How to Fill Out C5 Form, the Jamaica Immigration Form - Common Mistakes to Avoid

The Jamaica Customs form is the back of the Jamaica Immigration form.

Only one customs form is completed per family or household living together (mother, father, and children under age 18).

Common mistake alert: Children over age 18 are not considered children by immigration officials. They are adults. Children over age 18 must complete their own custom form. Do not include them when you fill out the customs form for your family.

Here is an example.

John and Mary Brown are traveling to Jamaica with their 4 children, ages 14, 17, 19, and 21.

All six would have an immigration form filled out (the front of the form).

Either John or Mary, not both, would fill out the customs form, the back of their immigration form, listing their spouse and 2 children. The 19 and the 21-year-old would fill out their own form, front and back.

• Pay attention to your duty-free limits. The form states a US$500 limit per person over age 18 on personal and household effects that are not for resale or in commercial quantities.

Technically, the US$500 duty-free allowance is for holders of a Jamaican passport but now it seems they are being more lenient. Clearly, it depends on the customs officer whom you encounter.

For tobacco products, all passengers are allowed either 200 sticks of cigarettes, 50 cigars, or 230 grams of tobacco. You are not allowed to have all three limits.

In terms of alcohol, the limit is 1 liter of spirits and 1 liter of wine. It does appear that this can be combined.

For more information, check out the Jamaica customs office’s website. It is not updated very regularly. Fair warning!

• Items to be declared generally relate to items that will be left on the island.

Tourists coming to stay at hotels or villas generally have nothing to declare because they are just coming for vacation.

So, for example, if you will be visiting family and friends on the island and you have gifts for them, customs would expect that you would declare those items.

A tourist getting married in Jamaica or a Jamaican bride bringing her own wedding dress wouldn’t pay duty on the dress.

You do not need to declare your laptop, your iPad, your cell phone, or your camera. In this day and age, they expect people to have these things.

When we travel to Jamaica we have on average, 3 cell phones, 3 iPads, 2 laptops, a Surface, 2 cameras with all sorts of lenses and attachments, a tripod, a nebulizer, a sleep apnea machine plus all sorts of other electronics that Darrell has that always ensures that our carry-on gets hand searched. Darrell, I am outing you! 🙂

• What if you are bringing donations?

It becomes tricky if you are bringing items to donate, say to a school or an orphanage. There is a formal process to go through, which most people don’t do, primarily because it is such a hassle.

If you are a tourist and your donations fit in one suitcase, generally, no one would even notice. If you are a tourist hauling two big suitcases, someone will probably notice you.

If, for example, you are bringing loads of donations for a school, the Ministry of Education and the school would need to be contacted ahead of time so that someone from the school can be waiting for you to accept the items. Sometimes an official letter from the government acknowledging your gift will suffice.

Many years ago. I had a suitcase full of donated stuffed toys that I had washed and were all looking new.

I was so proud of myself and couldn’t wait to see the look on the children’s faces when I gave them out.

I had no official letter. Unfortunately, the customs agent didn’t see my point. He felt that I could really be going to sell them and that I should pay duty.

To this day, I don’t know what I said to him that changed his mind. He let me go and told me to get the letter next time.

The items won’t be confiscated but you could be required to pay duty based on the value that Customs assigns to them.

If you are definitely below the $500 limit and you go easy with the excess luggage, you should be fine.

If you have a lot of items you are donating and you don’t want to be hassled on arrival, then go through the proper channels. Let the organization to which you are donating do the legwork. That is the least they could do.

• A word of warning, Customs has access to the internet too. Undervaluing items is fraud, just like in the US.

If you clearly undervalue items, the Customs agents have the ability to look in their valuation books and or the internet to determine an average price of the item in question to decide the value.

To prevent problems, I usually carry receipts with me to show proof of purchase for things that are clearly not personal and will be left behind.

A few pointers if you have to complete the physical C5 Jamaica immigration form:

• Use black or blue pen only. Bring your own. There are never enough on the airplane. Plus, since COVID, there isn’t much sharing of pens on the airplane.
• Write legibly.
• Answer all the questions.
• Don’t forget to sign and date the form.

Hopefully, this post will help you to fill out your Jamaica Immigration and Customs form, the Jamaica C5 form online or in print, completely and correctly so that you can whiz through and enjoy the sunshine that is waiting outside.

If you would like some help getting through Immigration and customs quickly, use the VIP airport service, Club Mobay