Frankly Speaking- Customs at JFK
I was on the final leg of a journey that had taken me to Muscat Oman, Dubai and Abu Dhabi UAE, Athens Greece; Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Bethlehem Israel. Here I was at 4:00 in the morning trying to clear customs and re-enter the good ole U.S. of A. Normally this was a rather uneventful exercise but this trip would be different.
Our Israeli distributor had asked that I bring $10,000 worth of defective U.S. printed circuit boards back for credit and repair. That really wasn’t a major challenge. I would carry them to New York. Declare them at customs and have them shipped in bond to our freight forwarder in San Francisco. At this point the freight forwarder could gather all the necessary paperwork to satisfy the bureaucrats and have the boards released to our reps. Of course this was all the result of our Israeli distributors’ unwillingness to spend a few bucks to ship them back like everyone else. Oh well!
I approached the customs inspector as usual. He asked if I had anything to declare and I told him about the printed circuit boards. I expected some discussion of the facts at this point. But he simply directed me to leave the line and go to the customs office for further customs inspections, paperwork and bureaucratic nonsense.
There I was. Me, my bags and $10,000 worth of defective PCBs at a small counter facing a cranky New York Customs Agent. After explaining the matter to him I had to endure a fairly lengthy speech. The speech hinged on the fact that since they were U.S. products the first customs agent should have just allowed me to pass. But, because he didn’t he was going to have to complete all the forms then ship the devices back to San Francisco in bond. Just as I expected!
Suddenly the door opened and a man entered the room with a cart that carried a stack of mail bags and a box that was about the size of a shoebox. It was getting a bit crowded in there. The Customs agent asked the man what he had to declare. The guys’ response was simple, direct and rather casual, “Seven million dollars in currency and 35 pounds of gold.” OK, forget my lousy $10,000 worth of PCBs. There were bigger fish to fry. My issue was forgotten! Within minutes the room was swarming with uniformed police and customs agents. I don’t think the customs agent ever called anyone. Maybe it was all taken care of over the computer.
Customs Inspectors did not need to see the seven million dollars (there was no limit to the amount of money you could bring into the country), but they did need to see the gold. On seeing that it was gold coins as opposed to bullion they allowed the man to declare it and leave, via armored car, before my issues were addressed. Who ever said money doesn’t talk.
Our Israeli distributor had asked that I bring $10,000 worth of defective U.S. printed circuit boards back for credit and repair. That really wasn’t a major challenge. I would carry them to New York. Declare them at customs and have them shipped in bond to our freight forwarder in San Francisco. At this point the freight forwarder could gather all the necessary paperwork to satisfy the bureaucrats and have the boards released to our reps. Of course this was all the result of our Israeli distributors’ unwillingness to spend a few bucks to ship them back like everyone else. Oh well!
I approached the customs inspector as usual. He asked if I had anything to declare and I told him about the printed circuit boards. I expected some discussion of the facts at this point. But he simply directed me to leave the line and go to the customs office for further customs inspections, paperwork and bureaucratic nonsense.
There I was. Me, my bags and $10,000 worth of defective PCBs at a small counter facing a cranky New York Customs Agent. After explaining the matter to him I had to endure a fairly lengthy speech. The speech hinged on the fact that since they were U.S. products the first customs agent should have just allowed me to pass. But, because he didn’t he was going to have to complete all the forms then ship the devices back to San Francisco in bond. Just as I expected!
Suddenly the door opened and a man entered the room with a cart that carried a stack of mail bags and a box that was about the size of a shoebox. It was getting a bit crowded in there. The Customs agent asked the man what he had to declare. The guys’ response was simple, direct and rather casual, “Seven million dollars in currency and 35 pounds of gold.” OK, forget my lousy $10,000 worth of PCBs. There were bigger fish to fry. My issue was forgotten! Within minutes the room was swarming with uniformed police and customs agents. I don’t think the customs agent ever called anyone. Maybe it was all taken care of over the computer.
Customs Inspectors did not need to see the seven million dollars (there was no limit to the amount of money you could bring into the country), but they did need to see the gold. On seeing that it was gold coins as opposed to bullion they allowed the man to declare it and leave, via armored car, before my issues were addressed. Who ever said money doesn’t talk.
posted by Frank at 9:59 AM
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