US customs for your move: what enters duty-free after one year

Furniture, books and dishes you have used abroad for at least a year come into the USA duty-free. Newly bought items, food containing meat, firearms and your own car follow their own rules, and some of them cost more than the entire container.

Furniture, books and dishes you have used abroad for at least a year come into the USA duty-free. Newly bought items, food containing meat, firearms and your own car follow their own rules, and some of them cost more than the entire container. US Customs and Border Protection, or CBP for short, does more than collect duties. At the border it enforces the rules of many agencies, from the Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration to the firearms bureau. This guide shows what is duty-free when you move, which forms you need, what has no place in your container and why your car is usually best left in Europe. How to choose a mover, what a container costs and who is liable for damage is covered in our guide Moving to the USA: container and mover.

1What you have used is duty-free: household effects, personal effects and tools

The key rule is in 19 CFR 148.52. Furniture, carpets, pictures, dishes, books and other ordinary household items are duty-free if they have been used abroad for at least one year and are not intended for another person or for sale. This applies to US residents and nonresidents alike. You don't have to be the one who used them: it is enough that your family used them for a year in a household where you lived during that time. And the year doesn't have to be continuous or immediately before your move. So if you bring your grandparents' dining table, the one you ate at as a child, you're on safe ground.

A second time limit prevents abuse: if your household effects arrive more than ten years after your last arrival from the country where you used them, they are generally no longer duty-free. After 25 years the exemption is gone in every case (19 CFR 148.52(d)). For a normal move this doesn't matter, but for furniture that has sat in storage back home for years, it does.

1.1What doesn't count as household effects

To customs, clothing, jewelry, photo equipment, electronics and vehicles are personal effects, not household effects. That means the one-year rule doesn't apply to them. CBP usually waives duty on personal effects that are more than a year old, though. Vehicles are the exception: they are dutiable (CBP, Customs Duty Information). If you enter as a nonresident, you may bring your personal effects duty-free anyway: clothing, jewelry, toiletries and, as the regulation puts it, hunting and fishing gear as well as household pets and hunting dogs (19 CFR 148.42).

If you come as an immigrant, you may also bring the tools, professional books and instruments of your trade duty-free, provided you owned and used them abroad. Equipment for a manufacturing plant and goods for sale are excluded (19 CFR 148.53). So a carpenter's workbench counts as household goods, but his company's production machine doesn't.

The table sums up what gets through customs duty-free when you move.

2The paperwork: CBP Form 3299, the inventory list and what your mover files

For customs to clear your household effects duty-free, you have to declare in writing that the conditions are met. You do this on CBP Form 3299, the Declaration for Free Entry of Unaccompanied Articles (19 CFR 148.52(c)). You need the same form for personal effects and tools that don't arrive with you but follow by sea or air freight (19 CFR 148.6, 148.53). If you can't present the declaration at entry, for example because the container arrives before you do, a bond can be posted and the declaration filed within six months. Customs may also ask for further proof that you really used the items for a year.

The declaration comes with a packing list; write it in English. The more precisely it shows what's in which box, the fewer questions customs will have, since it can ask for proof of use. List valuable individual items with their value, electronics with serial numbers, and flag anything new. In practice, most of the formalities are handled by your mover or a customs broker they hire. Brokers are private companies, not customs employees, and charge separately for their services (CBP).

2.1The advance filing for ocean freight

With ocean freight there is also an electronic advance filing, the Importer Security Filing. Household goods have their own type for this, Type 03 Household Goods and Personal Effects, which requires no customs bond. If you don't have a US Social Security number, you are reported with your passport number, issuing country and date of birth (CBP, ISF FAQ). Your mover handles this, but they need your details in time: for containers, the filing must be in 24 hours before loading at the port of departure.

3New goods, gifts, alcohol: where duty-free ends

Whatever you buy new shortly before the move isn't household effects under the one-year rule. The new TV, the sofa from the furniture store or the kitchen mixer still in its box are all dutiable. So if you go on a last-minute shopping spree because the container is going anyway, you'll pay duty, at the rate the US tariff schedule sets for each item. Better to buy new furniture after you move. That has a second advantage: American appliances run on American power, which saves you a lot of hassle with voltage and plugs. What to watch out for is covered in our article on phones, internet and electricity.

As a nonresident, you may bring gifts up to a total value of $100 duty-free if you stay at least 72 hours. Alcohol and cigarettes don't count, but up to 100 cigars do. The exemption is available only once every six months (19 CFR 148.44). For yourself, as an adult you may bring one liter of alcohol and either 200 cigarettes, 50 cigars or two kilograms of tobacco duty-free (19 CFR 148.43).

Alcohol comes with a quirk wine lovers should know about. Federal law sets no upper limit on alcohol beyond the duty-free allowance as long as it's for personal use; you pay duty and federal excise tax on it instead. The states, however, may limit imports without a license, and CBP enforces those limits at the border, even where they are stricter than federal law. CBP may treat unusually large quantities as a commercial import, which can require a permit and a formal customs entry (CBP, Customs Duty Information). If you want to bring your wine cellar, check with the alcohol authority of your destination state and the port of entry first.

4What you can't bring: food, Kinder Surprise eggs, medication, cash and firearms

Food is the most common issue. You can't import meat or meat products from most countries, whether fresh, dried or canned, nor food prepared with meat: no bouillon cubes, no soup mixes and no salami. Baked goods and certain cheeses are allowed, as are, as a rule, packaged spices, honey, coffee and tea. CBP may or may not let fresh fruit and vegetables through depending on origin and destination, and advises you not to bring any. If you fail to declare agricultural products, the fine is $300 the first time and $500 the second (CBP, Prohibited and Restricted Items). For your container, that means no food, not even the last jars from the pantry.

