How many bottles of rum/booze can be brought into US from Caribbean?

[max a million]

Just preparing for the 5 of us adults :)

[Kreeb]

For the majority of the Caribbean the limit is ONE liter of alcohol per person. If one of your ports is St. Thomas, the limit increases to FIVE liters per person if it was bought in St. Thomas.

 

That said, you can always bring more than the limit, you just have to pay the duty on it, and from what I've heard, the duty is minimal and even in some cases forgiven. Hope that helps.

[Carolin]

You can bring in as many as you want. Per US Customs, its one liter per adult. You will declare the booze on your customs slip and the customs agent will make a judgement call on where they want to fill out the paper work to collect duty. Lots of time the duty isn't worth the paper work. :D

[OleMissGal]

Does this work for cigarettes, too? I know that the limit is 5 cartons per adult if traveling to St Thomas, and 4 of those cartons have to be from there.

 

The way the Customs website made it sound (so very confusing, btw!) is that the 5 was the max. It didn't indicate clearly that you could bring back more and pay the duty. Just that you could only bring back 5 cartons per adult.

[pythia]

For the majority of the Caribbean the limit is ONE liter of alcohol per person. If one of your ports is St. Thomas, the limit increases to FIVE liters per person if it was bought in St. Thomas.

 

From the US Customs website:

"As long as the amount does not exceed what that state considers a personal quantity*, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will allow you to enter the U.S. with up to five liters of alcohol duty-free as part of your $1,600 exemption - as long as at least four liters were purchased in the insular possession, and at least one of them is a product of that insular possession. Additional bottles will be subject to a flat duty rate of 1.5% and subject to Internal Revenue Service taxes."

 

That's litres, not bottles. The most common bottle size is 750ml. However, if your cruise stops in St. Thomas or St. Croix ("insular possessions") they won't make you prove that you bought 4 litres there.

 

I went on the Rum Renaissance Cruise last year; there was a LOT of rum floating around. DH & I were fairly well restrained - we only brought back 15L. Some of our group brought back MUCH more:eek:. We claimed it all (noted on the customs form as "15L ass't rum" valued at $200) but weren't charged any duty (which would have been less than 50 cents - should have bought more...).

 

If you have to fly your booze home, just remember: You must put it in checked baggage (bring bubble wrap or wine bags); the TSA gets cranky if you put more than 5L per bag (if you think you might exceed that, bring a collapsable extra bag that could be checked. An extra checked bag costs less than an overweight one:(); and a 750ml bottle weighs about 3 pounds.

[zqvol]

Does this work for cigarettes, too? I know that the limit is 5 cartons per adult if traveling to St Thomas, and 4 of those cartons have to be from there.

 

The way the Customs website made it sound (so very confusing, btw!) is that the 5 was the max. It didn't indicate clearly that you could bring back more and pay the duty. Just that you could only bring back 5 cartons per adult.

 

No the limit for cigarettes is one carton, usually they let a couple slip by, but if you have more than that they are subject to confiscation, there is no option to pay the duty.