my entire house. I am only sending personal documents, clothes and photography equipment and all of it is years old. The company I am using, is using Fed EX to then deliver locally to my fiancée home, a week before my arrival. We are not told to go anywhere to collect and to show anything as all the forms are done online. I have receipts for my camera equipment. The rest is worth nothing for anyone else but myself. I dearly hope I won’t end up paying customs on ten year old cameras…

[JeanneAdil 6,313]

36 minutes ago, Dragonsarereal said:

Wow this is totally different from what I read and I was told from everyone.

in my understanding, as a holder of the K1 visa I can bring even my entire house. I am only sending personal documents, clothes and photography equipment and all of it is years old. The company I am using, is using Fed EX to then deliver locally to my fiancée home, a week before my arrival. We are not told to go anywhere to collect and to show anything as all the forms are done online. I have receipts for my camera equipment. The rest is worth nothing for anyone else but myself. I dearly hope I won’t end up paying customs on ten year old cameras…

Camera is over a year old

CBP is more worried about importing new and expensive and hiding countraband 

 

Liquids can be shipped if not combustible but they will be inspected even if sealed (watch some CBP Youtube videos)

but the CBP site says it all

CBP is the authority we all have to follow when entering US 

I always pick up a piece of jewelry and many street vendors don't give receipts or have machines for cards so it gets fun at customs

[Dragonsarereal 10]

Thank you. I took all my lenses out and they will be in my hold luggage. Repacked my older full frame camera inside a strong plastic box you could sit on without breaking it. I only have costume jewellery and nothing of worth, they will see I am all about fashion, sewing and art. Hopefully it will all arrive in one piece!

[NorthByNorthwest 243]

4 hours ago, Dragonsarereal said:

Wow this is totally different from what I read and I was told from everyone.

in my understanding, as a holder of the K1 visa I can bring even my entire house. I am only sending personal documents, clothes and photography equipment and all of it is years old. The company I am using, is using Fed EX to then deliver locally to my fiancée home, a week before my arrival. We are not told to go anywhere to collect and to show anything as all the forms are done online. I have receipts for my camera equipment. The rest is worth nothing for anyone else but myself. I dearly hope I won’t end up paying customs on ten year old cameras…

 

The paragraph quoted by @JeanneAdil is for standard visitors and does not apply to people relocating to the US, that's covered under CBP form 3299: https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/2024-05/cbp_form_3299_0.pdf. I had half a container of stuff including a 70" TV and some very expensive bikes - no issues, didn't pay a cent, but my mover handled all the paperwork. All descriptions were on a per-box basis, not per-item, for example "Clothes", "Shoes", "PC items", "Toys", "Kitchen Machines".

 

They did caution me to not include alcohol since that could delay clearance, so my coworkers got 25 bottles of very nice Scotch, not worth the potential hassle though they were worth a few thousand dollars.

[Dragonsarereal 10]

On 5/22/2024 at 9:34 PM, Dragonsarereal said:

Thank you. I took all my lenses out and they will be in my hold luggage. Repacked my older full frame camera inside a strong plastic box you could sit on without breaking it. I only have costume jewellery and nothing of worth, they will see I am all about fashion, sewing and art. Hopefully it will all arrive in one piece!

Thank you! I am following the provided form and each item must be described in detail. 

[Deejee 4]

I am using used boxes e.g. Amazon boxes with their logo on. Will this be ok ? 

[TBoneTX 43,549]

7 hours ago, Deejee said:

I am using used boxes e.g. Amazon boxes with their logo on. Will this be ok ? 

Should be fine.  If you want, take a thick marker and "X" out the logo.  No need to go overboard on this if you choose to do it.

[Deejee 4]

@NorthByNorthwest I have tons of shoes ( 80 pairs) and clothes, they are all over 1 year old. Do you think that would be a problem at CBP? Thank you. 

[NorthByNorthwest 243]

8 hours ago, Deejee said:

@NorthByNorthwest I have tons of shoes ( 80 pairs) and clothes, they are all over 1 year old. Do you think that would be a problem at CBP? Thank you. 

 

I can't see that would be a problem. In the off chance that your shipment actually gets inspected they might frown upon things if those shoes look unused or come in original boxes which might suggest that you plan to sell them. Other than that you should be fine, bringing clothes and shoes when you relocate is a pretty basic necessity.

[Dragonsarereal 10]

On 5/22/2024 at 6:29 PM, NorthByNorthwest said:

 

This seems mainly like an issue with your agent rather than anything else. There is no 850 GBP limitation for used household goods that you are bringing with you - technically you could be required to prove that you have owned the items at least a year, but that's pretty much it. Is your agent treating this like a general shipment of goods rather than household goods for a relocation? They are supposed to know how to handle the paperwork but it sounds like their online system is limited.

 

I wouldn't worry about not finding exact matches to all your stuff, just go with the closest match. 

thanks, my agent is treating all as 'relocation;' in the pro forma invoice. The limitation was because I chose for that shipment a low insurance. For my last 2 boxes I used a $1.200 insurance and found no limits.