dunroving

Was that connected with when the INS changed to the USCIS?

Shows how observant I am, must have gone in and out of the country 20-30 times since then.

I did wonder why the "immigration" officer was asking why I was bringing wine gums into the country last time.

meauxna

hi & welcome to BE.

Now, I will head-explode at the misinformation being propagated in this thread!

There is no limit on the amount of money/cash/instruments you can bring into the US.
IF the amount is $10K+, it must be reported to the US Treasury Dept (not IRS or Immigration/Customs)

The purpose is anti-money laundering, NOT taxes/excise.

There is NO advantage to carrying large sums of cash unless you ARE up to something shady (well, one or two exceptions).


I know where the links are to back up my post; can you do the same please (in case something has changed that I'm unaware of).

Minty

What I did when I first came over was use my HSBC Visa card to buy things then go online and just transfer the money from my current account to pay off the Visa card. That way I didn't have to bring any money with me to the US. Thats OK for buying things but not a great way if you need cash.

So I opened a US bank account which was very simple and got a US Visa card. Two choices here - One is that you have to deposit money on the Visa card and then you can spend that money - Second, if I left a sum of money (I think it was $10,000) in a US current account for 90 days, they would give me an unconditional Visa card which is basically just the usual credit card.

Also, if I remember correctly, some of the UK banks have "arrangements" with US banks and my HSBC bank "introduced" me (not sure how) to the US bank - I use Wells Fargo.

Hope this helps.

dunroving

TBH, I don't know why anyone would carry huge wads of cash on their person anyway - seems a little Wild West to me.

I mean, if you got mugged for your wallet, the mugger would think he had died and gone to heaven if he found you had $50,000!

meauxna

My one or two exceptions would include small countries where the banking is particularly shaky, or historically untrusted.
There was a lot of cash moving around mysteriously when the Euro switch happened... many mattresses became... lower.

dunroving

But aren't they the very kinds of countries you are more likely to encounter bandidos?

Maybe I just watch too many Westerns.

meauxna

Probably.

I have family friends from Spain who did this. I *may* have family who did this!
We lived in Greece/Spain/UK when the Euro switch happened and gobs of cash came out of the homes of people we know and their friends.
Some countries run on more of a cash economy than the US/UK.

Just one example. The point is, there really IS no point in carrying quantities of cash into the US, especially from the UK.

Actually, my point was that Damo2010 had jumped in with misinformation that also happens to not answer the OP's question and confused a couple of other posters.

ian-mstm

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was formed in November 2002... in response to the tragedies of September 11, 2001. DHS took over the duties of the former INS in 2003. When that happened, two "new" agencies were created: Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and Citizenship and Immigration Services (CIS). CIS was later renamed the Bureau of... (BCIS) and soon thereafter was renamed United States... (USCIS).

Ian

celticgrid

The relative occurences of the two (bandidos and people with lots of cash) are naturally related.

(Which doesn't mean you don't watch too many westerns.)

zargof

Setup an account on xe.com, then you can xfer money from your US account via EFT and Xe will xfer it your UK account via BACS (or whatever they call it these days) all for free. Be aware it will take a bit longer than a wire xfer (probably around 10 days total).