DLS
Well-known member
- Joined
- Nov 20, 2009
- Messages
- 193
- Reaction score
- 49
I just got home with my shipment from our June hunt in South Africa. I cleared the shipment myself, and other than an avoidable delay due to a communications error (my mistake) it went very smoothly. My shipment arrived last Thursday afternoon on Swissair, in San Francisco. I went onto the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website and submitted an "E Declaration" which is the import paperwork that FWS needs to clear the trophies. It was so simple to do, and once you hit 'send' it is in their office to review the next day. I got my confirmation that they were ready to clear my shipment on the next business day and off I went to San Francisco this morning.
For those who've never done this before, you have to get 3 approvals if you have a warthog, which this shipment did contain. You have to get a sign off by USDA, and they need to inspect the paperwork and trophy. Prior to USDA doing their inspection, you need to get the sign off from FWS, and that took less than 5 minutes at their office which is near the airport. Once I had that in hand, Department of Agriculture inspected and released the warthog, and then I was off to US Customs, which is in the same building as USDA. Customs took about 2 minutes and I was off to the warehouse to pick up my shipment.
I made one major mistake, and that was not calling USDA in advance for an inspection appointment. When I asked them to come over to Swissport cargo to inspect my warthog, they informed me that every inspector was already out working as they'd gotten a cargo of 30,000 lbs of papaya's to inspect, and until they got back from that, nobody was available to help me. I had to wait about 3 hours, but as soon as they got back, they immediately took care of my shipment and gave me the go ahead to see customs. Were it not for my mistake on not making arrangements ahead of time, I'd have gotten my clearances from FWS, USDA and Customs all in less than 30 minutes and been able to pick up my shipment and head home. As it was, it took about 4 hours, but saved me over $400 for customs brokerage house clearance and freight to my taxidermist.
If anyone is contemplating clearing their own trophies, I highly recommend doing it yourself. It is easy and if you make appointments a few days in advance, pretty quick and painless. Everyone at FWS, USDA and Customs was very friendly, prompt and helpful, which was nice to see from Federal Gov't. employees. As things stand, I have 2 crates in my garage which I need to go open so I can see the 'goodies' inside.
If anyone is interested and needs any assistance, feel free to PM me, and I'll walk you through the websites you need to visit and how to do it.
For those who've never done this before, you have to get 3 approvals if you have a warthog, which this shipment did contain. You have to get a sign off by USDA, and they need to inspect the paperwork and trophy. Prior to USDA doing their inspection, you need to get the sign off from FWS, and that took less than 5 minutes at their office which is near the airport. Once I had that in hand, Department of Agriculture inspected and released the warthog, and then I was off to US Customs, which is in the same building as USDA. Customs took about 2 minutes and I was off to the warehouse to pick up my shipment.
I made one major mistake, and that was not calling USDA in advance for an inspection appointment. When I asked them to come over to Swissport cargo to inspect my warthog, they informed me that every inspector was already out working as they'd gotten a cargo of 30,000 lbs of papaya's to inspect, and until they got back from that, nobody was available to help me. I had to wait about 3 hours, but as soon as they got back, they immediately took care of my shipment and gave me the go ahead to see customs. Were it not for my mistake on not making arrangements ahead of time, I'd have gotten my clearances from FWS, USDA and Customs all in less than 30 minutes and been able to pick up my shipment and head home. As it was, it took about 4 hours, but saved me over $400 for customs brokerage house clearance and freight to my taxidermist.
If anyone is contemplating clearing their own trophies, I highly recommend doing it yourself. It is easy and if you make appointments a few days in advance, pretty quick and painless. Everyone at FWS, USDA and Customs was very friendly, prompt and helpful, which was nice to see from Federal Gov't. employees. As things stand, I have 2 crates in my garage which I need to go open so I can see the 'goodies' inside.
If anyone is interested and needs any assistance, feel free to PM me, and I'll walk you through the websites you need to visit and how to do it.
