No, i got all my info from calling them.
Also, Believe it or not- I also ended up talking to and calling the Census Bureau, in my ridiculous chase for information on how to to through the system- and they were extremely helpful in knowing about the process as well.
For BIS, I noted that sometimes i got a different person, and sometimes I think you'll get someone from BIS who really is familiar with the process ,that's willing to help- this made it easy.
Other days were slower...
Ah, dug up the deets- Apologies for formatting, it
-required bugging the Census Bureau, BIS, and some work involving Customs and USPS
It involved me actually having to get a EIN[Which is usually what you are required to do if you make a business in the US- but it's used for export purposes, so if you dont have a business you have to do this anyway]
from the IRS website [Though they don't interact at all with exports or this themselves , interestingly ] just so I could log onto the Custom Website, as
the EIN is used to get a AES account on the AES system that Census runs
,but is partially now handled by Customs(its on their website)- and the AES system is what you have to get an account on to file a [EEI] Electronic Export
Information Form for BIS and Customs.
I also had to toss an email to BIS due to CFR 743.3, with basic details
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2010-title15-vol2/pdf/CFR-2010-title15-vol2-sec743-3.pdf https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/15/743.3 [more readable
version of above link]
and I also throughout all this made calls bugging BIS and Census
> which let me to discovering that exemptions are a thing for advanced grade tech (on the CCL) - otherwise i'd have to fully get an export license and go through that process.
-but these allow one to send back things (in my case, to a manufacturer without a License for repair purposes pending what you're sending) via exceptions/exception codes
(I specifically used code [RPL]for replacement/servicing since it was getting serviced, but there's multiple codes such as a temp export and low value one, -though RPL fit best for me since i was trying to tune/fix/calibrate it)
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2010-title15-vol2/pdf/CFR-2010-title15-vol2-sec743-3.pdf USPS for some reason didn't have too much knowledge into the entire process despite me using them[on the shipping form you need a number from the AES database entry you make, i think you'd need it even with UPS or Fedex or whoever] , and some days when i contacted BIS they weren't as ....immediately forthcoming/helpful , but it depends 100% on who you get.
Census was ridiculously helpful and extremely smart - still surprising to me that they actually play a
very large role in all this), as were the later people I happened to get in touch with when reaching out to BIS.
I friggin love the Census bureau peeps for their help here- They actually seemed to know a bit more than BIS even.
Alas, until (especially) FLIR or SEEK or someone domestic in the US comes up with a decent-spec mid-grade camera that's not many many multiples in price , as Opgal did, I suppose this is the
silliness that one technically will have to go through. [Though that's why everyone's now going after the chinese ones that are about the same spec at the 800 to 1000 dollar price point currently. ]
- This would have been harder if i had to send my recently acquired Therm-App Pro [I was sending my Therm App HZ] as it appeared that the Pro , due to specs might not work with the RPL codes and might require a full on Export license -haven't been able to tell for sure yet though, still looking into this. Need someone with a really high end, really high spec thermal camera who deals in these things to shed some light on this process...it'd be good to know for the future when the high end tech gets better and cheaper and people need to fix or send in cameras for maintenance overseas, since these things drift slightly after years go by...
Well, sooner or later, someone with valuable tech has to send something to the manufacturer who happens to be elsewhere, for repairs, and hopefully they'll find this topic or elsewhere and come in and tell us about the process of getting an export license from the perspective of an individual person- they'll have to probably not do TOO much more than i did, i imagine file for it, and await getting it....
The other big thing about all of this- the process is 100% expecting you to be a business, not a person. So, it was weird, because I'm not a business - and i think that was to the surprise of everyone- but it's not a requirement you be a business.
Also, the exception codes are really useful- i'm happy they exist. Otherwise, you couldn't repair anything that's foreign built, without a full on license- And of course, it's not like one can easily just start up their own high end thermal camera company to build the tech to play with... lol...otherwise i'd do just that in a heartbeat.
I did directly find out that AES database lets the BIS and maybe Census? Track how often exception codes are used, so they know how much merchandise/advanced tech is being sent out that needs it- so it's sorta to help streamline things for businesses I guess.
Sidenote:Israeli customs did hold the package, according to tracking- i had paid for tracking, so i had Opgal look into it when it wasn't moving from customs after a while- and after that, they got it.
Opgal was a big help there with that. [They still don't seem to realize how awesome of a product they have- its a shame they aren't as focused on the Therm-Apps as they used to be...]
US customs though, was what i was worried about when i started the process-
Kinda surprised i seem to be the only person who said "Okay, let's play this game and see how far one has to go to get a piece of tech fixed"- and put this to the test.