The Kinder Surprise egg, a favorite with European kids, is banned in the USA. Under food law, a confection is considered adulterated if a non-nutritive object is wholly or partly embedded in it (21 U.S.C. 342(d)(1)). You may import absinthe if it is thujone-free, meaning it contains less than 10 ppm thujone, and meets certain labeling rules. Cultural property such as antiques and archaeological finds has its own rules; if you bring heirlooms of uncertain origin, you'll need documentation.

You can bring your own medication, in its original packaging and with a prescription or doctor's letter in English. As a rule of thumb, CBP cites a supply of no more than 90 days. If you stay longer, you can have more medication sent to you, with proof that it is for your personal use. Narcotics are also subject to the rules of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Cash and securities over $10,000 must be declared when you enter; if your family travels together, the combined total counts (CBP, Money and Other Monetary Instruments). A transfer to an American account is easier anyway; how to open one is explained on our US Bank Account Opening page.

4.1Firearms

If you want to bring your hunting guns, you have the most to watch out for. CBP Form 3299 expressly excludes firearms and ammunition from duty-free household goods. Above all, under federal law, foreign nationals in the US on a nonimmigrant visa such as the E-2 or L-1 are generally not allowed to possess firearms (18 U.S.C. 922(g)(5)(B)). Exceptions include people admitted for lawful hunting or sporting purposes and holders of a US-issued hunting license (18 U.S.C. 922(y)(2)). For temporary import for hunting or sporting purposes, nonimmigrants also need ATF approval on Form 6NIA (27 CFR 478,120). Green card holders are not subject to this restriction. So plan your firearms separately from the container, with a mover who has experience with them, and remember that exporting them from your home country follows its own rules. How Americans think about the right to bear arms is covered in our article Those crazy Americans.

Pets never travel in the container. The rules for dogs and cats are in our guides Moving to the USA with a dog and Moving to the USA with a cat.

5Bringing your car: EPA, DOT and the 25-year rule

Many readers love their car and ask whether it can come to America. It can, but it's a long road. For every vehicle you import, you must file two forms: EPA 3520-1 for emissions and DOT HS-7 for safety. Vehicles that meet all US emissions standards carry a manufacturer's label in English under the hood. If it's missing, customs may ask for proof that the vehicle qualifies for an exemption (CBP, Importing a Car).

A vehicle less than 25 years old must meet all US safety standards to be imported permanently. A car built for the European market usually doesn't. In that case you have to hire an importer registered with the Department of Transportation to modify the vehicle and certify compliance, and post a bond of one and a half times its dutiable value, on top of the usual customs bond. For emissions, you need an EPA-approved facility in the US; the EPA can refuse certain makes and models if no facility takes responsibility (CBP, Importing a Car). Vehicles 25 years or older are exempt from this requirement; you still need to check emissions rules and duty.

Then there's duty. CBP makes clear that vehicles are dutiable when you move to the US. Only nonresidents may bring in a car duty-free for up to one year, if it is imported with their arrival. If such a vehicle doesn't meet US safety and emissions standards, it may not be sold in the US and must be exported within one year, with no exceptions and no extensions (CBP, Importing a Car). Anyone who sells it within that year risks seizure unless the duty is paid first (19 CFR 148.46).

For most families the math is simple: sell the car in Europe and buy another one in America. How to buy, register and insure it is covered in our guide Buying a car in the USA. The purchase is also a chance to build your American credit. How to start from zero is explained on our Credit Builder and financial planning with a credit score pages.

6Arrival: inspection, costs and deadlines at the port

When your container arrives, customs reviews the paperwork and decides whether to release the shipment or inspect it. An inspection can mean the container is opened, partly unloaded and searched. You pay for it: the importer bears the cost of preparing the goods for examination and repacking them (19 CFR 151.6). On top of that come transport to the inspection site and storage fees. Check whether your mover's quote includes these costs. The Federal Maritime Commission (FMC) warns that port and handling charges are often missing from international moving quotes and billed later.

If no one collects the goods, CBP moves them to a bonded warehouse after 15 days, at the owner's risk and expense. After six months, unclaimed goods are auctioned (CBP, Customs Duty Information). It sounds theoretical, but it happens when a container arrives before the family has an address. So plan for the container's arrival to match your lease, or arrange storage with your mover.

7Your customs checklist

• Sort your household goods: what has been used for at least a year, and what is new? New items stay behind or are declared as new.
• An inventory in English, box by box, with values for individual items and serial numbers for electronics.
• Sign CBP Form 3299 and give your mover your passport details for the advance filing.
• No food containing meat, no fresh fruit, no Kinder Surprise eggs.
• Medication in your carry-on, in original packaging, with an English prescription.
• Plan firearms separately, with a permit and only under a statutory exception.
• Sell your car in Europe if it is less than 25 years old and wasn't built for the US market.
• Time the container's arrival with the start of your lease.

In short

• Household goods you have used abroad for at least a year enter the US duty-free. The year doesn't have to be continuous or right before the move.
• For household goods that don't travel with you, customs requires a declaration on CBP Form 3299 and an inventory.
• Clothing, jewelry and electronics are personal effects, new goods are dutiable, and vehicles are generally dutiable when you move to the US.
• Meat products, many fresh foods, Kinder Surprise eggs and firearms have no place in your container; cash over $10,000 must be declared.
• Bringing a European car rarely pays off: it needs EPA and DOT forms, often modifications, and without them nonresidents must export it again after a year.

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