Sending Items by Mail to Russia, Ukraine and Belarus (FSU)

[Voyager]

I just sent a package to my lady through US Post Office, I put insurance on the package. Has anyone had any experience sending packages FSU using regular mail and not UPS or DHL?

Packages from Canada to Ukraine usually arrive, but months late. Most packages mailed from Ukraine have gone missing

[Chillidog]

My most recent package was sent to Russia (Kaulga) about 2-3 hours outside of Moscow On April 10th and I sent it with USPS.

being sent International, I had to fill out (as always) a Customs Declaration form.
Declared Item and value;

"TOY" and "$30.00" (USD)

Package was received by Olya on April 20th (10 days from when I shipped it). Cost to me was less than $30 to ship

I have always used USPS to ship packages to Russia and have never had any problems

[dbneeley]

When I moved here last September, I sent five boxes of various things via Meest in three separate shipments. They advised me to be sure each one was valued at not more than $300. 

One shipment was by their regular air service; the other two by sea. The longest time in transit was about three weeks and the rate was, I thought quite reasonable.

Everything arrived intact and the boxes weren't even opened.

YMMV, and all that--but I would use Meest again, as they were a fraction of the price of the USPS...but then, I think the lightst box was about 30 pounds, the heaviest nearly 60.

Of course, I was sending many items of clothing for my wife and stepson, as clothing is often more expensive here than in the States. My own items weren't all that extensive. If I had it to do over, though, I would bring even less--I'll be getting rid of quite a few of my own things, as I am unlikely to wear them.

[smackercat]

I sent a package with a coat and some other items from Texas to SPB Fedex Economy for $63 and it got there in 7 days.  Unopened and very happy girl to have a new wool coat for the winter.

[Stubben]

I sent some documents from Norway to Barnaul using DHL, picked up friday afternoon, arrived monday morning. Not cheap though, about 100 Euros.

Not sure if I want to know what it would cost to send an actual package of more substantial weight/size. 

[Voyager]

The bigger problem seems to be getting packages FROM Ukaine... 

[smackercat]

I have sent two packages to St. Petersburg, RU in the last 2 months. Shipping Fedex economy 7-8 days from Texas to my girl.  Nothing missing.

Matt Jones

[Olga_Mouse]

Some moaning and groaning: my order from Amazon.de has quit Germany on February 12, thus should have been scanned here for import on February 14 or 15. In reality it has been scanned only... today at 11:02!!!

So here's an update re. what the f   k is going on with Russian Post.

1) Starting from December 22, the line "submitted for customs inspection" has been excluded from the tracking info displayed for customers.

Why?

Because according to the current legislation the customs have to take some action (release the parcel, or return to sender, or send a tax payment notification to the recipient) within 72 hours from submission.

Surely in the end of December postal customs (quite traditionally!) were not able to cope with the increasing amount of incoming international mail... and they "kindly asked" Russian post not to display this information online!

So the normal users of the Russian Post or EMS websites can now see only "import" and then "cleared customs" info; however EMS callcenter employees ARE able to see whether the parcel has been submitted for inspection or not!

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100324/158297513.html

2) DHL & UPS parcels have to go through the same customs.

The DHL & UPS representatives have already announced that they consider stopping accepting mail bound to Russia until the situation improves - as they don't want to face the angry customers' claims.

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20100317/158222041.html

3) Many Ebay sellers (alright... many from that small number which ever ventured to ship to Russia!) found out about current problems with incoming international mail in Russia, and now refuse to sell to Russia AT ALL.

Thank you guys!  

That means no new Guess handbag for me, I guess...  

4) Internal Russian Post problems  

RP has (supposedly successfully...) opened a new processing center in Podolsk, where the postal codes & delivery addresses should have been read by the ultra-modern computers.

After opening that center the bosses of Russian Post...

a) Increased the prices for international mail - which nearly doubled up from February 1, 2010.

b) Fired quite a lot of employees    

http://en.rian.ru/russia/20091123/156950521.html

c) Brought the salaries for remaining ones down (!!!) to 10.000 RUR (approx. $338)!

Believe me, nowhere near Moscow can a human being survive on 10.000 roubles per month!

But... SURPRISE SURPRISE!   that ultra-modern computer in Podolsk wasn't working properly!

The trained employees are fired. No new ones either (nobody's willing to work for 10.000 roubles per month!).

So for the moment there are more than 100.000 unsorted parcels waiting their turn in Podolsk!

Some of the dozens and dozens links in Russian re. this topic:

http://svpressa.ru/blogs/article/22525/

http://www.rian.ru/society/20100324/216164004.html

http://www.newsru.com/russia/24mar2010/custom.html

[Herrie]

Olga, I understand your frustration....

I think they should hire some consultants from NL or Germany to sort your postal system.

