Getting Your Carnet Validated Upon Departure - Hand Carried Camera Gear

Hand-carrying camera gear with a carnet adds another step to the already annoying process of departing on an international flight. Thank goodness for those who have gone before us and have taken the time to document where the heck to go to find customs upon DEPARTURE.

Note that finding customs when you are departing is definitely going against the flow. Leave extra time to locate customs and possibly to have the gear examined by a customs officer. You also have to make sure you don't check anything listed on the carnet until AFTER you get the carnet validated at customs. The carnet needs to be presented with the equipment.

DP Andrew David Watson has great advice on his blog about finding customs at LGA, JFK and LAX. Also to the rescue are our Carnet-Customized Airport Maps, or C-CAMs for short. One of our Carnet Assistants, Kiel Ursin, reported after speaking with a first-time carnet customer that, when told about the airport maps, she kept saying, "Wow....this is just great." She actually wanted to get a message to the creator and manager of the maps to say, "I truly appreciate it!"