Not a good idea! I sent an envelope with the proper postage to the Hawthorne CA PIS so that they would release a very small seed shipment. Whoever opened the mail removed the stamps and claimed that there were none in the envelope. I won't do that again. Richard Vista, CA >> In the old days, like 10 years ago. Permit holders sent stamps to their PIS and the Officers would have paper files with the permit and when the shipment was released the officer would afix the correct amount of postage on the package to enter it into the postal service's system. Thanks for all the info on this, Bill. I just received my import permit (about three weeks turnaround, very nice), and am looking forward to using it. It looks like the charge for shipping a packet UPS ground is going to be about $9. Not as bad as paying for a phyto, but more expensive than USPS would be, and I am a cheap guy. So could I send US postage stamps to my exporter, along with the import permit, with instructions to enclose the stamps inside the package along with the seeds? Then when the inspector was finished, they could put the stamps on the packet and drop it in the mail. Even if I grossly overpaid for the postage, it'd be a lot less than the UPS charge... Thanks, Mike