Within NL 98+ or so % gets delivered next day (except for Sunday and exception is Cash On Delivery items which are not delivered on Saturdays).

Our postal system is very reliable. I have similar experience with the German post which usually delivers in 2-3 working days from anywhere in Germany to my home in Amsterdam

From the UK by Royal Mail is a different story though: From NL to UK with international mail is 2-4 business days, from the UK to NL it often takes 2-3 weeks, go figure 

[Manny]

The DHL & UPS representatives have already announced that they consider stopping accepting mail bound to Russia

The agent we use to send courier stuff within the UK and abroad (with Fedex, Parcelforce and DHL) will no longer accept shipments to Russia - even on the "Fedex Eastern Europe Delivery Service". 

They will deliver to Ukraine and Belarus though. 

We are still having good results into Russia with regular untracked, uninsured air mail parcels (addressed in handwritten Cyrillic only - the only Latin on them being "Russia" which is all the UK Post Office need to know) in the crappiest looking recycled packaging we can find. The CN22 customs form is also filled in using Cyrillic only (declaring surprisingly low values in pyb - usually less than the postage cost.)

The psychology behind this is a local [identified by the handwritten Cyrillic] sending something home - knowing what they [Russian Post Office] are like - will not ship anything worth stealing or taxing. Thus it isn't worth opening even - and they don't! We have lost one parcel in four years, and wifey sends them all kinds of crap from English teabags     to stuff for the dacha and even a goose down duvet recently. 

We received various parcels from Russia around Christmas time - all brown paper and string like stuff lost in time since the 1950's....... also unmolested.

[Olga_Mouse]

The CN22 customs form is also filled in using Cyrillic only (declaring surprisingly low values in pyb - usually less than the postage cost.)

CN22 parcels go a different route through customs; so the untracked deliveries from Amazon.co.uk are usually quicker than Amazon.de ones (with CN23 declarations).

If only British Amazon had a bigger VAT deduction, and cheaper postage! From German Amazon I can order no matter how many items and pay only the standard 6 EUR shipping  

Most US-based ebay sellers would rather die than mark an item as a gift and use the CN22 declaration; so here's the big serious CN23 again...  

[Manny]

Use your pals in England to take advantage of free UK Amazon shipping who will repackage with "gift" and "CN22" packaging. 

[Boris]

Well, for one thing I did write the address in Cyrillic  , I was told that I did not need to go this, but you guys might be right. I hope that my package does not end up on Mars or some other plant. Well, the good thing is that I did buy insurance, I just hope that I don't have to hire F. Lee Bailey to get my money back. Next time, I will follow your directions. But I certainly, hope that my package gets to my lady, because I think that she will like the very nice shoes that I bought for her. 

I think maybe some custom worker's girlfriend has a new pair of shoes. 

[DanFromQuebec]

Nadja tried to send me a parcel to Canada which had, among others, a can of red caviar and they called her to tell her they won't allow it to leave because of that can of red caviar. It appears they are not allowing a can to be sent. It needs to be sealed but in a jar in glass so they can see what is inside.

Now I also wanted to send her a parcel with gifts and as I know she wanted to taste our own maple syrup, I wanted to send her some cans of it. I even chose some which was freshly made from someone I know but they usually put it in a can too. Now I think it won't pass the Russian customs.

Has any of you tried or already sent some food in a can to Russia? Now I think it won't make it anyway.

[DanFromQuebec]

This is what a can looks like. Anyway I can buy some more in glass too. I will buy that and hopefully it will make it through the customs.

[WestCoast]

Dan I would phone up FedEx or UPS, one of the big international courier firms, and ask them what the current rules and regulations are for shipping something like you describe.  These companies are the experts and with rules and regulations  constantly changing in the post 9/11 environment these companies are going to be the ones who know what the current rules are.

[DanFromQuebec]

Dan I would phone up FedEx or UPS, one of the big international courier firms, and ask them what the current rules and regulations are for shipping something like you describe.  These companies are the experts and with rules and regulations  constantly changing in the post 9/11 environment these companies are going to be the ones who know what the current rules are.

Thanks WestCoast I will call Purolator tomorrow. Hopefully they can clarify this for me. I don't care really about the maple syrups but I don't want the other gifts to not make it because of this.

[mendeleyev]

Russian customs allows 100 gm of caviar maximum to be taken/sent out of the country. While true that items should be visible for inspection, there are lots of items that are not visible and make it thru. Caviar is something the Russians don't like leaving and likely she ran into someone over reaching in enforcing the rules.

Having shipped all manner of small food stuffs into Russia, from chocolate to coffe to tea to tuna, and rarely having such inspected, your syrup should be fine as frankly, most things sent into Russia by individuals aren't inspected that closely.

[Olga_Mouse]

Russian customs allows 100 gm of caviar maximum to be taken/sent out of the country.

