getting lasers through customs

How strict is U.S. customs when it comes to lasers above 5mW? Do they actually test every laser? If the package says 5mW on it do they just let it through? I ordered a 50mW laser last week and am I'm starting to worry about customs a little bit. Think it'll make it through?

The odds are that it will probably get through. Give it some more time. It can sometimes take 2 or 3 weeks for stuff to come in from China.

Oh I know it'll take about 2-3 weeks (if not longer) for the laser to get to me, I just didn't even think about customs when I ordered it and then I did some research and found that some don't make it through and that in countries like Australia they test every laser individually that comes through to see what the true power of it is and are extremely strict about them. I just hope mine doesn't get confiscated because I also ordered one for a friend using his money and if it gets confiscated I'd have to pay him the money lol

what about lasers with take odd, non-standard batteries but don't ship with batteries in the same package? can customs "test" those?

What are you calling 'odd' and 'non-standard' ? Most li-ion's are fairly common in the laser and flashlight market now.

Maybe batteries that customs officials might not have handy. Common in the industry yes, buy them at walmart not quite yet.

When they're testing lasers, I highly doubt they relying on the people sending lasers to have included charged batteries as well. I'm sure they have a full compliment of all the prevalent battery types pointers might use. Especially the 'watched for' lasers like the arctics..

^I dunno, I think you might be giving them too much credit. A billion items from toys to tvs to flashlights to cellphones, doesn't make sense to keep batteries and power cords especially if that's not the primary cause for confiscation (documentation, labeling, licensing, etc). Something tells me if they're looking for arctics, they don't need an arctic battery to test it in order to confiscate it.

I know it is often debated, do you really think US customs is opening a million packages of lasers and inserting the included battery (or using one of their own) and testing them and if it reads >5mW it is confiscated? I rather believe every now and again, they are on the look out for a certain package from a certain someone (BOLO) and if they see it, they detain it. For the few that they can intercept, it just doesn't make sense to me they would want to test it. After they confiscate a ton of product, I can see them pulling a few samples and running a series of tests on them. But I just can't see testing incoming and allowing those that pass to continue to sender while stacking up those that cannot pass. Also I could see them working on a [declared] laser they may have found on an incoming commercial passenger.

They don't open every package, which is why stuff slips through. But people HAVE had lasers confiscated, so they DO test the stuff they do open... So believe what you want.

qumefox said:

They don't open every package, which is why stuff slips through. But people HAVE had lasers confiscated, so they DO test the stuff they do open... So believe what you want.

Click to expand...

I think you're guessing on your previous statements. The above statement about stuff slips thru because every package is not opened has been true from decades, nothing new there.

What we do know if yes people have had their packages confiscated. We all know that, that's a fact. Not sure if you believe it or not, but I know it so you are free to believe whatever you want.

What we don't know is if they opened it and tested it and determined that it was too power or the output was too high or whatever to let it pass. I've seen various reasons posted.

(I hope I'm not sticking my neck out here... maybe it will re-assure the OP or give him an idea what to expect)

I'm getting the impression that US Customs is severely undermanned and underfunded. The chances of getting ANYTHING through is actually pretty high/quite good.

As a cardiac patient, I need to occasionally take NitroStat; sublingual nitroglycerin tablets. Now, in the U.S., this drug is PRESCRIPTION ONLY. In Canada, it is OTC (over-the-counter), not needing a prescription.

Two reasons why I considered a Canadian pharmacy recently:
(1) CHEAP! Let me re-phrase that - In Canada, nitro tablets are EXTREMELY cheap compared to the U.S.

(2) My damm uptight cardiologist insists on me making an appointment with her every 6 months, if I want to renew my prescription. In some cases, I think that the U.S. healthcare system -> pharm industry is a racket. One hand feeds the other. I SHOULDN'T have to see my cardiologist EVERY 6 MONTHS to refill my prescription! Its an unnecessary bother.

So... I started checking & researching this issue. I even made phonecalls, even talking to the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) once.

The FDA agent/receptionist said " ... if you do that, since it is a PRESCRIPTION drug here in the US, they will confiscate the medication, send you a letter and impose a fine!". As it turns out, that was a scare tactic.

I *RESEARCHED* and found a VERY reliable and trustworthy Canadian pharmacy.

They said, first of all, that by law they COULDN'T impose a fine for that. Not in this particular case. All they can do is confiscate, and they MUST send a letter stating that it was confiscated.

Second, medications from Canada were VERY RARELY caught. SOMETIMES they are. Apparantly, it's an on-and-off thing, customs occasionally "buckles down" and does "sweeps" for a week or two a few times a year... perhaps to justify themselves and make an impression (to politicians?). For medications, it's RARELY a problem - the customs agents just don't want the headache of bothering to find out if they are "in the right" in these cases.

Third, in MY case, a customs agent would probably let it through, because as of *right now*, ordering meds from Canada IS legal. They would probably NOT make the connection that Nitrostat is PRESCRIPTION ONLY in the US, but OTC in Canada.

Fourth, if this DID happen, the pharmacy would (a) refund my money (b) send me a replacement; my choice.

I placed an order, it came, no problems. AND the sender was OBVIOUSLY a pharmacy, from the shipping label.

Now, for lasers, for a company like O-Like, when they (apparantly) place innocuous-seeming labels and declarations on the package, then the package does not scream "I have a laser inside me". Only in a "sweep" would they even open the package.

What are the chances of any particular customs agent even KNOWING that a particular laser is illegal? Unless they are specifically trained, or in case a memo happened to circulate recently AND said memo is still fresh on their minds...

ALSO note that if a hi-power laser is * FDA Compliant *, then it ISN'T a problem.
From the LaserGlow website:
This laser has a full FDA-compliant 5-point safety system which includes: key switch, safety interlock, aperture shutter, power LED, and 3-second delay.

Of course, a 20mw Laser "pointer" from China would NOT be FDA compliant.

And PARTS (just the diodes/DPSS's), drivers, etc. are NOT a problem.

Jeez, big enough brick man? Learn to summarize bro, more people will read your post.

The US gets so much stuff imported in the country that its impossible for them to go through 10% of it. They are not really looking for single lasers generally. If the laser company is not high on their black list, they dont go out of their way. So there is huge chance you will get what you ordered.