Not sure. Clearly it is not hard to create one without submitting it. I did it on a phone, not because a phone is easy (for most things it bloody well is not) but to test it can be done, because on short trips I don’t carry a laptop.
I have noticed that the UK online GAR can be done either with the online form or by uploading a file.
So I tried uploading the file!
It turns out that, basically, the old “email a .xlsx file” facility has been retained. You just upload the file, instead of emailing it. You need to use the latest file though, which was updated in 2024. Older files do not upload. The muppets have obviously hard-coded the whole thing…
But as usual with Govt IT, they made it brainless by not apparently providing two fields in the .xlsx file, so when you upload it you get warnings and you click on the warnings and enter them manually. One is (IIRC) the responsible person name and address, and the other is a Customs declaration (specify “nothing to declare”).
Oh well, so close and they still managed to f**k it up!
Used OnLineGAR to submit a GAR return to the U.K. this Sunday.
Every thing seems perfect, but I didn’t seem to get an ‘approval’ for my POB as specified in sGAR.
It seems that under OnLineGAR, the reception of an ‘Inbound Manifest Number’ is sufficient.
For clarification, I tried to contact sGAR on two separate specified emails. One responded: “Closed till Monday”; the other: “We will respond in 5 days”!
