Small Lot of Seed Permit vs. Phytosanitary Certificate

A comparison

We are going to offer customers in the USA the option of purchasing a Phytosanitary Certificate from us instead of obtaining a free, unlimited ‘Small Lot of Seed Permit’ from the USDA-APHIS.  Why?  Possibly a variety of reasons that can fill volumes, but it is a personal choice. 

A Phytosanitary Certificate isn’t restricted to the weight and packet limitations of a SLSP, nor is there the paperwork for you to fill nor the associated wait for the proper documents to arrive (see our Shipping to USA article for more information).  So if you wish to purchase a large quantity of seed including bulk seed, we do the paperwork for the Phytosanitary Certificate and arrange for the inspector to come to inspect your and issue a certificate.  Your order is shipped right away….but you must pay for this service…we haven't done the cost analysis yet for this service, but we will keep it reasonable.  For US orders $100 or greater, the PC is free.  A Phytosanitary Certificate is only good for ONE shipment.  This service will be available at checkout when you purchase your order.  Currently, we’ve used the PC for special orders such as custom bulk seed purchases that are outside the limitations of the SLSP.  Because the Phyto circumvents the required inspection by USDA officials, you can expect your order to reach you within 7 business days.

The Small Lot of Seed Permit is free, good for three years, and you are able to import seed from around the world.  You are only limited to the number of packets per order and restricted species.  But you do all the paperwork in obtaining the SLSP from the USDA-APHIS office.  You must mail us a copy of your permit and how many of the green/yellow mailing stickers you deem necessary as once we have a copy of your permit (which we scan and save), we can get your order the next day.  The USDA recognizes only original green/yellow mailing stickers issued by them.  If you run out of the green/yellow mailing stickers, you must request more.  To date, I’m not certain how many sheets you can order at one time.  There are 8 mailing stickers per sheet.  Because you rely on a USDA inspector to inspect your order, we cannot give a time frame when to expect your order especially when they are swamped with live plant shipments as seeds are put on the back burner.  Wait times vary but 21 business days is the average time with potential waits up to 3 months depending on the USDA office you chose as your inspection center.  Jamaica, New York is the main office for shipments of live plants from Canada into the USA, so chances of your seed order being placed on the low priority catagory is quite possible.  I suggest you use the alternate USDA Plant Inspection Centers.

 Special Note

If your country needs a Phytosanitary Certificate to import bulbs or bare root plants in order to import, it is up to you to obtain the fine details if the species is allowed into the country.  We DO NOT treat our bulbs or bare root or our seed selections with any chemicals in preparation for shipping (in fact we don’t use chemicals at all).