While true that items should be visible for inspection, there are lots of items that are not visible and make it thru.

The current postal regulations...

http://www.russianpost.ru/rp/servise/ru/home/postuslug/goodslist

* рыба и ракообразные - не более 2 кг (в герметической упаковке);
* икра осетровых (черная) - 140 граммов (в герметической упаковке);
* икра лососевых (красная) - 140 граммов (в герметической упаковке);
* лекарственные средства - не более 10 упаковок разного наименования.

...mention the 140 grams limit for both red and black caviar; the type of package - can or jar - is not specified; the only published requirement for a package is that it shall be leakproof.

[msmoby]

Wifey said she saw an item on RU News that the Russian customs are WAY behind with checking foreign mail...

We sent two parcels of clothes from the UK- via airmail  ( 5 weeks ago - on the same day ) and one has just arrived

I sent some docs to Spain ( Mallorca) -via airmail - and they took 6 weeks...

[mendeleyev]

The current postal regulations...

http://www.russianpost.ru/rp/servise/ru/home/postuslug/goodslist

Olga, thanks for that update. I had only looked at an airport site listing what one can take thru Russian customs and it listed 100 g.

[dbneeley]

By far the best shipping service I have used is Meest. Far better than the USPS, as well as the mainline shipping companies--and a fraction of the price, to boot.

David

[msmoby]

If you look up a couple or so posts you'll note we posted two parcels of clothes from the UK in Feb.. one took Five weeks to get to Siberia !

We can now report that the second parcel arrived on June 1st..

it took FIVE months


Ah well, at least it got there... 

We hope the clothes we sent for Veta's sister's child still fit 

[MBS01]

Try MEEST!!!
Dan and others stop thinking like a Western Man.

Do what the expats and others like ourselves do.  Stay away from western firms like UPS, FedEx, etc. which have no real base in the FSU.  Send your parcel via MEEST or similar courier with a base in the FSU.  We use "Polimax" based in Poland who in turn tranship via MEEST for deliver in Ukraine.  For a 10 kilo parcel via air freight it costs about $60.00 and usually takes 1 to 2 weeks.  The last one we sent just before our trip at the end of April and it arrived during the first week of our visit in May.  They have a Website and are a major courier and provider of Ukranian television and the like here in Canada and also available in the USA I think.  Their Website will have drop off information for parcels.  

Also check out local Russian, Ukranian or other FSU oriented businesses like stores or travel agencies.  That is how we found "Polimax" since we live in a major "Polish" area of Toronto.  Again this just makes common sense think like an expat and not a western man and you will get the parcel there quickly and safely via air freight, or cheaper by surface ship rate which takes about 3 months.  The 3 month rate is good for larger items and for times like Christmas where you can plan well ahead.

As to the "Maple Syrup" You can also find it in plastic containers which unlike glass do not tend to break if roughly handled.  We to have sent many food items in our packages like coffee and sweets without any problems.

[dbneeley]

Try MEEST!!!
Dan and others stop thinking like a Western Man.

Do what the expats and others like ourselves do.  Stay away from western firms like UPS, FedEx, etc. which have no real base in the FSU.  Send your parcel via MEEST or similar courier with a base in the FSU.  We use "Polimax" based in Poland who in turn tranship via MEEST for deliver in Ukraine.  For a 10 kilo parcel via air freight it costs about $60.00 and usually takes 1 to 2 weeks.  The last one we sent just before our trip at the end of April and it arrived during the first week of our visit in May.  They have a Website and are a major courier and provider of Ukranian television and the like here in Canada and also available in the USA I think.  Their Website will have drop off information for parcels.  

Also check out local Russian, Ukranian or other FSU oriented businesses like stores or travel agencies.  That is how we found "Polimax" since we live in a major "Polish" area of Toronto.  Again this just makes common sense think like an expat and not a western man and you will get the parcel there quickly and safely via air freight, or cheaper by surface ship rate which takes about 3 months.  The 3 month rate is good for larger items and for times like Christmas where you can plan well ahead.

As to the "Maple Syrup" You can also find it in plastic containers which unlike glass do not tend to break if roughly handled.  We to have sent many food items in our packages like coffee and sweets without any problems.

Why in the world would you use "Polimax" for shipping to Ukraine, since the MEEST corporate headquarters are right there in Toronto? Why not ship directly with them to begin with?

I shipped five large boxes of "stuff' to Donetsk through Meest in the U.S.--although I had to ship them via UPS to New Jersey and the Meest US offices.

I shipped all five *large* boxes (average about 50 lbs each) for less than the cost of shipping *one* of them via USPS, DHL, Fedex, or the like. The ones I shipped by air took about three weeks, including the UPS part; the ones that went by sea took about four weeks.

I would never ship very valuable items by parcel, however. Things like cameras, laptops, and the like I reserve for carrying with me on flights back and forth.

David