I have a crate with unfinished plains game from South Africa at Safari Cargo in Joberg getting ready to be shipped to LA. No CITES, swine, or primates. Anyone have any recent experience clearing your own shipment in LA? I used one of the many import companies on my last trip and was hoping to save some money by doing it myself this time.

Can't say how LA would be but I have cleared my own trophies at DFW 4 times and will be doing it again next week. Really pretty simple to do...you can look at the USFWS website and print the forms needed for clearance, or you can sign up for eDecs and fill out and submit the forms electronically (one advantage to doing it this way is that the form will give you the proper Latin names for each of your trophies). If you file electronically, the USFWS inspector can view your forms on his computer, saves lots of time. It goes sort of like this: your trophies arrive at the air freight company and they will notify you, you then pick up the freight packet and take it to USFWS and they will look at your eDecs or printed forms and shipping documents, after they finish and stamp your paperwork, you go to Customs and Border Patrol for approval...after their approval you return to the air freight company and pick up your trophies (plus pay the freight company service charge, $50.00 at Delta at DFW). If you decide to clear your own, request shipping paperwork via email from the SA shipper as it will have the info needed to fill out your USFWS forms. The last time I cleared mine it took less than 1 hour from the time I first drove up to the air freight company until I left with my trophies. Really pretty simple.

Karl

I've done it several times here in Seattle at Sea-Tac airport. FWS is right in area of air freight carriers. The FWS staff are very helpful and professional. No probs at all.

Thanks for the info Karl and Brice. PM sent your way.