Personal imports & household goods

Most of a household shipment can enter free of duty. That is a provision in Chapter 98 of the tariff, not a courtesy, and it applies only when the documents show why each thing qualifies. The rest of the process is identical to commercial cargo. An ocean container of personal effects needs an ISF filed before it is loaded overseas, an entry when it lands, a bond behind that entry, and a release before your mover can collect. Nobody explains this when you book the move, which is why most people first meet a customs broker in the week the container is already on the terminal.

Free entry, and what it rests on

• 9804.00.05, for furniture, books and household effects actually used abroad for at least a year by a person emigrating to the United States.
• 9804.00.10, for professional books, implements and tools of trade.
• 9805.00.50, for the effects of government and military personnel returning from extended duty abroad.
• 9801.00.10, for goods of US origin coming home, with no duty and no age limit on them.
• 9804.00.45, free entry for personal and household effects a traveller took abroad and is bringing back. No dollar cap, and no requirement that the goods accompany you.
• 9804.00.65, the $800 personal exemption. This one does require the articles to accompany a returning resident, so it covers what is in your suitcase, not a lift van that arrives six weeks later.

CBP Form 3299, the declaration for free entry of unaccompanied articles, is signed by the owner of the goods, not by the moving company. It is supported by a valued inventory in English, and this is where household entries actually fail. An inventory reading “carton 14, misc” gives CBP nothing to release against and is the most reliable way to earn an examination. Every line needs a description specific enough to classify and a value, even where the duty is zero, because an entry has to state a value whether or not anything is collected on it.

What is not free

New purchases. The sofa bought during the move, the painting bought last month, the appliance still in its carton: none of it has been used abroad for a year, so all of it is dutiable at its own rate, plus whatever its origin attracts under the tariff programmes in force. That last part changed the arithmetic recently. The 2025 Section 232 action on timber and lumber reached derivative products, wooden furniture and cabinetry among them, so a new bedroom set can end up the most expensive item in an otherwise duty-free container. We would rather split those lines out and price them while the goods are still at origin than explain the bill after arrival. Goods coming in temporarily, for a show or a project rather than to stay, are a different instrument entirely: see temporary import bonds.

What stops a household container

• Alcohol. Wine collections are the usual one. Free entry for household effects does not extend to alcohol, federal excise is due on it, and the state you are moving to has its own licensing rules. Several will not allow it in a household shipment at all.
• Firearms. ATF approval is obtained before the goods ship, not after they land, and a firearm found in a lift van without it is not a paperwork problem.
• Anything an agriculture inspector reads as a pest risk: food, seeds, plants, soil on garden tools, unfinished wood. Crates and pallets have to meet ISPM 15 or the container is treated, re-exported or destroyed at your cost.
• The fifteen-day clock. Merchandise not entered within fifteen calendar days of arrival is sent to a general order warehouse, and you pay storage to get it back out.
• An owner who has not arrived. Free entry under these provisions assumes the person is here or arriving, so effects that land well ahead of the family need handling deliberately rather than by accident.

A single vehicle

A car inside a household shipment is a separate entry problem with its own agencies. EPA Form 3520-1 and DOT Form HS-7 are filed for every vehicle, each declaring which exemption or conformance basis applies. The undercarriage has to be clean, because soil is an agriculture hold and a hold on a vehicle usually means the whole container waits. A US-built car going home can return under 9801.00.10, a nonresident bringing a vehicle for temporary personal use has a provision of its own, and everything else is dutiable at a cost the 2025 Section 232 action on automobiles changed. We confirm the treatment against the entry date before the car is loaded, because a vehicle that arrives on the wrong basis is expensive to correct and slow to release. For cars twenty-five years old and older, the exemption route is set out on the classic autos page.

What we need from you

• Passport data page, visa or immigration status, and the date you arrive or arrived.
• A signed CBP Form 3299.
• A valued packing inventory in English, line by line.
• The bill of lading or air waybill, and the name of your mover or forwarder at destination.
• For a vehicle: title, bill of sale, VIN, and the year and engine detail the EPA and DOT forms turn on.
• Receipts for anything bought inside the last year, so the dutiable lines can be separated cleanly rather than argued about.

We take single shipments. A one-container move gets the same filing discipline as a commercial account, which in practice means the entry is ready before the vessel lands rather than after your mover calls to ask why nothing has moved.