How to import into Oman: registration, permits, documents and the steps to release

Most of the work of importing into Oman is done before the ship arrives. The company has to be registered where customs can see it, the goods have to be checked against Oman's rules before they are bought, any permit has to exist before the cargo needs it, and the documents have to agree with each other. This guide sets out those conditions and the order of the steps, for a business planning its first shipments into Oman. The Directorate General of Customs publishes the rules for each service, and its pages are the final word wherever they differ from anything here.

The importer: commercial registration and a Bayan account

Customs lets an individual bring in goods as personal effects only when they are of a personal nature, in non-commercial quantities, and the person does not trade in them. Anything else is a commercial import, and a business imports it under its own commercial registration.

The company then needs an account in Bayan, the customs single window. It registers on the customs website with its commercial registration number and the civil ID of the person registering it, or with electronic authentication. Its activities are selected in Bayan from those on its commercial registration, and the record updates when the registration is renewed. If the registered activities do not cover the goods, the declaration stops there, so check them before the first order, not when the ship is due. Staff work under the company account as individual users. How accounts, users and payment work is set out in our guide to the Bayan system.

VAT is the other registration to think about early. Import VAT is charged whether or not the importer is registered for VAT, and customs collects it with the duty through Bayan. An importer registered for VAT can apply to the Tax Authority to defer the import VAT to its VAT return instead of paying it at clearance. The Tax Authority's guide says to apply a month before the goods enter, and the Authority may ask for a financial guarantee.

Check the goods before you buy them

Customs does not allow goods that are prohibited internationally or in Oman, goods restricted under treaties and local rules, or goods that are counterfeit, falsified, against approved specifications or against intellectual property rights.

Beyond that, everything turns on the goods' tariff code. The code sets the duty and decides whether a permit is needed, and our note on finding the right HS code in Oman shows how to look it up. Customs offers three services that answer those questions before a contract is signed:

• The import and export requirements search. For a code, it lists the permits, approvals, restrictions and other agencies' procedures that apply.
• Advance rulings. A binding decision from customs on the classification, the origin or the customs value of goods, requested by the importer, the exporter or a clearing company before the goods are imported. Customs issues it within 60 days of a complete application, it is valid for at least six months at every customs office, and each commodity needs its own application.
• Pre-import valuation. Applied for in Bayan before import, to settle the customs value of the goods in advance. Customs may ask for a sample, a catalogue or pictures.

The code your supplier prints on the invoice was chosen for their export, not your import. Our customs clearance page explains how customs queries a classification.

Permits, and who issues them

Permits are requested through Bayan, which links customs to the other government bodies with an interest in the goods. Customs lists the permits on its website under the authority that issues each one. Among those importers meet most often:

• Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion, Commercial Affairs: the commercial import permit, in a one-year version for multiple imports and a two-month version for a single import. Customs says either can be requested after the goods arrive. The same department issues permits for second-hand vehicles, petroleum products and production requirements.
• The same ministry's Standards and Metrology: permits for paints, construction products, chemical and cosmetic products, children's toys, low-voltage electrical equipment, cars, motorcycles and tyres, lubricating oils, lead-acid batteries, safety shoes, tobacco products and precious metals.
• Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries Wealth and Water Resources: plant products, pesticides, fertilisers, animal feed, live animals, animal products, fish and fish products, and veterinary medicines.
• Environment Authority: chemicals, radioactive materials, and substances that deplete the ozone layer.
• Telecom Regulatory Authority: release of controlled goods.
• Royal Oman Police and the Public Authority for Civil Defence and Ambulance: among others, drones, night vision equipment, dual-use products, explosives, fireworks and fire safety equipment.

Some goods also need a certificate issued in the exporting country at the time of shipment, such as a phytosanitary or veterinary certificate. It cannot be produced once the vessel has sailed, so ask for it in the purchase order.

The documents customs asks for

For a customs declaration, customs lists the commercial invoice, the certificate of origin, and the permit where the goods need one. It may ask for foreign invoices and documents to be translated into Arabic. The shipment brings three more papers: the packing list, the bill of lading, and the delivery order the terminal releases the container against.

All of them describe one cargo and have to agree: the description, the package count, the weights, the marks, the shipper and the consignee. The declaration is matched against the manifest the line's agent filed for the vessel, so a weight that differs between the packing list and the bill of lading turns a document check into an inspection. Our customs clearance page goes through what makes each document fail.

Where the goods qualify for a lower rate under a trade agreement, the certificate of origin has to be on that agreement's own form, issued in the exporting country before the goods arrive.

The steps, from order to delivery

1. Register. A commercial registration that covers the goods, a company account in Bayan with its users, and VAT registration or deferral where it applies.
2. Check the goods. Find the tariff code, run the requirements search, and ask for an advance ruling if the code, the origin or the value is open to argument.
3. Agree the terms with the supplier. The incoterm, the port the goods ship from and the Omani port they discharge at, and every document the shipment needs, including certificates issued at origin. Our guide to the ports of Oman helps with the port.
4. Apply for permits. Through Bayan, and before the goods ship wherever the permit allows it.
5. Ship. Before the vessel arrives, the line's agent files the import manifest in Bayan, the list every declaration is matched against.
6. Declare. The declaration is filed in Bayan by the owner of the goods or someone the owner authorises. Customs allows clearance to start, and duty and other charges to be paid, before arrival, according to each customs office's system.
7. Risk channel. Bayan routes the declaration: green, released without customs intervention; yellow, documents checked; red, goods physically inspected.
8. Pay. Duty and VAT are paid in Bayan through a payment ticket, unless the importer's VAT is deferred. Our guide to customs duty and VAT in Oman works through an example.
9. Release. At Sohar the electronic delivery order is issued after customs clears the goods, and the terminal releases the container against it.
10. Deliver and return. The container goes to your premises and the empty goes back to the depot the line names. Detention stops only when the empty is back, which our note on demurrage and detention explains.

Exporting from Oman

Exporting runs the same file the other way. The export declaration is filed in Bayan, and some goods need an export permit or certificate before they leave, listed by authority just as the import permits are. Customs lists a certificate from the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Investment Promotion for food exports, and permits or certificates for petroleum products, chemicals, precious metals and stones, wild species and cultural heritage items. Our route pages cover both directions on each lane.

How we help

We file the customs declaration in Bayan for our import customers, and the export declaration for our export customers. Where we are the line's agent we also file the manifest and the electronic delivery order, so the declaration, the manifest and the delivery order sit on one file. We book the sea freight, clear the goods, and run the land transport from the terminal to your premises, inside Oman or on across a GCC border. You can also give us the clearance alone while another forwarder carries the cargo. On sea freight we act as agent, not carrier: you receive the principal's bill of lading, signed by us as agent.

Get a rate: send the goods, where they ship from, when they will be ready, and whether your company is already registered in Bayan.