Having cash seized by CBP is difficult enough when you are at home — when you can receive mail, gather documents, contact attorneys, and navigate the process from a familiar environment. When the seizure happens while you are traveling internationally, the same process becomes significantly more complicated. This page explains the specific challenges of an overseas currency seizure and how legal representation addresses them.
As explained in our CBP Money Seizure Lawyer’s Guide, U.S. Customs may seize your cash for failing to report transportation of more than $10,000 when entering or leaving the country, for bulk cash smuggling, or for illegal currency structuring. The seizure happens at the port — the airport or border crossing — and the legal process that follows begins immediately whether you are present in the United States or not.
Why an Overseas Currency Seizure Is Especially Difficult
The most immediate problem is the CAFRA Notice of Seizure. Under the Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act, CBP is required to send you a formal notice of seizure within approximately 60 days. This notice sets your legal deadline — you have 30 days from the date on the notice to respond, and that clock runs from the mailing date regardless of whether you actually receive it.
If you are outside the United States when the notice is mailed, several things can go wrong. The notice may be sent to a U.S. address where no one is present to receive the certified mail. It may arrive late due to international mail transit times. It may be lost entirely. In each of these scenarios, the deadline continues to run — and missing it allows CBP to proceed with administrative forfeiture permanently, without any court review, without any opportunity for you to present your case. We have written separately about cases where mail delays caused travelers to miss the CAFRA deadline and the very limited options that remain after that point.
Even if you do receive the notice while overseas, responding to it without assistance is a significant burden. The election of proceedings form requires a legally informed decision among options with meaningfully different implications. The petition for remission or mitigation — the most common path to recovering seized funds — is a legal document that requires gathering documentation, understanding the applicable legal standards, and making the strongest possible argument for return of your money. Doing that from abroad, without access to your financial records, without the ability to coordinate easily with banks and employers and other document sources, while managing the other demands of international travel, is genuinely difficult.
There is also the privacy dimension. Without representation, the process of gathering documentation and responding to CBP may require involving friends or family members in your private financial affairs — asking them to retrieve mail, gather bank records, or act on your behalf in dealings with a federal agency. For many clients, that involvement is itself a burden they strongly prefer to avoid.
How Legal Representation Solves These Problems
Retaining Great Lakes Customs Law immediately after a seizure — even while you are still overseas — resolves each of these problems directly.
We obtain the CAFRA Notice of Seizure on your behalf, typically more quickly than waiting for CBP to mail it to you directly. Once we are retained as your counsel, CBP sends the seizure notice directly to our office — which means no risk of missed delivery, no certified mail left unclaimed, and no deadline running while you are unaware. We track the notice, confirm the response deadlines, and ensure that nothing slips through while you are managing life overseas.
We then handle the petition process with your cooperation but without requiring your physical presence in the United States. We gather the documentation we need through remote communication, prepare the petition, and file it with CBP’s Fines, Penalties and Forfeitures office on your behalf. You do not need to make a return trip to the United States to gather evidence, appear at the port, or submit paperwork.
If the petition is successful and CBP issues a check for the returned funds, we can receive it on your behalf. If you prefer, we can arrange for the returned funds to be deposited and then wired to your overseas bank account — something CBP itself will not do, as they issue paper checks to U.S. addresses. The entire process can be handled remotely, maintaining your privacy and minimizing disruption to your life abroad.
Act Immediately — The Clock Starts at the Seizure
The single most important piece of advice for anyone whose cash has been seized while traveling internationally: do not wait until you return home to address it. The legal deadlines do not pause for your travel schedule. Contact us from wherever you are — the consultation is free, and engaging counsel immediately is the only way to ensure your rights and options are fully preserved from the moment of seizure. Read our guide on what not to do after a seizure and our full customs money seizure legal guide. Call us at (734) 855-4999, send a text message, or reach us on WhatsApp. You can also contact us online.