Customs Declaration Forms: What to Declare When You Land

A customs declaration tells a country’s customs officers what you are bringing in: goods bought abroad, gifts, food, cash and anything for sale. When you land in the US, you make it on CBP Form 6059B, in the Mobile Passport Control app, or out loud to the officer. Here is what each question on the US form means, the allowances that decide whether you pay duty, and the rules for the EU, the UK and Japan.

What a customs declaration is and when you make one

A customs declaration lists what you bring into a country so officers can charge duty and stop banned items. Customs is a separate check from immigration: the immigration officer looks at your passport, visa and the other documents for your trip, while customs looks at what is in your bags.

It is often separate from an arrival card too. An online arrival card asks who you are and where you will stay, while the customs declaration asks about goods, food and cash.

In the US you can sometimes declare out loud. Under 19 CFR 148.12, CBP may accept an oral declaration when a returning resident’s purchases total no more than $800, but it can require the written form at any port.

What to declare at customs: goods, food, cash and business items

Customs forms ask about 4 groups of items:

• Goods acquired abroad, gifts and duty-free shop purchases included, counted against an allowance
• Food, plants and animal products, which can carry pests and animal diseases
• Cash above a threshold, 10,000 in the local currency in the US, the EU and the UK
• Commercial goods, which the US form defines as articles for sale, samples for soliciting orders and anything that is not a personal effect

Place	Other goods, duty-free	Alcohol	Tobacco	Cash you must declare
United States	$800 per returning resident, $100 per visitor	1 liter for residents 21 or older	200 cigarettes and 100 cigars, inside the $800	More than $10,000, family or group total
European Union	EUR 430 by air or sea, EUR 300 otherwise	4 L still wine and 16 L beer, plus 1 L spirits or 2 L fortified or sparkling wine	200 cigarettes, or 40 in some countries, mainly for land and sea arrivals	EUR 10,000 or more
Great Britain	£390, or £270 by private plane or boat	42 L beer or cider and 18 L wine, plus 4 L spirits or 9 L of other drinks up to 22%	200 cigarettes, 100 cigarillos, 50 cigars or 250 g tobacco	£10,000 or more, family or group total
Japan	Under 200,000 yen in total, items under 10,000 yen not counted	3 bottles of about 760 ml	200 cigarettes, 50 cigars or 250 g of other tobacco	More than 1 million yen

Children get less. The EU and Great Britain give travelers under 17 no alcohol or tobacco allowance, and some EU countries cut the goods allowance to EUR 150 for travelers under 15.

How to fill out the US customs form (CBP Form 6059B)

CBP Form 6059B has 15 numbered items and a signature line, takes about 4 minutes by CBP’s estimate and comes in 17 languages. One written declaration covers a family, meaning relatives by blood, marriage, domestic relationship or adoption who live in the same household.

Items 1-9 cover you and the trip, and items 10-14 are yes-or-no questions on business travel, agriculture, livestock, cash and commercial goods. In item 15, residents give the total value of everything acquired abroad, gifts included, while visitors give the value of what will stay in the US. The back lists each article and its value in US dollars.

This is an invented sample. Dana and Luis Ortega, both US residents, fly home from Lisbon to Newark on 14 November 2026 with their 9-year-old son. Dana fills in one form for all 3.

Item	What Dana writes
1-2	Ortega, Dana Marie; 03/22/1985
3	2 family members traveling with her
4	418 Maple Avenue, Montclair, NJ
5-7	United States; her passport number; United States
8-9	Portugal, Spain; the Lisbon to Newark flight number
10	No: the trip was a holiday
11	Yes on (a) and (b) for a wedge of cheese; No on (c) and (d)
12-14	No livestock, $600 in cash, nothing for sale: No, No, No
15	Residents total: $950

On the back: ceramic dinner set $380, leather jacket $420, painted tiles as gifts $95, one 750 ml bottle of wine $30, cheese $25.

