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Our Canadian friends are wanting to Fedex some household items from Canada, tools, keepsakes, etc. They just found out that Costa Rica customs will not let personal items through, can anyone enlighten me on this…..Thanks
FedEx will be prohibitively expensive first of all. customs may or may not let those items in, depending on what they are but you can be sure there will be a hefty price to pay. customs is arbitrary — some things get through with no problem, but other things such as the electric massager i sent through Aereocasillas last year — an item that cost me $20 on the internet, plus $10 for shipping — got to customs with a demand for a LICENSE to import such electrical item, PLUS $100 for customs fee. i let them have the thing. there are other cheaper ways to send those items. contact Arden who routinely ships small parcels out of Florida to Costa Rica once a month — i’m sure there is contact info for her on this site, but FedEx is not the way to go.
maravilla, you’re absolutely right that FedEx will be startlingly expensive to ship personal items from Canada. It would be better, I think, for a Canadian to use the Canadian postal service, FedEx, UPS, or some other alternative to ship those things to Arden Brink in Florida and have her consolidate them in one of her container shipments. Not only will that cost less, but the scrutiny afforded by Costa Rican Customs will be less, too.
I think the reason you got tangled up with Customs regarding your massager was that they saw it as a medical-related item. As such, I guess it must require an import license. We had a similar experience trying to import four Nylabones for our German shepherd. Turns out, you need an import license for anything animal-related, too! Like you, we told them to chew the Nylabones in good health.
The young man who runs the Aerocasillas office in Grecia told us, with regard to the Nylabones, that any package that weighs more than one kilogram gets opened by Customs while packages that weigh less pass through uninspected. Our four Nylabones weighed 1.066kg. The bubble packs are what tripped us up.
We subsequently ordered two Nylabones and they sailed right through as did a dog collar and leash that, too, are subject to the import license requirement. They’re animal-related.
Arbitrary is the key word when shipping to CR. I ship at least every 3 weeks to CR, via DHL. The reason I do this is that the DHL flight arrives in SJO at 5:45 AM the following morning. I have the recipient “meet” the package at the Aduana and immediately pay the impuesta. They then return to Guanacaste with the package- often the next day! A couple things- this is expensive. My packages are no larger than 12x12x12 and no heavier than 11 lbs. This will cost about $380. Ensure that every single piece is itemized on your CI – every piece. If one single item is not on there, the entire shipment is suspect and will be delayed. I always include receipts (easy for new stuff, difficult for old stuff)- helps me accurately calculate the duty but I’m always under! And DO NOT DHL to anywhere other than San Jose- its not going to get there no matter what DHL says. Once the plane lands DHL is done with it.
Fed Ex is quite expensive & a pain in the tush to get things through the aduana if it’s flagged BUT, after a few “situations” I learned a hint that so far has helped a LOT with Fed Ex, as SOON as you have the airbill #, call Fed Ex IN CR BEFORE it arrives here & give it to them & so far with this trick, NOTHING I’ve had shipped to me has been flagged by the aduana!!!
Also, put on the package that it’s a used item & where relevant, something like “forgot used laptop power cord” as I had a guest forget his once, shipped it in my name (he was traveling about) & though it had NO value (because it came with the laptop), the aduana wanted $80 & I had to be the one to go process it or get a notorized letter (10,000-c) giving Fed. Ex to do it for me & with Fed Ex’s time – it would have been like $140 or so!!
Needless to say – we just left it with the aduana.
Anyone know what happens to all those items people say “To heck with it” on??
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