Bringing money to US from selling Russian Apartment

[akdiver 3]

I would worry more about Russian customs, not American. They will require a document about legality of the money over $10k (Amex checks included).

Unless you give them some reason to search through every piece of paper you have (yes, I know, anything is POSSIBLE), there is no worry there. My wife brought WELL over $10,000 in American Express traveler's checks with her out of Russia in a big envelop in her pocketbook and there was no problem at all.

On the American side - there is no tax. The customs form is about money laundering and such things, not taxation. You will fill out the form (which you can get on-line and fill out in advance), make your declaration, and that will be that. Given that she is bringing a check rather than cash, they will not even think about caring.

One thing to keep in mind is CASHING the check. If her name is on it, she will need an ID. With an amount that large, they will probably not just do it with a passport - they are likely to want a social security number, esp. since she will not have an account anywhere - and be unable to get one without an SSN. All things considered, you could probably save a lot of effort if the check is made out to you, or to you "or" her.

Why is she bringing money that is not hers with her? If some of it belongs to her kids, she should just leave it there with her (unless I misread the OP).

Cheers!

AKD

Edited October 21, 2009 by akdiver

[slim 1,514]

I can't even imagine my wife walking around with $10,000 cash on her person, especially when she'd have even more money in the form of a check too. I'd definitely be armed to the teeth with that kind of jack just floating around.

[LvivLovers 39]

I can't ev en imagine my wife walking around with $10,000 cash on her person, especially when she'd have even more money in the form of a check too. I'd definitely be armed to the teeth with that kind of jack just floating around.

I'd be more worried about her going on a shopping spree than being robbed! She loves to shop!

[John24689 0]

Thanks again. My wife could not leave the money in Russia for her two children. They are here in the US. Yes, she may go on a shopping spree, but not before she gets home. She does have a checking and saving account and will not have any problem depositing the money. Time is passing until she returns to me. I don't think she met anyone else, but...... You'll take care and have a great day.

[Gary and Alla 3,694]

Put it in a bank, and then paypal it. Cheaper than bank fees.

Yes, or withdraw it here with an ATM card. Last fall my MIL put her life savings in a bank, when the hryvnia was tanking, and sent Alla an ATM card with instructions to get the money out ASAP. Alla withdrew it here in US dollars and brought it back to her when she visited this summer. we had no problems at all doing this.

[jplusn 0]

Found some info, maybe it will be helpful to some....

American Express checks cost 0.5% to 0.1% of the total sum you want to transfer. You can buy them at the major Russian banks, even if you don't have an account with them (as long as you are buying less than 600,000 RUB in value; otherwise, you need an account with the bank)....

If you're a Russian citizen, to have the wire transfer to your US bank account, you need to go to "nalogovaya" (Russian IRS-type of place) and tell them you have an account in the US (If you opened the account more than a month ago and didn't tell them, they will charge you couple of thousand (RUB) fine). Then you give them the US account info and they stamp the paper. You take the paper to the bank and can transfer any amount of money. The fee of wire transfer varies from bank to bank.

To transfer the money to another person, ... (oops) I forgot what you need. But my fiancee was told they might question you and investigate why you're transferring money to someone else in the US (finacee, husband,etc). Not that you're doing something wrong, but she said it might be annoying to deal with the Russian "nalogovaya"...