At UK airports, you do often find the “Nothing to declare” lines to be missing any actual customs officers. There’s usually a courtesy phone to call customs
Of course, I don’t know how it works in Thailand - my experience with that country amounts to 2 hours in the old Bangkok airport 17 years ago. But you were the one entering the country, and it surely is your responsibility to declare things that you know might be problematic.
[QUOTE=Patty O’Furniture]
That would be the phytosanitary certificate for plants. I had that, too.
[/QUOTE]
Wait, are you saying you had pre-approval from customs? I’m confused. But if you DID have an official certificate verifying that there was no reason not to bring in your tree, then I withdraw my comments. I’m confused, though, as you didn’t mention the phytosanitary certificate up front. That seems to me to be a highly relevant part of your story … sorry if the problem lies with my reading comprehension.
Yes that is what I meant when I said that I was fully prepared to be screened and processed through customs. I had all the necessary paperwork for both the cat and the plant. I don’t know if the phytosanitary cert is considered “pre-approval”, I think it just indicates that somebody in the USA did a basic check for disease. I was expecting the customs agent to ask me for it when the plant turned up on exit screening. But even a my crying cat in its carrier didn’t seem to generate any interest.
And while we’re on the subject of declaring things, I brought a significant sum of cash with me too. I read that you’re supposed to declare amounts over $10K when you leave the US, but after passing through security and porno-scanning I looked back and wondered where exactly I was supposed to make my declaration.
Okay, I understand now. It does not sound like what you were doing was particularly risky, though it probably would have been better not to. As someone who has spent a lot of time in three environments that have suffered tremendously from invasive species (Guam, Pohnpei, and the Big Island) I’m a bit prickly on the subject of agricultural imports.
Out of curiosity, why’d you bring a tree? It sounds like you were prepared to relinquish it if customs wanted you to, so the attachment can’t be that intense. But if it isn’t, why bring a tree along to a foreign country? Is it a bonsai?
ETA: There is usually a place on the customs form you fill out that asks you if you are carrying “monetary instruments” in excess of a certain amount. That’s where you are supposed to declare the cash.
Hmm, I don’t remember being given a customs form when I was leaving the US. The ticketing agent asked me if there was anything unusual, valuable or fragile in my checked bags (at which time I mentioned the tree) but he didn’t ask me about money.
And the lime tree would have frozen to death if I had left it in DC. I figured that an uncertain fate in customs was better than certain death from an east coast winter.
The USA is not responsible for giving you customs forms for Thailand or for knowing what you can and cannot bring into Thailand. Thailand is responsible for that; any sovereign country enforces it’s own customs regulations. The USA won’t stop you from taking things out of the country, but that doesn’t mean you can carry them into the next one. I don’t know why you assume the USA or the TSA would have anything at all to do with Thailand’s import regulations? Contrary to popular belief, the USA does not, in fact, rule the world.
Presumably, the forms would have been passed around on the airplane or there would be a desk/counter somewhere in the airport in Thailand for you to pick one up and fill out. Although customs desks may not have been staffed, there likely was a phone or other mechanism in place for someone who actually had something to declare to do so (every airport I’ve ever been in has this in place). Perhaps customs really is lax in Thailand, and I don’t know why the one agent who was there didn’t do anything, but technically you should have declared the cat, the tree and the money because not doing so leaves you open to penalties under Thai law.
I can tell you that if you’re landing in Hawaii, pretty much any plant is banned from entering. They’re very, very strict about that too. So check the requirements of your particular destination.
A plane tree, one hopes?
None of those fancy ones!
That must be recent? A few years ago - perhaps five or six - I visitied a friend in Hawaii during xmas and took a small poinsettia wrapped in cellophane (I carried it onboard). Nobody said anything, and since I was coming from within the US maybe there was no customs checkpoint, but it has been a while and I don’t really remember the setup over there. But the plant was plainly visible through the cellophane.
I’m going back to Suvharnabhiumi in a couple of weeks to meet a friend who’s flying in. I’ll be sure to look for this mysterious telephone that I’m supposed to pick up and ask somebody to come and check that everything I’m bringing in is a-ok, since the customs guy couldn’t be arsed to check.
Anyway my conscience is clear. The plant is clean and the cat vaccinated, and I have my traveler’s copies of both sets of paperwork from the USDA in Annapolis, MD proving that. The customs copies are… floating around somewhere in the airport for all I know.
I’ll thank you to stop making shit up in my thread, toots. Where did I say anything like that?
Yes I’m aware of the $20K declaration requirement upon entering. But if you actually read what I wrote:
I was asking about where this declaration should be made when leaving the US.
Given as the thread had pretty much been about the tree, this was easily interpreted as a comment regarding the correct forms necessary for bringing the tree to Thailand. You would not have obtained them in the USA. Not to mention your original question regarding the TSA and it’s regulations. I admit I was being somewhat snarky, and I apologize for that, but I remain somewhat astounded that it didn’t occur to you to see what Thailand had to say about you bringing things into Thailand.
As for plants being brought to Hawai’i from the US mainland:
CITE. Note that it isn’t the TSA that is responsible for enforcing this - you have to contact the Department of Agriculture yourself, at their inspection counter.
Yes, Hawaii has its own special rules. Whether you’re coming from abroad or just from the mainland US, they’re quick to pop anyone with agricultural products. They even have some bins to ditch your contraband in before you can get far enough into the airport for the authorities to have to take action.
They may or may not approve of what you’re bringing in, but they’re very paranoid about introducing foreign organisms – and I’m not just talking about package tourists. Animals too. There are no snakes in Hawaii, and they are outlawed even as pets. The example of Guam and the brown tree snakes eating all the bird life is practically right in front of them. When I was living there, I’d see reports in the paper every now and then of someone getting busted with a snake he’s smuggled in somehow. I recall the six-month quarantine period for dogs, even seeing-eye dogs; Hawaii is rabies-free, and they mean to keep it that way.