Problem: Article: Locating and hiring a licensed customs broker can make your importation process much easier. This professional facilitates communication between you and the government, fills out and files necessary paperwork, and can help you navigate import regulations. They can also help estimate import costs and how long the import process will take. Just make sure that you can cover their fee with the sale of your imported products. Neglecting compliance can be very costly. This may force you to pay expensive and unexpected customs duties, such as the anti-dumping duty, as well as risk delaying your customs clearance. This will cost you expensive storage fees at a railway station or container yard. Avoid these expenses by hiring a qualified customs broker. Find a certified broker by searching on the website for the National Customs Brokers and Forwarders Association of America. Work with your customs broker to identify which licenses and permits you will need, if any. Apply for them through the appropriate US government channels and wait for your application to be accepted before placing an import order. You will need a specialized license to import items that fall under certain categories, such as food products, plants, animal products, prescription medication, trademarked items (brand name or designer goods), and copyrighted items (CDs, DVDs, etc.). The specific licenses needed for each good may come from different government agencies. You can find which licenses you need by visiting the US Customs and Border Patrol's website and searching for "licenses and permits." The ISF is a document specific to items shipped by sea freight that provides advance shipment information to US Customs. This document should be filed 24 hours before shipment sets sail. If this is not done by either you or your broker, you may have to pay a $5,000 fine. The data points required on the ISF are: Identities of the buyer and seller. Importer of Record number. Consignee numbers. Country of Origin. Ship to party. Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United States number (if your Chinese supplier has some export experience, he should have the harmonized schedule code, or HS code, for your product). Manufacturer or supplier information. Container stuffing location. Consolidator. For help with this, contact a service port of entry near you. Ask to speak with a CBP import specialist assigned to the product you are importing. Import specialists can provide you with product specific requirements, advisory duty rates, answer your questions about filing an entry, and can assist you with preparing and filing the required paperwork. You can locate a port of entry and its contact information by visiting the CBP's website. You should be aware of any entry requirements specific to the particular product you are importing, including those of federal agencies besides CBP. For more information about getting your product through U.S. Customs, read Basic Importing and Exporting at CBP's website: http://www.cbp.gov/trade/basic-import-export. Once the goods are received by the port of entry, you (or your customs broker) have five days to submit the first round of required import documents. These must be accepted by customs before further documentation can be filed. Required documents include: Bill of lading. Packing lists. Commercial invoice. Certificate of origin. Customs bond. Inward cargo manifest or immediate delivery form. After the first documents are accepted by the port of entry, you or your broker now have ten days to file two additional required documents. These are the entry summary (US Customs Form 7501) and any relevant invoices that can be used to value the shipment.
Summary: Hire a customs broker. Acquire necessary permits and licenses. File the Import Security filing (ISF). Get your product through US Customs and Border Protection ("CBP"). Submit initial import documents. File additional documents.

Problem: Article: Use your comment as an icebreaker to start the conversation. Look around and observe what is going on around you. Is there anything funny or interesting that you notice? For example, if it is lunch and the food truck hasn't arrived yet, you can say "Are they going to get us water for this wait, or do they want us to die?" If you are going to remark on something simple, try to make it playful. Even if you don't think of yourself as a funny person, you can still be playful. And playfulness is found to be very attractive to both guys and girls. This playfulness will make the conversation fun and will help keep the mood light. Don't worry, the first few comments you make to your crush are not going to make or break the conversation. Getting the conversation started is more important. So don't worry too much about being smooth, and focus instead on continuing conversation. Once you have broken in with an opening line, move on into something you can talk about more. Asking for an update is a good question to ask if you do already know the person a little bit or you are taking a class together, for example. It is a good idea to acknowledge your familiarity with one another by talking about the thing you have in common. This will make the conversation less awkward, and you will also get a better understanding of what is going on with the other person in your shared thing. For example, if you are taking a class together you can say, "So how is your midterm paper coming together?" You don't have to mention the fact that you are in a class together unless you aren't sure that he or she knows. If you want to remind him or her, do it without making a big deal out of it. Say "So in English class, how is your midterm paper coming together?" It is not weird that you know that you share a class. If he or she doesn't know, you mentioning the class first will tip him or her off and he or she will probably apologize for not recognizing you. Topics of conversation can go by pretty quickly, and so it can be good to have a couple of open ended and easy to answer questions lined up to ask your crush. You can start by telling him or her something that you do or know and then ask his or her opinion on it. This question can also be related to the context of where you are or what you are doing. For example, if you are eating an apple at lunch you could say "I personally know that Granny Smith apples are the best apples in the world, but out of curiosity, what kind of apple is your favorite?" Once again, being playful is a good way to make your conversation less awkward and more fun, especially when you are talking about simple topics and just getting your conversation going. You don't want to ask him or her something too controversial. Stay away from any hot button topics like politics or religion. You should try to make a unique connection based on your conversation and the particular person you are talking to. You can ask your crush something unusual but fun. For example, you could ask him or her something like "Is there a celebrity that people say, or you think, that you look like?". This kind of question could make him or her laugh. Once he or she tells you his or her celebrity look alike, you can say whether you agree or disagree, and you can tell him or her who your celebrity look alike is (and you can lie as a joke). Avoid small talk or getting to know you questions. You don't want to ask questions like "So where are you from?" because you will get an answer he or she has already used many times before. This kind of playful conversation helps you get more comfortable with one another. If you don't have many opportunities to talk to your crush and you see a good one, even if you don't have everything mapped out, you may want to seize the opportunity to talk to him or her by just going for it. Part of having a crush will always involve some amount of awkwardness and that can be part of the fun. So you don't have to overthink it- go for it. Going for it is good because it will help you get over the barrier of initial contact. And remember, it isn't very important how you start talking to him or her- the important part is continuing the conversation. Sometimes just going with your gut can bring out your most confident self.
Summary:
Make a funny or playful comment about the place you are at or thing you are doing. Get the update on something he or she has been doing, especially if you share something in common. Ask for his or her opinion on something easy to talk about. Ask him or her something unexpected but easy to answer. Go with an opening line that pops in your head.