OT: Bringing Cisco equipment to US

Glen Turner gdt at gdt.id.au
Thu Jul 9 13:31:31 UTC 2009


On 30/06/09 07:59, John Edwards wrote:

> The courier will likely charge you less than a customs broker will for a
> single item - the brokers are mainly used for large transactions. While
> you're legally entitled to bring this equipment in carry-on luggage,
> proving and authenticating your right can be a costly and timely exercise.

The other problem is that an import implies a change of ownership
from an overseas company to a US company. Setting up a US holding
company to "own" your "imported" US assets is a major pain and
best avoided where possible. Especially as that company may be
a a "foreign telecommunications carrier" and the US has rather
wonderful laws covering those.

I've done a lot of Australia-US import/export, and I'd very much
suggest building a good relationship with a customs broker. That's
hardly an expense you want for two switches, so buying the switches
in the US (where they come with a valid warranty and correct power
leads) is a good idea.

I wouldn't recommend importing the switches through your luggage.
The few times I've tried that arranging all of the documentation
prior to travel has really sucked. As a trivial example of what can
go wrong, if you unknowingly choose an airport where customs works
9am-5pm and your flight arrives at 2am, then you've got a rather
long wait in the walkway between Immigration and Customs. So long
a wait that you're likely to encounter some other difficulty from
the airport authorities.

-- 
  Glen Turner   <http://www.gdt.id.au/~gdt/>




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