We have:
Bringing engagement ring to singapore which was bought in germany
Buying an engagement ring in the US and bringing it to Australia
If I don't declare a not-yet-used engagement ring at airport security, am I smuggling jewelry?
Do Customs duties and VAT apply on jewellery and gifts even when imported into UK by US citizens?
Buying tech merchandising in New York (includes mention of an engagement ring)
Can I take two rings to Canada without paying any fee?
Plus some others that are closed as dupes, presumably of one of these.
The major concerns seem to be about whether duty is payable, and how to declare (or deal with secondary finding) the item when its existence is supposed to be a surprise to the travel companion.
Can we choose one of these to be the ur-question and point all the others at it? Merge some of them? Ask a new canonical one and merge the others into that? Something?
A good answer to the canonical question:
- would give the rule that applies to most countries and scenarios. I think that is "as long as it's leaving this country again after the proposal everything is fine", but I might be wrong. This includes whether or not it should be declared.
- would encourage everyone to check the rules for the particular country where the proposal will happen, some of which at least on paper have limits to the values of things you can bring in and out, and would include some examples
- would have a paragraph about the special case where the ring is not ending up back wherever the ring-bringer lives, because the engaged couple live in different countries
- would include advice about keeping a possession semi-secret through a secondary inspection (we've seen things about putting it in a sock with a note asking for discretion, for example.)
