Traveling Internationally With a Laser Scanner

[Admin]

Have any of you traveled internationally with a laser scanner?  Have you guys had any problems with customs?  If you have had any was it when you were driving or flying? 

[prehistory]

Oh man!  It helps if you describe it as a "camera" at Customs.  Years ago I did do all the paperwork and had a carnet and everything to travel to Canada.  I was surprised- Customs didn't care at all, and didn't even seem to know what to do with the paperwork.

[Admin]

Good advice on labeling it as a "camera" because you wouldn't be lying... just omitting that there is a laser attached..  ;D

[spike3d]

If the scanner is small enough and you can travel with it then you can take your chances on calling it a camera (for personal use) and I haven't been stopped before. If you're shipping it or it's not going to be easily passed off as a camera then I would go the official (and legally correct) route of getting a Carnet, which is a ?Merchandise Passport? for temporary import. A bit of a pain the first time, but once you've done it once it's not too bad.

For Carnet info see: http://www.uscib.org/index.asp?documentID=1843

Regardless of how you ship it I would stay away from terms like scanner and laser as they are often affected by import, radiation and other controls and we've had a few customers have systems tied up for weeks while the customs officials ask for paperwork.

Come to think of it the Brazilian Customs has had a brand new laser scanner in it's possession for the last 3 years that was shipped with the wrong paperwork. The cost of duties on it was more than a new system so it got left with them. So it is definitely worth being a careful to make the correct choices up front.

[Admin]

Thanks Spike3D - I had never heard of that before.