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Filling Out the Customs Forms
this site by Lauren Pomerantz, a mentor for Soldiers' Angels

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This is a US customs forms 2976-A.  It is used on any package weighing over four pounds.  You can request these at the Post Office.  You can request them the same way that you requested your Military Mail pack.  Sometimes they have them lying around the Post Office.

After you fill out your customs form, you will have to take it and your package to the Post Office.  The form must be stamped.  You cannot just leave it for the mail carrier or put it in a Automated Postal Center.

  1. Write in your name.  Leave the business line blank.  Write in your street address, city, state, and ZIP code.

  2. Write in your soldier's name.  Leave the business line blank.  Most military addresses are two lines long.  Write this on the two street lines.  Write the ZIP code where it says "postcode."  For the city, put in APO or FPO.  For the state, put in AE or AP or AA.  Leave the country blank, or put in "USA."  Do not put in Iraq or Afghanistan or wherever the box will end up.  The Post Office is taking it to the Army or Navy.  The military will take your package overseas.

  3. In the detailed description of the contents, write what you put in the box.  This can be as detailed as you want it.  The one I sent recently said "books, clothing, snacks, personal hygiene items, candy, stationery."  This covered three books, a package of men's briefs, beef jerky, goldfish crackers, a razor and replacement blades, some Kleenex packets, five tubes of suntan lotion, three small bottles of sanitizing wash, two packs of moist towelettes, dental floss, some hard candies, and two packs of 3" x 5" notecards.

  4. You can fill in the quantities if you wish.  This is really more about commercial samples.  I leave it blank.

  5. Value is, again, primarily for commercial samples.  I leave this blank.

  6. Fill in the Total Value.  Guess.  I usually put something between $20 and $50. 

  7. Check the box labeled Airmail/Priority unless you are sending something that is too large to fit into a Flat Rate box.

  8. Check the box labeled Gift.

  9. Date and sign the form.

  10. Click the option to Redirect to Address Below.  In the space, write "any chaplain or commanding officer," just like on the top of the box or the address label. 

If you send something that weighs more than four ounces but less than four pounds, you will need to use form 2976. 

It asks for basically the same information, but in a smaller form.