I want to deliver my goods to a customer in the USA but they do not want to deal with Customs formalities. How do I do this?
In order for goods to be permitted entry into the USA
by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), the
person or business importing the goods must be listed
in the customs declaration (such as
CBP Form 5106 - Importer ID Input Record
). For legal purposes, this party is known as the
'importer of record' and must be 'resident' in the USA.
This could be the ultimate customer or an intermediate
party such as a freight forwarder, customs broker or
agent,
but they must be in the same US state of the port of
entry. You can find a
list of authorised customs brokers, for each US
state, in the Ports section of the CBP website.
In situations where an intermediate party will be the importer of record,
this must be a formal 'power of attorney' arrangement that has been
notified to the CBP beforehand. You should enquire with your freight
forwarder / customs broker, as some offer an optional importer of record
service to satisfy these US Government requirements.