Originally Posted by
kdanson
Hi everyone! Hope I can get some advice from Americans that live abroad.
I've been working in Japan for the past year now and my company will be sending me back to the US for a week of training.
This will be my first time back to the States and I was wondering for the Customs Declaration Form, do I fill out the Visitors section then?
Meaning I only fill out the items that will remain in the US, not all the stuff that I've bought (e.g. suit, work clothes, company laptop, etc) since I'll be taking it back? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
US citizens may be either resident US citizens or non-resident US citizens for tax/customs duty purposes. The duty free allowance varies based on that. Ordinarily people declare the value of what they are going to leave in the US, and that is to be done regardless of citizenship or resident status. It is the resident status of the citizen/person that helps determine how much you can bring to the US for use/keeping in the US without paying duty.
The stuff you are taking out of the US after your visit to the US as a non-resident of the US doesn't count against your non-dutiable allowance/allowance amount as a visitor. If you are somehow still considered a resident of the US, then the assumption may be made that the stuff you have acquired abroad is subject to duty in the US. For clothes that you've used before and taking back to Japan? Commonly not an issue either way. Work laptop is obviously to go back to work abroad and sounds like you are just borrowing it for the period of your employment and have to take it back to Japan. I would expect more issues over food or cash/money stuff than the belongings you mentioned above.