Customs Bonds for International 135

[Vortilon]

You guys are probably more on the ball than I am so you probably know this already. BUT, in case you don't know....apparently as of a few months ago US Customs is requiring you to have a copy of your Customs Bond on the aircraft. I guess before you just needed to have one, but didn't need to carry it.

Anyway, the inspector I had in TEB was nice about it but was clear that next time it needed to be on the aircraft so don't let yourself get fined!

 

[cvsfly]

I've just finished getting all of that done. What a pain. It was always required, but this year the Customs fines went up (which is what the bond is designed to cover to make sure Customs gets paid) and now Customs is enforcing it more. Our Insurance agent chose this bond broker who didn't know what they were doing. When I asked our local Customs office, I would get conflicting requirements and procedures. Finally got it settled. I thought Customs was able pull up that info in the computer once the bond was filed. What form do you carry? Form 301. A copy? I asked for the original for us, but was only given a copy.

 

[mike1mc]

I beleive they increased the Bond amount from $50,000 to $75,000 in March. We carry a copy on all of our aircraft, but I've only had one Inspector ever ask if we had one. TEB Customs has never asked for one, but we are based there and that have something to do with it.

 

[cvsfly]

We were told the calculation for the bond was based on $5000/seat + $5000 for the operator (up from previous years and which is the fine for an individual violation). So for us a BE-200 with 9 seats - bond = $50,000. Our local Customs office was going to approve $30,000 because of our expected limited international flights (< 10/year).

 

[Vortilon]

Yeah, I'm based in TEB too but we're pretty new there so they don't know us yet. They were able to pull us up in the computer but the inspector was pretty adamand about us having it on board.

There's always a gotcha it seems!

 

[cherokee]

Beavis rocks!

 

[Vortilon]

That's CAPTAIN Beavis, to you!

 

[cherokee]

Roger that, Cap'n!
(Though it looks like he may need some new epaulettes (3 bar captain??)

 

[Vortilon]

My bad! For some reason I thought he had 4 stripes (and I don't mean the black ones). I'll have to upgrade his picture the next chance I get...heheheh