Bringing meds from Russia...

[Milenka 0]

My fiance is diabetic. He wants to bring enough insulin for one year with him. What I want to know is what documents do we need to do this? Are there are rules against bringing such a large amount of insulin on a flight? I am not really sure which agency to even address with these questions...Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot in advance! Milena.

[payxibka 10,045]

My fiance is diabetic. He wants to bring enough insulin for one year with him. What I want to know is what documents do we need to do this? Are there are rules against bringing such a large amount of insulin on a flight? I am not really sure which agency to even address with these questions...Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot in advance! Milena.

We brought a "boatload" of medicine when we travelled two weeks ago from Ukraine. No one asked.

[slim 1,525]

From what I can tell, it looks like importing something like Insulin for personal use wouldn't be a big deal, but I couldn't find a direct link to where it said "Insulin is Okay. A whole year's supply is Okay!" From what I did find, it looks like as long as it's for a non-commercial use and isn't something crazy (like a cure for cancer!) then it should be allowed entry. I know there are a lot of rules pertaining to which drugs are authorized and specific amounts for each one. There's been some changes since they started the whole "import Viagra from Canada via the Internet" craze. Now, it's more of a case-by-case basis, up to the Customs and FDA officials at the POE. I would suggest digging around a little more on their websites, then calling the FDA directly, then calling the specific POE where you're going to enter and confirming that everyone is in the loop.

Here's the link for the Customs part:

http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/vacation....xml#Medication

and here's the link for the FDA part:

http://www.fda.gov/ora/compliance_ref/rpm_new2/ch9pers.html

Or, you could always do what Tom Hanks said in the movie "The Terminal" ..... "Fill out the green form.... tell them it's for a goat!" "He love that goat!"

[russ 1]

My fiance is diabetic. He wants to bring enough insulin for one year with him. What I want

The bigger problem that I would look into is making sure that your health insurance will cover him immediately. It would be considered a pre-existing condition, so making sure that you have a group plan now would be a very good idea (no matter how much it costs).

[Milenka 0]

My fiance is diabetic. He wants to bring enough insulin for one year with him. What I want

The bigger problem that I would look into is making sure that your health insurance will cover him immediately. It would be considered a pre-existing condition, so making sure that you have a group plan now would be a very good idea (no matter how much it costs).

Thanks Russ, I live in Poland, so right now I don't have any insurance in the US. But when we get to the US together, we will be getting insurance together asap, no matter the cost. Thanks a lot for the advice.

[Danno 1,228]

Have no idea what the rules are but I would think you would at least have a doctors prescription with his contact info should there be any questions.

As a USA citizen, I have never had my bags checked returning to USA, not sure if they are more likely to check someone with a foriegn visa but if you travel together, put it in the USA bag.

[Waitlisted 0]

I brought back a rather large bag of different medicines from Russia last May and again last month and they didn't seem to care. However, they were curious about my large (unmarked) cardboard box of candy and they decided to run it through the x-ray machine again and they all were laughing after they realized what it was. They do search everyones checked luggage by hand, removing everything and looking at all of it.

By the way, I am an American citizen and my luggage has been thoroughly searched everytime I leave Russia, which has been four times over the last two years. Your mileage may vary...

Edited June 9, 2007 by Habnar