Customs procedures

Entry customs declarations must be kept in case they are required when leaving the country. It is forbidden to import ammunition, explosives, narcotics, pornographic materials without a special license. It is forbidden to export objects of cultural, historical or artistic value without a definitive or temporary Export Document issued by the competent authorities. Vaccines are not required. Anti-rabies vaccines are mandatory for dogs and cats.

Extracts from the customs regulations available in full on www.customs.ro :

The following goods must be declared in writing and presented to the customs authority:

• movable cultural goods, those with a cultural, historical or artistic character when removed from Romania; 
• species of wild flora and fauna; 
• weapons, ammunition, explosive, radioactive, nuclear materials, strategic products provided for in special laws; 
• drugs or psychotropic substances and their precursors, biological materials with the potential for mass contamination, medicines containing narcotic or psychotropic substances, essential chemical substances as well as toxic substances; 
• payment instruments in the form of cash on you, which are equal to or exceed the equivalent of 10000 Euro/person when entering or leaving the Community.

The declaration is made on a special form, made available free of charge by the customs authority, at the request of travelers. The non-declaration of the aforementioned goods attracts, as the case may be, criminal or contraventional sanctions for the persons who violate these legal provisions.

The following goods found on travelers that exceed the quantitative limit of:

• cigarettes 800 pieces; 
• cigarettes (with a maximum weight of 3 grams/piece) 400 pieces 
• leaf cigarettes 200 pieces 
• smoking tobacco 1 kg 
• spirits 10 liters
• intermediate products 20 liters 
• wines and fermented drinks 90 liters 
• beer 110 liters

The following goods found on travelers that exceed the limit of:

• 200 cigarettes 
• 100 cigarillos (cigars with a maximum weight of 3 grams each) 
• 50 cigars 
• 250 grams of smoking tobacco 
• 1 liter of alcohol and distilled alcoholic beverages and spirits with an alcoholic strength of over 22% volume or undenatured ethyl alcohol of 80% volume and over 
• 2 liters of alcohol and alcoholic beverages with a concentration of less than 22% volume 
• 4 liters of still wine 
• 16 liters of beer 
• miscellaneous goods, other than those above, up to the global value of 430 euros/traveller 

Above these limits, customs duties, value added tax, excise duties or any other taxes due to the state budget are due and must be paid upon release for free circulation in Romania.

Additional information as well as the most frequently asked questions can be found on the official website of the customs authority www.customs.ro, in the Travelers section.

There you find information about:

• Entering Romania from a non-EU state 
• Entering Romania from a Community state 
• Leaving Romania in a non-EU state 
• Leaving Romania in a community state 
• I am a citizen of a non-EU country studying in Romania 
• I am a citizen of a non-EU country and I want to settle in Romania 
• The introduction and removal from Romania of weapons and ammunition 
• The introduction and removal of mobile cultural assets from Romania 
• Entering and withdrawing from Romania sums in lei and foreign currency 
• Goods shipped by parcel 
• Misdemeanors and customs offences

Vama

Within the organizational structure of the Romanian state, the General Directorate of Customs is a complex institution that plays a fundamental role both from the point of view of taxation, at the same time fulfilling the function of an instrument for the protection of the national economy with a significant effect on the social and defense system of the nation.

The General Directorate of Customs functions as a specialized body of the central public administration, with legal personality, subordinated to the Ministry of Public Finance, the National Agency for Fiscal Administration, comprising 8 Regional Customs Directorates.

In essence, the General Directorate of Customs ensures the application of the strategy and government program in the customs field, fulfilling in this sense the attributions established by law.

Thus, to achieve its object of activity The General Directorate of Customs mainly exercises the following attributions:

• apply in the customs field the specific measures resulting from the government programs and from the legislation in the customs field;
• controls the means of transport loaded with import, export or transit goods, as well as the accompanied or unaccompanied luggage of travelers crossing the state border of Romania and verifies their legality and customs regime, according to the customs regulations in force;
• detains, with a view to confiscation, the goods that are subject to deviations from the customs legislation and for which the law provides for such a sanction;
• coordinates and directs the activity of the regional customs directorates and customs offices in the line of preventing and combating the illicit trafficking of drugs, weapons, explosives, objects from the national cultural heritage;
• pursues, in cooperation with other competent state bodies, cases of money laundering through customs operations;
• apply the customs measures resulting from the free exchange or free trade agreements concluded between Romania, on the one hand, and the European Union or the countries currently being integrated into the European Union, etc.

For any other information about the customs formalities to be completed when entering or leaving the country, contact the Customs Office at the "Avram Iancu" International Airport Cluj at phone number: 0264 307 578.