If you wish to import transgenic Drosophila melanogaster strains that do not fall into one of the four categories of nonroutine strains, you should acquire a Letter of No Permit Required from Biotechnology Regulatory Services (BRS). This document may be used for an unlimited number of shipments and may be used to import strains from any country. It will have no expiration date. For details on using this document, see What should I do with import documents once I receive them?

We have provided a pdf form to make it easier to request a Letter of No Permit Required. Click here to open the form, fill it in, save it and e-mail it as an attachment to BRSnopermitrequired@usda.gov with the subject line "Request for LONPR for Drosophila melanogaster". (Depending on your browser settings, you may need to save the form to your computer and open it in Adobe Reader or Acrobat to get the form fields to work correctly.)

A Letter of No Permit Required is issued to the individual requesting the letter, therefore BRS strongly recommends that a permanent lab member (e.g. principal investigator, long-term research technician, lab manager) make the request and not a temporary member (e.g. postdoctoral associate, graduate student, visiting scientist).