Hi Byron, The way the small seed lot permit works is you use only one green/yellow mailing label per shipment coming into the USA. Each shipment can contain a maximum of 50 packets of seed. Each packet can contain a maximum of 50 seeds OR a maximum of 10 grams of seed. So hypothically, you could import 50 coconuts as one packet of a shipment and still have 49 other packets of seed available to be brought in under the same single green/yellow shipping label. Similarly, you could import 5 million orchid seeds as one packet, as long as it weighed less than 10 grams. If you wish to order a larger amount of seed of the same taxa, that would result in a packet containing more than 50 seeds and 10 grams, you can have it divided up into smaller packets of less than 50 seeds or 10 grams, with each packet having a seperate label. Eg. Lilium speciosum A, Lilium speciosum B, etc. As far as I know the only USDA inspection office that requires the additional postage as you mentioned, is at Hawthorne, California. This is not because of the USDA policy, but because the postmaster at Hawthorne is not allowing the shipments to be forwarded without extra funds. This can all seem very confusing at first, but does make since once read through the permit policy. Hope this helps you understand better. All the best, Paul Machado ----- Original Message ----- From: "Byron Amerson" <byron.amerson@gmail.com> To: <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 6:56 PM Subject: [pbs] Importing Bulbs and Seeds >I received my USDA small lots of seed permit today. I mailed in my > application on January 29, so 27 days turn around. Not Bad. The permit > expires in 2012 and there are 16 of the green and yellow labels, which I > assume should be adequate, as long as I don't order more than 16 lots of > seed. The permit is broad, covering "Eligible taxa" and "various > approved > countries." > > Sadly, the shipping I pay to the seed vendor will cover only shipping to > the > ag inspection facility. From there I can pick it up in person after > inspection. Or shipping will be billed to my express carrier shipping > account information that I mailed to the seed vendor along with a copy of > my > permit and the permit conditions is to be included in the package of seed > that the vendor ships. So I pay for shipping twice. > > I'll try this out and post to the list, just to share my experience for > informational purposes. > > Byron > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ >