It’s no secret that the United States of America is one of the most protected countries in the entire world. For this reason, gaining access to the land of opportunity can be quite a hassle if you don’t make the right preparations; oftentimes, there is a lot of documentation that’s required before you can be allowed into the country. Similarly, without the correct prerequisites, getting a package across the Atlantic to the United States can be a rather tedious undertaking. Fortunately, once you’ve armed yourself with the right knowledge, the process of sending a package to the United States can be quite a breeze.
One of the most important things to find out before you even begin the process of delivering your package is to find out the cost of Shipping to USA. Luckily, there are plenty of online resources you can utilize to help you figure out the total cost of sending a package to the United States. Apart from the final cost of shipping, there are other important factors that you need to consider if you’re looking to send a package to America. To help make the process a lot easier, here’s a breakdown of some of the most important things to know when sending a package to the US.
Packaging Goods for Shipping to USA
When sending commodities to the US, all business owners and other senders must take note that their goods will be handled by several parties during transit. This means that your package will face some rough handling such as having other packages stalked on top of them and being moved around during transit. Therefore, it’s extremely important to package your items well before handing them over for shipping. Your packages should be placed in strong rigid boxes that don’t have any faults to ensure that nothing punctures or deforms the contents. It would be wise to use double-edged boxes for packages that exceed 10 kilograms and tripled lined boxes for those that are more than 30 kilograms.
For internal packaging, ensure you wrap each item individually using bubble wrap; also, fill any leftover spaces with shock absorbers such as foam, newspapers, and bubble wraps. For fragile cargo, ensure that you use double and triple-corrugated boxes to facilitate maximum protection. In addition, the goods being shipped should be kept from moving around inside the packaging; thus, ensure that you use cushioning such as polystyrene packing chips to hold the commodities intact.
The Paperwork Involved When Shipping to USA
Handling documentation is arguably the most tedious task when it comes to international shipping. Doing paperwork is also one of the most important jobs when it comes to shipping; this is because a single mistake could be extremely detrimental to the entire shipping process. What’s more, when shipping to the United States, ensure that you describe the contents of your package as accurately as possible in your paperwork; this will aid in making the process a lot faster. Thus. instead of writing “shoes”, you can label your package more accurately such as “men’s boots size 7-11”.
To give you a scope of how much paperwork is involved when shipping goods to the USA, here are some of the most important documents required for the process.
Proforma Invoice
When inquiries are being made about a prospective purchase of goods, a quotation may be requested; however, when it comes to international trade, a quotation is usually issued in the form of a proforma invoice. This document allows the potential buyer to apply for relevant import licenses, to organize financial channels, and a lot more.
Commercial Invoice
A commercial invoice looks a lot like a proforma invoice but it contains more details concerning the shipment. While a proforma invoice serves as an international quotation, a commercial invoice serves as the document containing all the information about the package including payment information, customer reference number, and any freight insurance information.
Customs Invoice
Since all packages being shipped to the United States have to go through customs, this document is required in order to ascertain how much taxes and duties are due.
Shipper’s Letter of Instruction (SLI)
When exporting goods, one of the most important people to work with are freight forwarders; they organize the transportation of your cargo and ensure that all the nitty-gritty is taken care of. The sender of the package is supposed to issue an SLI to the freight forwarders in order to instruct them on how to correctly handle the package during transportation.
Certificate of Origin
Some countries such as the United States require a certificate of origin to ascertain where a particular package originally came from. This certificate may be required even if the country of origin is indicated in the commercial invoice. The certificate needs to be signed by a local authority but the process can be completed online by opting for an electronic certificate of origin.
Customs Clearance and Duties
All items that are shipped to America have to pass through customs for clearance and safety purposes. For this reason, packages entering the United States are subject to customs taxes and duties. Even so, there are usually no taxes or duties imposed on items that don’t exceed a certain threshold. For instance, the Formal Clearance threshold is 2,500 dollars, meaning that if the value of your shipment exceeds 2,500 dollars then it has to go through formal clearance. Customs usually contacts the receiver of the package if there are any taxes or duties that are due.
Delivering Personal Effects to USA
Personal effects are items used by only one person such as clothing. Oftentimes, personal effects and gifts are exempted from taxes and duties. Senders have to fill a personal effects form in order to ship any personal effects to the United States.
Conclusion
Shipping goods to the United States of America can be a very tedious task, especially if you’re unaware of the many intricate requirements. Although the points provided above only scratch the surface of what you should know when shipping to the US, they provide an excellent overview to help you get started on your journey.
