FedEx Clearance Delay

harasha

Once again, a shipment from Europe goes awry.

First, a shipment from Germany disappears from the face of the earth in December

Then, a few days later, a shipment from London is diverted into surface mail

Now, this from FedEx for a shipment from Amsterdam

Clearance delay

Description provided is insufficient to classify commodity
Recommended action:

Shipper or Importer must provide a more detailed description of goods.

Reason for delay:

Itemized breakdown of product composition required.

Recommended action:

Shipper to provide.

pruebas

You might need to call the clearance department of the shipper and give them the HTS (Harmonized Tariff Schedule) code for your contents.



You can look here (PDF) for that information. But Numismatic collectibles would be:



9705.00.0030 for gold coins

9705.00.0060 for non-gold coins



You may also need to indicate the country of origin of the coins.



Additionally, if the value specified on the customs documents is greater than USD2500, you will have to go through formal entry. In this case, you will be REQUIRED to give the shipper your SSN (because US Customs demands it) and pay a small fee (around $40) to the shipper for their clearance charges. There will be no customs duty, but the fee is due regardless. They usually invoice you for the fee separately.



I just went through this with DHL, but the process is the same with FedEx.

harasha

Thank you for sharing your experience. The firm that sent the items, which I greatly respect, advised me that they sent FedEx an update.
The numismatic items all are from the Netherlands and are not gold.
The value is well under USD2500. As for paying an additional fee, I would be chagrined as I already paid 15 euros for shipping.

I suppose my underlying concern is how long will this take to be cleared.

harasha

Released! After about 22 hours in detention!

Iosephus

Good news. Better than my last package that was stuck in a clearance delay for a week (after already waiting three months after the auction date for the export license to be acquired).