Sending belongings before applying for visa
Aug 13th 2014, 2:38 pm
#1
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Thread Starter
Joined: Aug 2014
Posts: 1
Sending belongings before applying for visa
Looking for some advice here. I've got some boxes of books that I want to ship over to my soon-to-be fiancee (officially, once my divorce comes through), so that they'll be there for me visiting in just over 2 weeks. Anyone know of any restrictions on me shipping them as personal - or should I just pay up the duty?
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Aug 13th 2014, 3:02 pm
#2
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Joined: Sep 2010
Location: Sleepy Hollow, New York
Posts: 2,536
Re: Sending belongings before applying for visa
If you're a new immigrant (i.e. with an immigrant visa) you get exempted duty on personal goods over one year old that accompany you or that are shipped at the same time you migrate. I'm not sure that whether that's available for a K-1 fiance visa as it is technically a non-immigrant visa. I would expect you would have to pay duty on items shipped before you migrate, but are books dutiable anyway?
Aug 13th 2014, 4:53 pm
#3
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2014
Location: Gilbert, AZ
Posts: 58
Re: Sending belongings before applying for visa
When I worked for a bookseller all the books we shipped to the US were exempt from duty. I wouldn't imagine that has changed.