The family groups its 3 exemptions, so up to $2,400 comes in free and the $950 owes no duty. The wine fits one adult’s 1-liter allowance, and a CBP agriculture specialist decides on the cheese. Traveling alone with the same bags, Dana would owe duty on the $150 above her $800.

Declaring in the Mobile Passport Control app

Mobile Passport Control (MPC) is CBP’s free app for the 6059B questions. With it, CBP says you do not fill out a paper declaration form, and a November 2025 Federal Register notice says it will in most cases eliminate the need for one.

MPC is open to US citizens, US lawful permanent residents, Canadian B1/B2 visitors and Visa Waiver Program travelers on a return visit with an approved ESTA, and it replaces neither the passport nor the ESTA. CBP has proposed opening it to other visitors, but as of October 2026 its MPC page still lists only those 4 groups. The app works at 63 sites, including 37 US international airports and 15 preclearance locations.

Declare through Mobile Passport Control in 5 steps

1. Check that your arrival or preclearance airport is on CBP’s MPC list.
2. Download the free app and scan your passport.
3. Add the people traveling with you, up to 12 on one phone.
4. Answer the arrival and declaration questions and take a selfie, no earlier than 4 hours before landing.
5. Follow the MPC signs to the dedicated line and show your passport to the officer.

US duty-free allowances: $800 for residents, $100 for visitors

The $800 is a duty exemption, not a declaration threshold: residents declare everything, and the officer applies the exemption to the total. CBP’s duty rules allow it once every 31 days, after at least 48 hours outside the US, with no more than 200 cigarettes and 100 cigars.

Alcohol is counted separately. One liter is duty-free if you are 21 or older, and extra liters are charged duty and tax even under $800, so 3 liters of wine means 2 dutiable liters.

The first $1,000 above the exemption is charged a flat 3% rate under 19 CFR 148.102. Visitors normally get $100 and declare the value of what will stay in the US, such as gifts.

Food at customs: declare it even if you think it is allowed

CBP requires travelers to declare meats, fruits, vegetables, plants, seeds, soil, animals, and plant and animal products, soup included. Answer “Yes” on question 11, and on 11(d) or 12 after a farm visit or contact with livestock. A CBP agriculture specialist then decides what can enter, and many fresh, dried and some canned meats are prohibited. Undeclared prohibited items are confiscated and can bring a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for a first offense involving non-commercial quantities.

The EU allows no meat or dairy from non-EU countries, except powdered baby milk, baby food, medical foods and special pet feed in branded packaging, unopened unless in use. Great Britain bans personal imports of meat and dairy from most non-EU countries.

Carrying cash: the $10,000, EUR 10,000 and £10,000 rules

Carrying cash is legal in any amount. The rules are about reporting it: the US threshold is more than $10,000, while the EU and the UK start at 10,000 or more.

• US: report more than $10,000, in any currency or a mix, entering or leaving, on FinCEN Form 105, which CBP recommends filing electronically. Traveler’s checks and bearer instruments count.
• EU: declare EUR 10,000 or more on the EU cash declaration form, and customs can act below that amount if it suspects a crime.
• Great Britain: declare £10,000 or more online or by phone from 72 hours before travel, or at the red channel. Undeclared cash can all be seized, with a penalty of up to £5,000.
• Japan: cash over 1 million yen goes on a separate customs form.

UK customs allowances and the online declaration

Great Britain allows £390 of other goods, or £270 by private plane or boat. Alcohol and tobacco allowances work by category: bring 19 liters of wine, 1 over the 18-liter allowance, and you pay tax and duty on all 19. You can declare online from 5 days (120 hours) before arrival, pay by card and use the green channel, or declare at the red channel or red-point phone.

Japan customs: every passenger declares

Japan Customs requires every passenger to declare their belongings, on a paper form available on the plane, the ship or at customs, or electronically through Visit Japan Web, which it recommends. Use the green channel only with nothing dutiable, prohibited or restricted, and the red channel otherwise.