Items being brought to St. Croix will need to go through customs. Navigating this process felt tricky at first because customs can be different in different places,and we found and talked to people that felt unsuccessful with the process. Below is our experience of bringing household goods items into St. Croix, a U.S. territory.

We moved to St. Croix at the beginning of this year, 2023. At that time the Gallows Bay container port had still not recovered from hurricane Maria and was still closed. This made navigating customs a little more difficult because information on the correct places to go for a container shipment were not well documented. I first called the Gallows Bay customs office to learn what the process and paperwork would be for importing a shipping container of household goods. The phone rang, no one answered, and there was no voicemail option. US Customs and Boarder Control had several numbers so I started calling them and was only successful using the number at the airport. The gentleman I spoke to was very helpful. To get a shipment through customs in St. Croix the following items are needed:

1. The bill of lading from the carrier (we used Tropical)
2. Invoice of all items and an estimated cost.
   • Our items were things we had had for years and so we had no invoices. We created a detailed inventory of all of our items and put cost estimates next to everything.
   • If items are being purchased and shipped to the island it is best to hold onto all recipts to present to customs (this will also be required for excise tax).
3. Approved and paid excise tax form. This can processed online by going to The Virgin Islands Bureau of Internal Revenue.
   • This site has a form to fill out about the ship delivering the items and a place to upload all necessary documents.
   • There is an excel upload template that we used to transfer our inventory to, we uploaded this and the bill of lading to the site. Once this information was added we were able to submit our request.

While I was on the phone with the customs agent I also asked what would happen if they needed to search the container, and what storage looks like if we cannot pick the container up the same day. In response the first question I was told that customs would ask the carrier if they had the ability to open the shipping container, if the carrier does not have a way customs will cut all locks. We did lock our shipping container and we did not give Tropical our keys. Our container was not searched so I don't know what that process would have looked like if they needed to get in. As to storage costs I was told to ask our carrier, Tropical, what they would charge for storage and how long until they would begin billing.

We didn't want our container to be sitting at the port any longer than it needed to be there. We had heard stories from people that found the process to be frustrating and we were fairly anxious to see what this process would be like, and get or items safely stored (this shipping container was everything we owned). Tropical has a sailing schedule with fairly predictable dates on when the ship will depart and when it will arrive at the destination port. We used this information to plan a trip to meet the container in port the day it came in. Our shipment got pushed and ended up arriving four days later than anticipated. Fortunately, we did not have to re-do any travel plans as a result of this.

Once a ship sails the carrier can send the bill of lading. This means we were able to complete all the excise tax paperwork online and get it approved and paid for prior to the ship coming into port. This saved us time. Our excised tax payment ended up being fifty dollars, which is less than we thought it would be. We believe the cost was due to the fact that we own our shipping container. We did not have to pay for the household goods themselves.

Once we made the online payment we received a document from the tax office with a stamp of approval. We then went to office depot and printed out our bill of lading and the approved tax document, which had the full inventory of the container. This is everything we needed for customs, and we had it completed and printed a day before the ship arrived.

The morning the ship arrived we still didn't know where the physical customs office was or where our container would be picked up. A google search indicated that we needed to go to Gallows Bay, however, according to the website that office was closed. We also didn't know where Tropical's office was. We decided to drive over to the container port near the oil refinery to see if there were any offices or people we could talk to . We saw our ship docked in port, but ports are pretty locked down and we didn't see any office we could go to or person we could talk to. We then decided to head to the airport to find that customs office, and found the office in a warehouse looking building next to the UPS customer center. As we walked up to the building we started to feel we were in the wrong spot, but we turned the handle and the door opened! The customs officials we met were very helpful. They appreciated our through inventory and documentation. They have a rack of forms in the office that may help us in the future if we need to import building supplies. They approved our paperwork right there by stamping and signing our bill of lading. They told us we would give that document with the stamp to Tropical.

Tropical's office is in a warehouse behind leatherback. We handed them our approved bill of lading and they uploaded a copy of it to their system. When they gave the document back they told us we would need to give this document to the driver who would be picking up the shipment. Prior to coming to St. Croix we had identified a trucking company, who had told us just to call when we were ready. Scheduling work on St. Croix does not seem common. We called them after leaving Tropical and they told us they could pick it up and deliver it to the facility where we would be storing the container that day!

The process of getting a twenty foot shipping container across the country, on a boat, through customs, and into storage was challenging and required many follow up calls, but ultimately was not as difficult as we originally thought it would be. If you find yourself in a similar situation let us know!