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I am currently in China travelling to the U.S. in a few months and I need to ship my belongings and items I bought during the trip to myself because I don't want to take them to my next destination before arriving to the U.S.

How would customs work in that case when they get the package?

Is there any problem if I am not a U.S. citizen since I will be shipping my belongings including new stuff?

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  • Are you talking about shipping freight or cargo, or something that could travel by US Mail? See cbp.gov/travel/international-visitors/kbyg/sending-us
    – Calchas
    Commented Aug 29, 2015 at 21:46
  • Your citizenship is irrelevant but you will need to pay any customs fees and duties that arise.
    – Calchas
    Commented Aug 29, 2015 at 21:46
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    You will have to arrange for customs clearance by an agent such as a courier. Non-citizen is only relevant if you were going to try to deal with customs yourself, which would not fit with this scenario. In some cases U.S. Customs requires a bond to be posted- this will all be taken care of by the courier, but they may refuse to carry some kinds of goods without a waiver or even at all because they become importer of record. Examples might be commercial electrical goods without FCC approval or fake/counterfeit goods.
    – Spehro 'speff' Pefhany
    Commented Aug 30, 2015 at 11:26
  • It sounds like you are shipping unaccompanied personal effects. That aspect has already been asked and answered here.
    – alx9r
    Commented Aug 30, 2015 at 14:53
  • @pnuts This question is about shipping belonging, and belongings are Travel.
    – JordanBelf
    Commented Feb 13, 2017 at 2:06

2 Answers 2

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Full service hotels will often accept packages, with some caveats:

  • The more expensive and exclusive the hotel, the more likely they'll accept and hold packages for customers.
  • The better customer you are to the hotel, the more likely they'll accept and hold it for you
  • Boutique and single-proprieter hotels are more likely to do this than chains
  • You should phone ahead of course
  • The package should arrive within a short time before the customer plans to check in
  • There shouldn't be any custom fees (they should be prepaid)
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When you ship the package, you will fill out a customs form at whichever service you ship with (post office or courier). When the package arrives in the USA, the customs processor (the post office and most couriers like FedEx DHL have their own custom brokers) in conjunction with CBP will determine if duty is applicable. If so, then they will collect that duty upon delivery of the parcel.

Your nationality only effects the amount of duty that maybe applicable, due to different duty free allowances.

If there is duty owed, then the hotel will likely not accept the package on your behalf. The local post office or courier may hold the package for a few days to allow you time to come claim it, but not indefinitely. You would want to mark the package clearly "Hold for name arriving on date" so they have an approximate pick up date.

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