United States: Guidelines for Importing Medications for Personal Use

1. Does the United States allow individuals to import unregistered prescription drugs by mail?

Conditional. The FDA has adopted a lenient enforcement approach toward prescription drugs that treat serious illnesses, allowing individuals to bring or mail small amounts of unapproved drugs into the country for their own use. The general principle is that the dosage should not exceed 90 days, it should be for personal treatment and there should be no promotional commercial activities. ( FDA website )

2. Do I need to submit an application to the government in advance?

No prior application is required. The FDA does not have a pre-approval procedure for individual imported drugs. Instead, the FDA or customs officials decide whether to release the drugs during customs clearance. If the package is inspected, you may be asked to provide relevant written documents to prove that the medicine is for personal use.

• U.S. Citizens: You need to submit the name and address of your U.S. licensed physician; or provide an overseas prescription visa proving that the product is used to continue treatment abroad
• Non-U.S. citizens: passport and visa copies, doctor's diagnosis, prescription copies

3. How much tariff do individuals need to pay for imported medicines?

Exempt from customs duties. According to the classification in the U.S. Harmonized Tariff Schedule ( HTS ), most prescription drugs or over-the-counter drugs are classified as medical or pharmaceutical products, and their tariff rate is usually 0% .