I don’t want to waste too much time on this. I have a busy day ahead of me, but it is like this.
As I stated, any item that you go from one country to another, and then return, has four legs to the transaction. It doesn’t matter if it’s a can of beans.
it is imperative that the traveler determine on the front end what the requirements are for each of the four parts.
If you have connecting flights (such as a layover in Iceland, so that you can go salmon fishing for a couple days on your way to oh, I don’t know, let’s say some driven game days in the border countries), you have to be sure that you are obeying their law as well.
And you need to contact the people who enforce those laws, and get the proper certificates from them so that you don’t have a problem on your way in, or you’re way out.
Optics are an interesting item because some are controlled and some are not.
That’s why the optics planet website says things so vaguely.
But at the same time you can go to any stalker website for people that shoot deer etc., in Europe, and find out that they commonly buy optics from optics planet, and then have them shipped directly to their homes. in that case it’s primarily because the optics that they are purchasing are not the kind that are on the US list for non-exportable. AND they are not precluded from their importation either. But the transaction is still an export. And the receipt is still an import.
They pay their local duties and fees when they pick it up.
I wish I knew where the OP is headed, as then it would be easy to discern which laws apply.
On the US side, which is an in, and an out, if the scope is exportable (I haven’t looked it up the US website) the 4453 and a purchase receipt would be adequate for an out and an in.
But, since we don’t know where it’s heading, can’t really say what their rules might be.
But they’ll still have an in and an out controlled by their CBP people.
If this is just an effort to avoid a checked bag fee, remember most International flights include a checked bag.
