Customs urges importers to supply invoices
(CNS): As Customs and Border Control gears up to deal with tens of thousands of seasonal imports, officials are urging people to get all of their documentation right and follow the proper process in order to get their Christmas packages on time. With over 22,000 individual imports recorded for the month of November already, the expected trend for the season is that imports will continue to rise for the holidays, CBC said in a release.
People importing goods for the holiday must ensure all supplier or sales invoices are provided to their appointed agent before the goods arrive, CBC has warned. First time importers using a courier or broker agent will need to register with CBC through Customs Online System (COLS). A legible and valid government identification document such as a driver’s licence or passport is required with electronic applications. CBC does not accept voter ID cards.
Once an application has been approved, an email will be sent by CBC with login instruction information. After completing this process, importers are free to appoint or remove agents as desired within the system.
Customs said that people who know they are receiving goods should gather the necessary documents and share them with their agents. The necessary documents should be the supplier or sale invoices, which must be provided in PDF format to the agent. If additional documentation is required to collect packages, they should be obtained prior to the shipment arriving. Anyone unsure of what other information is required, should ask their agent or CBC’s Customer Support Centre.
Importers must not omit or misrepresent the value of goods or assume “everyone” will know the value of a given item. Hand written invoices are not normally accepted and importers are responsible for providing all the necessary and proper documentation and should not rely on agents.
Given the expected increase in imports, office hours will be extended at the processing and inspection offices until 5:00pm through the week of 19-23 December. Offices will resume regular hours, 8:30am to 4:00pm, on 28-30 December. Offices will be closed on Saturdays 24 and 31 December as well as for the Christmas, Boxing and New Years holidays. Regular hours will resume on 3 January.
The immigration related offices will close at 12:00pm on Friday, 23 December, and resume regular hours, 8:30am to 4:00pm, on Wednesday, 28 December, before closing again at 12:00pm on 30 December. Meanwhile, immigration-related boards will all be taking a break for almost a month. The Work Permit, Business Staffing Plan, Cayman Brac and Little Cayman Immigration and Cayman Status and Permanent Residency Boards will all hold their last meetings over the coming week and not resume until the second week of January
CBC offices at the Airport and Seaport will remain open during normal operational hours and will also be on call to assist businesses that may need to clear perishable foods or emergency medical supplies over the holiday weekends.
For more assistance and information on importing goods contact CBC’s Customer Support Centre at 649-4579 and press 0 and then 1 for import assistance
or email CBC.OnlineSupport@gov.k
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Category: Local News
Better headline would be “Importers Urge Customs to do their Job!”
How can such a criticality important function to the economy be so slow and inept.
Usually never hear from them when the package arrives, you do when they are ready to send the package back for sitting too long… invoice not going to solve the lazy issue
They are still slow no matter what – no drive to do their job in the first place, i doubt invoices will help that…
Perhaps Hm Customs could publish a list of the priority settlor surnames whose imported items receive front-of-the-line attention and preferential clearance, that way we can begin to understand the echelons of privilege inferred in this “marriage of convenience” myth. Customs is another area that doesn’t seem to suck equally for everyone.
Why does HM Customs charge duty on hypothetical insurance? Is that legal?
I just get my gifts shipped in on a canoe. No waiting.
Every year is the same story.
It took customs all of 24 hours to clear my sea shipment today
importation sytem is a classic caymankind nightmare…
even after getting goods here you have to circle around for days beween your shipper and multiple cig entities.
at last count it was a 15 step process….
So the immigration related boards, which have massive backlogs, are taking a month off for Christmas? Well, given that they don’t seem to process anything anyway I guess it makes no difference.
Importers urge customs to supply service.
I love how they try to blame importers for their own failures. Its a clown and pony show mixed with the gong show any time I have to deal with anything related to customs. Immigration and WORC are easier to deal with than this.
Another words, don’t plan on seeing anything you import until end of January or early February😂😂😂
or at all….
Finally received a duty free camera that had been stuck in customs for 4 weeks. It’s not the paperwork that’s deficient…
Why wouldn’t CBC accept voter cards?!? It’s the highest form of Caymanian ID there is! #boneheads
I did that. Papers and receipts were in perfect order. It still took Customs 23 days to clear a box that came in by FedEx. FedEx had to nudge them several times before they decided to actually work.
That sounds like a FedEx issue
I’d rather like rusty nails into random orifices of my body than deal with CBC. At this time of year, make that rusty nails laced with COVID.
Yeah. Some of those “imported goods” are also called “gifts”. As it has been for years, we are expected to provide an invoice for gifts from our families abroad. Absurd. My family makes much of their gifts, and are expected to assess a value for duty. Okay, fine, but frequently the CBC officer thinks their assessed value for a HANDCRAFTED GIFT is undervalued.
Cray Cray. I get it that some a-holes ruined it for us decades ago by having their family send them expensive “gifts”. The daily ‘gift’ allowance is CI $50, and that would fine, IF that value didn’t also include the shipping.
Gee, I wonder wonder how MPs, CGI managers and others with social iron wrangle the ever-changing goalposts of receiving Christmas gifts.
My mom would send me homemade Christmas baking every year. Last year Customs wouldn’t clear it with out an invoice. Mom had to make up an invoice and put a dollar value on it. When Customs decided the “invoice” was good enough they charged me $110 in duties and fees. No Christmas baking from Mom this year.
I bought a tiny plastic car part for $17 and they charged me $48 to clear it back in 2016. That was the last time I imported!
If I got a hand-crafted gift for Christmas, I’d be so angry I’d leave it with Customs.
I don’t imagine anyone cares about you enough to take the time and trouble to make you something.
Agree. It’s bad enough watching them open your gifts before going through this.
Of course it would help if CBC did not behave like mindless officious pricks and reject perfectly valid invoices because they don’t like the look of them or it doesn’t have the words “commercial invoice” printed on the face of it.
If they were to have the sense to take commercial invoices. But they don’t.
It’s rather moronic when a package arrives from Asia in 2 days and then takes 10 days to become available for pickup even when proper invoices are supplied the day the package hit Cayman. FedEx, DHL, UPS it’s all the same. You can’t blame Customs as emails indicating clearance by Customs take 2-3 days.
I blame them all.
Actually DHL were incredible this week. Tile samples sent on Monday and DHL system asked me to pay the duty (yes crazy on 5 sample chips of tile – but who has the energy to fight anymore?) on Tuesday. I collected first thing Thursday morning.