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You have even bigger problems, I'm afraid. That case of wine isn't coming to the USA either. The Federal limit is one liter per person, and clearly you are way over that limit. (Your state may have an even lower limit.)
WRONG WRONG WRONG! I regularly bring a case of wine back home from my travels. You can bring in as much as you want provided it is for personal consumption and you declare it. So if you are bringing 12 cases of the same wine back, it's probably not going to be accepted as "for personal consumption." If you are bringing 12 mixed cases with only 3-6 bottles of any given wine back, no problem. The duty varies by the value of the wine, but is generally in the $.30-$3 per bottle range. I've always offered to pay the duty and they've never bothered. I've been told repeatedly "we don't worry about pennies."
Quote:
Solution for the wine is to send it by mail marked as olive oil, and hope for the best. (I'm not recommending this, but I know that's what the European wineries do.
And that bottle of olive oil isn't coming home in her carry-on due to the limits of liquids for carry-on luggage. She can send that in her checked luggage, and risk ruining everything in thesuitcase and the suitcase itself if the bottle breaks. (I'm not recommending THAT either, as the oily mess would likely damage other passengers property in checked luggage.)
If properly packaged (and I don't mean wrapped in a sweater) the risk is very minimal. The proper packaging generally consists of putting it into a styrofoam pack typically used for wine bottles and packing in peanuts to fill in any gaps. The styropack goes into a cardboard box made to contain it, and sealed tightly with packing tape. This is the way the FAA requires wine to be shipped, and for good reason.
WRONG WRONG WRONG! I regularly bring a case of wine back home from my travels. You can bring in as much as you want provided it is for personal consumption and you declare it. So if you are bringing 12 cases of the same wine back, it's probably not going to be accepted as "for personal consumption." If you are bringing 12 mixed cases with only 3-6 bottles of any given wine back, no problem. The duty varies by the value of the wine, but is generally in the $.30-$3 per bottle range. I've always offered to pay the duty and they've never bothered. I've been told repeatedly "we don't worry about pennies."
If properly packaged (and I don't mean wrapped in a sweater) the risk is very minimal. The proper packaging generally consists of putting it into a styrofoam pack typically used for wine bottles and packing in peanuts to fill in any gaps. The styropack goes into a cardboard box made to contain it, and sealed tightly with packing tape. This is the way the FAA requires wine to be shipped, and for good reason.
I usually pack with bubble wrap each bottle, so that each bottle is not touching directly another bottle and risk breaking, and then also wrap all around it several layers. When using a card box I may use those styrofoam pieces that usually you put in vases ...
As for the the couriços and all, probably better mailing it then
1. Mail whatever you can, within the legal confines that you researched. If there are gray areas, which it sounds like there are, then just package and label it as needed and hope for the best (which you're always doing when it comes to mailing things anyways). If it's not hazardous or contaminant in some way then they will very likely leave it alone even if they do run any detection against it. The biggest risk you run with mail shipment is with things that are very perishable, so proceed to step 2 with such things.
2. Pack the rest. In with the luggage where appropriate, but otherwise pad it and box it and check the whole thing as luggage. Be aware of weight and quantity fees for your particular airline.
3. Declare it all as requested, pay what you must, give up what you must, and don't sweat it. Nothing major is at stake as long as you're being honest.
Ultimately, it may cost considerably more than if she just bought it all from an importer in the states (assuming it's even available that way). But she obviously got it all as a sort of souvenir, and not necessarily to save big bucks, so consider it all part of the travel expense. The point is, it's a bad idea to go breaking laws just to save some cash.
Nothing is much perishable here so I may go with the mailing route.
Regarding being cheaper in US I highly doubt it. 2.2 lbs of chourizo costs around 8 dollars. These are from the little villages and not from the overprice touristic spots ...
Wine is the same. My father owns a vineyard in Portugal, and you can get good quality wines on the cheap... 2-3 dollars and you get amazing wine for the price. Wine that costs here 5 bucks in the US would sell for 30 a bottle. Regarding the packaging of this... I came with even a better idea.
Was in a home depot kind of store and looked at this:
And this:
Ended with this:
Testing result:
Then just wrapped each bottle in bubble wrap and final result, holding 18 bottles in one suitcase, totaling exactly 21 kilos (limit of the airline is 22 kilos)
They use dogs to sniff these things out. There is a reason that meat products and fruit must be declared and in some cases are prohibited. The fines for not declaring them are steep.
YOU ARE CORRECT!
We flew from Frankfurt to Charlotte last month and my wife had an apple from the Frankfurt airport still in her carry on bag that she never ate. Sure enough, the dog beelined to her when we were waiting for our luggage in baggage claim.
You would have thought it was 10 kilos of Columbia finest, had to go through 2 different layers of customs before we were cleared to proceed.
You can also bring cooked meat into the states. When I return from the West Indies I usually have 20lbs or so of cooked pork, chicken and beef. Never had an issue and declared each and everytime. I do this about 6 times a year..I also bring back bottles of rum as well...they never open my bag, they just run it thru the machine one more time.
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Bringing items from Europe
