Hi

I am looking to enter the states by land and then ship out by sea and have a couple of queries:

1) What import procedures are there for the US. Looking at the customs webpage they say if we are non residents and the bike is less than 25yrs old we can temp import the bike for 1 yr as long as we submit a HS7 form box 5 on entry.

It all seems very simple, but on speaking to freight forwarders (re: exporting) they are talking about temp import bonds and customs brokers being necessary to import....can anybody tell me what the is procedure for getting the bike legally into the states?

2) For the the export, on speaking to US customs they say, as the bike will be on a temp import docs it is exempt from export formalities. But when I then spoke to the freight forwarder they say I need an AES form which they need to submit to customs.

It is all a bit confusing, has anybody recently entered the US by land and then left by sea...if so what paperwork was required and how easy was it.

Thanks in advance.

I believe you may be thinking about this from a wrong angle and creating more problems for yourself than necesssary.
You say you will be entering the USA by land. This means , I take it , that you will be RIDING the motorcycle into the USA from either Canada or Mexico.This means that you have already transported the bike and done all the customs formalities associated in either Canada or Mexico. This means that you are just a tourist entering the USA with your own vehicle. At the US border they do not , or very rarely, look at the vehicle registration , all they care about is if you are not a terrorist, not intending to work, and not planning on engaging in illegal "immoral " activity. At most they will want to see proof that you have a ticket out of the country . Your bike is yours for personal private use , what you do with it is your business, and as you say you intend to take it out of the country anyway.
The "temporary import permit" is only of interest for Mexico. People drive in and out of the USA from Canada and Mexico by the millions every day and never need such formalities for the USA. However if you land there from Europe then you will have to go through the papermill for this.
Oh, almost forgort when you enter the USA they will want to know what hotel you will be staying at the first night. Just saying you will find a hotel in the evening somewhere when the time comes will NOT be accepted and may be grounds for denial of entry. For this purpose you should pick a hotel, ANY hotel, just find a catalogue for one of the big chains and copy down the name, address, phone number and tell them that is where you are going-- even if you have not the slightest intent of staying there. Keeps everyone happy.

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Sjoerd

http://www.advrider.com/forums/showt...=207964&page=7

Hi

I'm travelling from Vladivostok in July and hearing conflicting stories bout what I need. What do you think - am airfreighting (likely) from Vladivostok to Seoul to Seattle and flying direct myself. What papers do I need ?

Airfreighting again from NYC to Dublin - any hassle exprting that anyone knows of ?

advice gratefully received !

Kevin

Thanks for the info. I am looking to cross from Mexico and want to ship out of Long Beach a week or so later.

I was advied by my shipper (Wallenius Wilhelmsen) I need a freight forwarder. On talking to a couple of companies that offer this service it was they that raised the issue of a temporary import bond on entry.....I got the impression they would needed this documentation to show customs when sorting out the export of the bike?

The company I am going to use have stated that they will deal with the export details (an AES form) on the basis I deal with the import side of things....though from what you say above, it sounds like there is little I need to do (I just did not want to be all ready to export and then find I had not imported the bike correctly).

Cheers

Nick

we shipped from England to Miami and went to Miami customs and cleared the bikes ourselves. It was all so easy, they were so helpful and cost us nothing. Had the bikes stamped out when we went to mexico and last week we came back into America from mexico and customs at the land border just stamped uis in again on the same temporty import paper. Told that we will use this to get through customs when we ship back to Aus from california....at a cost of $150 per bike for customs clearance....still working on us.
We were the problem at the land border crossing back into US. They held us for several hours, made us have seperate inviews and treated us like real crims...all because ...they told us....we had...wait for this one...been to too many countries....and had been in Iran. They told us they were checking us out as terror suspects. David is 60 and Im not far behind....we ride Honda shadow 600 bikes with sheepskin seatcovers....we look so dangerous!!!!!!!
When we asked why that had not been a problem when we flew into Miami to collect the bikes rhey told us they were more efficient than their Miami counterparts. We were finally let in and have had a great week riding Arizona ......great scenery and roads.
Cheryl and David.

NO temporary import bond required, they have no clue what they're talking about for bikes. No help needed either for TEMPORARY importing into USA.

Do make a point of not volunteering anything, travellers have got themselves into all kinds of grief by asking silly questions.

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Grant Johnson

Seek, and ye shall find.
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One world, Two wheels
www.HorizonsUnlimited.com

Listen to the man, he is right!

For a fun point of entry try Anchorage, Alaska. What was the name of that hottie at the airport customs office again....

Well anyway, Grant makes a good point: Do not think yourself into trouble. When a few people tell you it´s ok, just do it! USA especially.....we are talking first world country here (althought some on the HUBB would disagree ).

Now if you are thinking of importing your bike into Trinidad and Tobago, that´s a different story....

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Everytime people see me it´s a KODAK moment!