Hand-carry (diamonds & gold)

A passenger who lands at Newark or JFK with commercial merchandise in a case is an importer, not a traveller with souvenirs. The personal exemptions in 19 CFR 148 cover articles for personal use. They do not cover goods brought in to sell, to show, to set or to leave on consignment. Commercial merchandise carried by a passenger is declared on the CBP Form 6059B, entered like any other shipment, and covered by a bond. Until the entry is on file and released, the goods stay at the airport. With a single parcel worth six or seven figures, the difference between a clean arrival and a seizure is work that happens before departure, not at the counter.

Rough diamonds and the Kimberley Process

The Kimberley Process Certification Scheme covers rough diamonds: the unworked stones of subheadings 7102.10, 7102.21 and 7102.31. Polished goods do not need a Kimberley certificate, and importers get this wrong in both directions, either attaching a certificate that does not belong on the entry or arriving with rough and nothing to accompany it. For rough, the original certificate travels with the parcel, the parcel stays in its tamper-resistant container until CBP opens it, and the certificate number goes into the entry. The scheme also runs backwards: the exporting authority expects confirmation that the shipment landed. For polished stones there is no certificate to stand behind, and the entry lives or dies on description, weight and a value that matches the invoice.

Russian origin follows the stone

Non-industrial diamonds of Russian origin are prohibited, and since 2024 that prohibition follows the stone through third-country cutting. Rough mined in Russia and polished in India is still Russian, phased in by size from one carat in March 2024 and half a carat that September. Russian gold has been prohibited since 2022. What satisfies CBP on this is a chain of custody with a document at each step, not a supplier’s assurance that the goods are clean. We would rather read that chain a week before your flight than argue it at an inspection counter with the parcel already open.

Bullion, and the form people file by mistake

FinCEN Form 105 reports currency and monetary instruments over $10,000 crossing the border. Gold bullion is not a monetary instrument for that purpose. Travellers file a 105 for bars and then present nothing to enter, or carry bars and file nothing at all. Bullion is merchandise: it is declared, entered and released like merchandise. Bars need refinery, assay and serial detail on the invoice, so that the entry actually describes the thing in the case and an officer counting bars against a document finds no gap.

Tariff exposure in 2026

Chapter 71 is deceptive. Unset diamonds and gold bullion carry no ordinary duty, importers hear “duty free” and stop reading. Jewellery of precious metal in heading 7113 carries a real ad valorem rate. Watches in Chapter 91 are rated compound, with movement, jewels, case and strap valued and rated separately, so an invoice reading “one wristwatch, $40,000” cannot be entered as it stands and has to be rebuilt with the seller before anyone boards. Above the ordinary rate, the additional tariff programmes in force in 2026 turn on country of origin, and bullion’s treatment under them shifted more than once during 2025, first through a ruling letter and then through an exclusion. We check what is in force on the date of entry rather than repeating what was true last quarter. More on the settled goods in jewellery, precious metals and watches.

What goes wrong

• Landing with no entry on file. The merchandise goes into the airline’s bonded facility, you leave without it, and you come back the next day to a storage charge and a queue.
• Goods on memo with no value stated. Not being sold yet does not make something valueless. The entry needs a value, and putting a number on it after CBP asks is far worse than declaring the memo value at the start.
• Repairs and settings done abroad entered as new merchandise. Goods sent out and hand-carried back belong under heading 9802, where duty falls on the value of the repair or alteration, or under 9801.00.10 for US goods returned. Entered as a fresh consumption entry, you pay full duty on value you already owned.
• CITES material inside a finished piece: coral, tortoiseshell, certain ivory, some exotic leather straps. The watch clears, the strap is seized, and the two events happen at the same counter.
• A single transaction bond arranged at the airport. High-value Chapter 71 bonds are underwritten carefully, and the morning of a flight is the wrong time to discover that.

What we need before you fly

• Flight number, arrival airport and terminal, and scheduled landing time.
• An itemised invoice or memo: stone by stone or bar by bar, with weight, description, unit value, currency and country of origin.
• The Kimberley certificate for rough, or origin documentation for polished goods and metal.
• Importer of record number and bond, or a signed power of attorney so that we can put both in place in time.
• Who is carrying the goods, and whether the same person is named on the invoice.

Freight-forwarded high-value moves work the same way on the customs side, with a different clock and a different set of documents on the transport side. That is covered under air freight clearance.