hi all,

i'm shipping my personal effects today by air and they will be delivered to my usc fiance in seattle next week. i, however, am not flying out for another two weeks. i understand that as they are my personal things (and pretty old to boot!) i will not have to pay an import duty on them, but am worried as to how customs will believe they're mine and not charge me, without me being there to show my visa, or sign for the goods.

i've been advised by the shipping company that if aaron and i claim that these goods are in fact *his* personal effects and they are being shipped *back* to him from england, that as a usc he will not be liable to any import duty either.

the goods are being shipped door to door, and therefore we will have a handling agent for the goods at seattle, so perhaps i wouldn't have had the opportunity to show my visa anyway? i'm a mite confused over this process.

does anyone have any advice they can offer, or similar situations they can recount? should i indicate they're his? (though quite what they'll make of his winnie the pooh collection i don't know <g> ) or fill in the forms as if pertaining to me?

any help would be greatly appreciated.

This is one i have been wondering about when the time comes for us to do the same. It is a confusing process, but there is a customs form i believe that does cover this kind of thing.. i think its US customs Form 3299

What company did you go through for this and can you tell me the aprox cost? You are in the UK correct? we need to get some of my fiances stuff from the uk to the east coast, and this seem as if it might be a good quick way, but it all depends on the cost, we weren't thinking of shipping the stuff by air, but it seems like it might be a lot easier. Thanks for any inof you might be able to give me.

I couldn't find your message a second ago so I posted a new thread which gives you
some removal companies I found on line hope it helps!!!

Catherine

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Originally posted by smldnabjp
What company did you go through for this and can you tell me the aprox cost? You are in the UK correct?

hi, yes i am. found a wonderful company after searching through several and getting online quotes. http://www.express-exports.co.uk (though their site seems to be down at the moment), based in wardour street, london w1. i spoke to malcolm who was an absolute angel and very knowledgeable about it all. he quoted me £4 per kilo for door to door airfreight to seattle originally on the internet, and when i said on the phone that i had about 100 kilos worth of stuff, he dropped this to £3 per kilo. in the end i had 83 kilos which he said he would have to charge £4 per kilo for, or we could "pretend" i had 100 kilos there and he would charge me the £3 rate, which works out £32 cheaper. i paid insurance at 1% of the value which covers me for loss and theft, but not damage. this is because i packed things myself in my own containers - had they packed it, it would have cost me more, but insurance at 2% would have covered me for damage too.

incidentally, airfreight worked out better than seafreight in this instance because seattle is such a difficult port to get to from the uk. it may well be cheaper if you're on the east coast, but they should be able to quote for either.

if your fiance is based in, or near london, i really would recommend them. in fact, malcolm mentioned that they had two other offices in the uk, so it may be worth calling them even he's not. if your fiance does call, i'd really appreciate it if he could tell malcolm that i recommended him. he was such a star!

hope this helps,

katy

hi me again,

it may interest you to know that in terms of speed for airfreight and this particular company, the goods were picked up on friday lunchtime, will be landing in seattle this afternoon (pst) having got the direct british airways flight out this morning (bst) (the same one i'll be on in eight days! yerhoo!) and are being delivered to aaron tomorrow. it is *quick*!

kt

Does anybody know something similar for Germany, Frankfurt area?