U. S. Customs Declaration Form

Anyone heard the rumor that US Customs is going to do away with cruise passengers having to fill out the Customs Declaration Form when disembarking?

There was a thread about that on the NCL board a couple months back.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2475448

Yes, that was our experience last month.

There is a recent thread here on the Princess board as well.

Currently in use in Port Everglades (Fort Lauderdale ).

It's no big thing whether they do or not.

Tony

I filled out the form just in case my Mobile Passport app didn't work when I got off the Crown in March in PE. It was a good thing I did since after waiting on the GE line for 25 min. the agent said he would process GE only and not Mobile passport.

Read too in previous threads.

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We filled one out in Seattle in May.

Many USA airports have switched to using computer screens for the passengers to enter in the information that used to be on the Customs Form.

It could be that the cruise ports will start using those screens also, but I have not seen any posts that they do yet.

Actually, using the screen is easier than filling out the form. For example, you insert your passport and it gets your personal data from it so you do not have to fill out name, passport number, etc.

Also, instead of asking you to itemize all purchases, it asks if your purchases are within the allowed exemption amount. (Not sure what it then asks if you say you exceed the limit.)

Just got off a Carnival cruise & were told in advance not to fill out the form unless we had exceeded the allowable amount. Customs agent didn't even ask.

Just got off a Carnival cruise & were told in advance not to fill out the form unless we had exceeded the allowable amount. Customs agent didn't even ask.

Which port was that?:confused:

Sounds like a good idea.

I filled out the form just in case my Mobile Passport app didn't work when I got off the Crown in March in PE. It was a good thing I did since after waiting on the GE line for 25 min. the agent said he would process GE only and not Mobile passport.

Just curious why you thought a mobil passport would be valid in the GE line ??

GE program uses advanced pre-screening, and requires prior enrollment in GE, a mobil passport is just that, a passport , abet in digital form nothing more, nothing less.

Glad to hear it didn't work in the GE line, it's not suppose to

Srpilo

FYI we came back through SFO after a Baltic cruise, so this is not specifically cruise related. We had filled out the form on the plane - one per family and then went through the Kiosk at SFO, very easy. A girl helping out pointed to the airline form and said, 'Oh Immigration will take that from you' and they did.

However, there was a person, entering Baggage Claim after Immigration, checking we had the receipt from the Kiosk. We thought we were done and dusted but a Customs person would not let us leave luggage hall without collecting the receipt.

The morale of the story is that it is easy to think Customs does not need the for anymore, but it IS replaced by the Kiosk receipt. We could easily have dumped the receipt before collecting baggage.

Some Canadian airports now have a form free system. You have to have an App for using the system. If you get the eDeclaration app designed for Canada customs and immigration.

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