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For a First time immigrant travelling to the United States, Is there a limit in bringing in cash? I understand that when travelling to the U.S., you are only allowed to bring in a Limit of $10,000.00. Also if you are a family of four or a couple, is it $10.000 for the whole family or $10.000.00 for a couple?

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    The "limit" is the amount that you can bring without declaring it. You can bring more but you need to declare how much money you have during the immigration & customs processing upon arrival if it is more than 10K.
    – user13044
    Sep 24, 2015 at 0:56
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    Is there such a thing as a "second time" immigrant? One would think immigrating is a one time affair ;-)
    – user13044
    Sep 24, 2015 at 0:57
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    @Tom I've changed my country of residence nearly a dozen times, which at the very least required completely re-setting up in the UK twice, so it's not always once ;)
    – Mark Mayo
    Sep 24, 2015 at 4:19
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    I'm interested to hear about countries who distinguish between first, second, third time and other immigrants.
    – MastaBaba
    Sep 24, 2015 at 4:43
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    Hmm... It seems a bit odd that this question was closed as off-topic to me, as it seems to be more directly related to the act of traveling to the U.S. than to the act of immigrating. That being said, it might be a dupe of Maximum cash allowed when travelling to the U.S.. I didn't see an answer directly to the part about whether the limit is individual or per family in the answers, but it is answered by the links in the answers there (it is per family.)
    – reirab
    Sep 24, 2015 at 18:25

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It is extremely risky to bring large amounts of cash to the USA. Especially so (sorry) if you are not white. Meet civil asset forfeiture. If law enforcement does this they will sue your money instead of yourself and it'll be incredibly difficult to get your money back.

If at all possible use a bank wire -- and in one go, otherwise they might snare you for structuring...

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    What does a new immigrant coming to the USA have to do with police seizing assets of people suspected of involvement in crimes?
    – user13044
    Sep 24, 2015 at 2:30
  • This happens at airports just as well. It's not immigration specific.
    – user4188
    Sep 24, 2015 at 4:18
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    @Tom Unfortunately, the police tend to take the position that large amounts of cash are are criminal in nature. Wire it.
    – Loren Pechtel
    Sep 24, 2015 at 4:57
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    Good advice but doesn't answer the question.
    – DJClayworth
    Sep 24, 2015 at 13:21
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    The rather remote possibility of forfeiture abuse aside, the possibility of theft (by TSA or anyone near your bags) is a much more probable reason why you should avoid carrying huge amounts of cash with you (in any part of the world, at an airport or otherwise.)
    – reirab
    Sep 24, 2015 at 18:12

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