While most of our video productions occur within the San Francisco Bay Area, we get the opportunity to travel for work a few times a year. Recently, we were sent to Austin, New Orleans, Vancouver and Maui for a Bay area tech company. With any travel job, we ask ourselves if and how much equipment we should bring with us. Sure, we could source everything locally, but that often requires more costs and prep time. For this shoot, we decided we’d bring camera equipment with us and source grip and electric locally. The equipment would be comprised of our personal gear as well as rented equipment from a few rental houses. Given this was our first time shooting internationally, we found ourselves asking our if we need a carnet. In this article we’ll talk about if you need a carnet for international video production and the details it entails.

What is a carnet?

When we booked our last job, we knew it was time to get educated on what a carnet was. In simple terms, a carnet allows you to import and export equipment into another country without paying import duties. Think of it this way: a foreign country doesn’t want you bringing goods into their country and selling them and then taking that money back to your home country. Instead, without the carnet, they’ll collect an import tax to make up for this cost assuming you’ll sell the goods in their country. You might be asking yourself, can I get away with not bringing a carnet? Legally, you should have one, but if you are there with just a few pieces of small and inexpensive gear for a personal trip, you should be fine. There are around 80 countries that require them, so do your research before heading on your trip

How do I get a carnet?

If you’ve decided you need to get a carnet, it’s now time to make it happen! There are many companies that will help you get one including: Boomerang carnets, Filmlogic, Roanoke Group and more. The fees associated with each company vary widely so it’s important to inquire before selecting your processing company. The steps for each one should be relatively similar.

  1. Collect name/serial number/ value of each piece of equipment you’ll be temporarily importing.
  2. Provide travel information and fill out application
  3. Submit tax return or financial statements for surety bond.
  4. Receive your Carnet.

You might be thinking “why do I need to submit a tax return or financial statement?” According to Boomerang carnets, “The U.S. national guaranteeing association for carnets requires that all U.S. ATA Carnets be financially secured.” This means that they want to be sure you can pay the import or export duties should you bring extra equipment with you either direction. To complete this step you’d either need a surety bond or a certified check for a specific amount of the total important amount. Read more on that here.

How long does it take to get a carnet?

The process of getting a carnet is pretty quick if you have all the serial numbers and equipment compiled. From there its just about filling out a quick application and providing your proof of business income. Within 24hour you should hear from your chosen company and can have your carnet within 24hour of confirmation via overnight shipping!

What do you need to do with the carnet?

There are a few important steps with the carnet to ensure you don’t get billed anything afterwards.

  1. Get the stamp before leaving your home country that proves you are taking the equipment you say you are. This will likely require additional time at the airport as you’ll need to find customs inspection. For our recent trip this was on the complete other side of the airport.
  2. When going through customs in your destination country get another stamp where they verify you are not importing anything other than what is on your list.
  3. Once again, when leaving the destination country, you’ll need to arrive early to go and visit the customs inspection station. We might also recommend making an appointment. This will give you your final departure stamp.
  4. When you arrive back in your origination country, find the customs inspection, or have the info center bring an inspector to you. They will give the final signature and stamp to prove you are not importing anything other than what you left with!

Conclusion

All in all the idea of a carnet can be a bit frightening at first. If planned properly, it is not a big deal at all. My biggest tip would be to start your gear prep early to collect serials and plan plenty of time at the airports to get the required stamps! If you are looking for any information on a carnet for international video production, feel free to reach out!