Your car and your household contents to America: what is allowed, and why the car had better stay behind

Your used household goods may come with you to America without import duty, but your car is usually better sold in the Netherlands. The move has one pleasant rule and one that costs many people dearly:

• Your household goods come in duty-free if you used them abroad for at least a year and do not intend them for someone else or for sale. There is one form for it: CBP Form 3299.
• Your car is another story. A car under 25 years old must meet all American safety standards.
• Customs itself warns about sellers promising that a European car is "easy to convert".
• If you bring it anyway as a nonresident, you are bound to an export obligation within a year.

When are your household goods duty-free?

Used household goods may enter the US without duty, provided you meet two requirements that customs formulates briefly and firmly: you have used the goods for at least one year abroad, and they are not intended for someone else or for sale. Household effects include furniture, carpets, paintings, tableware, linens, stereos and the tools and professional books of your trade.

Mind the distinction customs makes, because it is sharper than you think. Clothing, jewelry, photography equipment and portable radios are not household effects but personal effects. Those fall outside the household exemption. Duty on personal effects you have owned for more than a year is usually waived, though. On vehicles customs is unyielding: they are always dutiable.

The paperwork is one form: CBP Form 3299, the Declaration for Free Entry of Unaccompanied Articles, the declaration for goods that arrive separately from you. Your mover or customs broker may file it for you. Do make sure your packing list matches what is in the container. And count on port charges and customs clearance on the American side in addition to the sea freight.

Item	Rule
Household goods duty-free	used abroad for at least 1 year, not for sale or another person
Form	CBP Form 3299
Clothing, jewelry, cameras	personal effects, not household goods; usually waived above 1 year of ownership
Vehicles	always dutiable
Fine for undeclared agricultural products	$300 to $1,000 the first time; more for repeat offences
Car under 25 years old	must meet all FMVSS
Bond when converting via a registered importer	150% of the dutiable value
Import duty on a passenger car	2.5%
Nonconforming car as a nonresident	at most 1 year, then mandatory export; no sale

Two more things for the packing list:

• Alcohol is a matter for the state where you arrive. It decides how much you may bring in and whether you need a licence.
• Leave food containing meat at home. Fresh, dried or canned meat and products prepared with meat may not enter from most countries.

Failing to declare agricultural products costs a fine of $300 to $1,000 for the first offence. Whoever does it more often pays more.

Can you bring your car?

The honest answer is: sell it here. A car built in Europe almost never meets the American safety standards (FMVSS, the federal motor vehicle safety standards) and emission requirements. Customs writes it itself, and that wording is a warning: it is unlikely that a vehicle obtained abroad meets all the standards. So be skeptical if a seller claims it is "easy to bring into compliance". Cars under 25 years old must meet all FMVSS to be imported permanently. Full stop.

If you still want to, you run into two walls at once:

• The safety side. A DOT-registered importer must modify and certify the car. You post a bond of one and a half times the dutiable value of the car.
• The emissions side. The Clean Air Act, the American air quality law, requires a recognised Independent Commercial Importer (ICI) to modify, test and certify the car.

On top of all that comes 2.5% import duty. Arrange it before shipping. A car arriving without an ICI arrangement or a valid EPA exemption can be seized or sent back. The EPA is the American environmental agency.

And then the trap people really fall into. As a nonresident you may bring your car in duty-free for up to one year. That sounds like a way out. But if it does not meet the standards, it must leave the country within that year, and selling in the US is not allowed. Customs leaves no room: there is no exemption or extension of that export requirement. You will then have paid two ocean crossings for a car you may not keep.

The exception is the enthusiast's car of 25 years or older: it escapes the safety requirement. For everything else the sum is simple: sell in the Netherlands, and buy something back locally. Do put that in your budget as a fixed item. In most states a car is not a luxury but a condition for being able to work.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey, step 4.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to America or go straight to step 4.1 in the open plan.