Paul Gowen of RAC was fortunately on hand to clarify that the AA of the USA do not recognize the carnet as issued by other automobile associations and would not therefore, stand guarantee on such documents. He then drew my attention to the Customs & Border Protection website on the requirement for the temporary importation of motor vehicle into the USA. Apparently, John was aware of the requirements as he mentioned about the letter from Environment Protection Agency that would take up to 20 days to issue which was the answer I got from the EPA when I called them up. This letter is required to accompany the form 3520-1 to be submitted to the Customs for clearance.

After numerous telephone conversations with John, he finally sent me a template for the request for EPA to issue the letter of approval for temporary importation of motor vehicle. His email appeared promising after I sent in the letter directly to EPA as he had followed up in the afternoon to confirm receipt of the supporting documents which I had to fax in as I didn’t have a scanner and nor do the hotel!!

After a hectic day to resolve the issue I was mentally tired and went to sleep early but not before I had a snooze while waiting for John to respond to my initiative to write to EPA directly earlier in the afternoon. All we could do is to wait for Monday and see what comes next!!!