Bringing electronics stateside: Headache or no?

June 22, 2009 2:18 PM

Returning to the States from Austria with electronic equipment: What to worry about at customs?

I'm going to be returning to the United states in a bit more than a week after a year studying abroad in Austria. What I'm worried about here is any potential problems with customs bringing electronics back to the States.

When I flew over here, I packed my laptop computer, Mac Mini and iPod Touch- and had no problems whatsoever. However, during my stay here, I've picked up an external hard drive and DSLR, and am concerned that customs (the US being what it is) will give me grief when I return.

So- Is this something I have to be concerned about, or is this a non-issue?
Bonus Question: Do I have to worry about my music backups (ca. 70GB) on the external HD? Do I have to delete my socialist and anarchist PDFs?

Thanks in advance!

posted by dunkadunc to law & government (7 answers total)

FWIW: Camera was €249 when bought early last fall, has European charging plug as does the hard drive. Both computers were bought in the United States and are pretty clearly not brand-new.
posted by dunkadunc at 2:23 PM on June 22, 2009

No one is going to give you grief. On the customs form, accurately declare the merchandise you're bringing back that you purchased abroad. You probably have a $800 exemption, meaning that you will have to pay duty on amount of value above this. However, there are generally exceptions for personal property that you've held for over a year. This document should address many of your concerns. IIRC, duty will probably only be about 4% unless you're bringing in many thousands of dollars worth of stuff, so it's not a huge deal. Basically, just declare everything accurately, and they'll take care of you.

You may want to bring documentation to prove that your laptop, mini, and iPod are items you purchased in the States, as they aren't subject to duty. It's unlikely to be a huge problem, but it's good to be prepared with proof.
posted by zachlipton at 2:32 PM on June 22, 2009

I was just about to say what zachlipton said.

The items you brought with you really shouldn't be a problem. If you can prove you brought the laptop, mac mini and ipod touch with you and/or bought them in the US, great. But I don't think it will be much of a problem. It's probably pretty common for travelers to bring laptops, ipods, cameras, backup drives with them on vacation, and since you've been away for a year studying, it should be even less of an issue for you.

I can't imagine the contests of your hard drive being a problem, and I doubt they'll scan it, at least I've never heard of this happening in the US. I could be wrong, maybe someone else here has had that experience.
posted by necessitas at 2:45 PM on June 22, 2009

I travel with lots of gadgets and sometimes pick up new ones on the way. I've never had to prove ownership of any of the old stuff and even when declaring new stuff I get waved through with a glance at my card. I don't know if there are certain airports where you're more likely to run into picky inspectors, but I've entered in Houston, Minneapolis, San Francisco, Chicago and Detroit without a problem.
posted by IanMorr at 2:57 PM on June 22, 2009

Do I have to worry about my music backups (ca. 70GB) on the external HD?

Worry in what sense? If you're worried that customs is going to care at all that they may not all be ripped by you from your own CD-ROMs, don't. They're not going to look that closely at the contents of some random guy's USB hard drive. They're got bigger fish to fry than some dude bringing a pile of possibly-maybe pirated MP3s.

Do I have to delete my socialist and anarchist PDFs?

If you're concrened, zip them up into an archive called "Backup documents" or what have you. Again, no one's going to care unless you give them some other reason to.

He says, sounding like a total Pollyanna.

Seriously, I've flown back and forth to Europe a bunch of times with a backpack nearly bursting at the seams with wires and hard drives and laptops and cameras. No one has ever shown the slightest interest in the contents of the drives and such.
posted by chazlarson at 3:19 PM on June 22, 2009

Leave those souvenir krytons in Austria, though.
posted by bz at 3:53 PM on June 22, 2009

Follow-up: Declared the electronics on the form, had no problems or even questions asked whatsoever landing in Boston. Thanks, Metafilter!
posted by dunkadunc at 6:34 PM on July 23, 2009