Average time in US Customs?

[ScottsGT]

Ordered a kit from Super Hobby out of Poland.  It’s been sitting in US Customs in the Chicago area for 6 days now.   In the past everything I’ve ordered went through Customs in NYC. Took about a day or two.  
Anyone have any idea with Chicago Customs how long I’m going to be waiting?  FWIW, kit was from CZ, so no China import fees are being calculated. 

[Lusitanian]

Usually not long.  Try Portugal.  I’ve had a book from the UK sitting in Lisbon since October. All I get when I ask about it is a deer in the headlights look.

[Martinnfb]

That's wild. Bureaucracy at it's finest, it seems.

[HubertB]

On 2/19/2025 at 7:28 PM, Lusitanian said:

Usually not long.  Try Portugal.  I’ve had a book from the UK sitting in Lisbon since October. All I get when I ask about it is a deer in the headlights look.

You actually should get a notification for clearing the parcel through Customs (although if you have not done anything by now, it’s probably been sent back to the sender).

What you need to do, if you received the said notification :

1) go to the CTT.pt website (there is an english version of the site)

2) choose « receber / desalfandegar »

3) this is where you need 

   a) the tracking number of the parcel you want to clear through Customs

   b) to have created (or create) an account with CTT, with your particulars, including the Portuguese NIF number

4) go through the Customs’ clearance process (mostly filling forms that specify whether it’s a gift or commercial transaction, the nature of the goods, the sender’s particulars, the good statistic code in the European nomenclature - there are links to sites which will help you find them, the value of the good. etc. )

5) at the end of the process, you will be told how much to pay in tariffs and handling fees. You can pay in multiple ways, the easiest and fastest ones being MBWay or Multibanco payment.

Once you went through this, after between a few hours and two days (that depends on how you paid - for me using MBWay, it’s hours - ), you will get an email telling you the parcel has been cleared through Customs. It takes another week to physically receive it.

You normally receive a Registered letter from CTT telling you you have a parcel waiting for clearance - with its tracking number - or a SMS, if you gave the sender your phone number and it is a Portuguese one.  If you did not get one (and it happened to me for an amazon.com parcel coming from the US a few years ago), then it either was sent back to the sender after some time (assuming the proper box was ticked by him) or .. you’re screwed, unfortunately  

The process seems daunting at first, and the first time can be frustrating, but the learning curve is a short one. Once you get the knack of it, it’s fairly easy. Having done it many times, it’s now a breeze for me.

HTH

Hubert

[belugawhaleman]

The longest time in customs for me was 10 days. That was also Chicago 

and the package was from Hobbyeasy China. Usually it's just a couple of

days.

[Lusitanian]

7 hours ago, HubertB said:

You actually should get a notification for clearing the parcel through Customs (although if you have not done anything by now, it’s probably been sent back to the sender).

What you need to do, if you received the said notification :

1) go to the CTT.pt website (there is an english version of the site)

2) choose « receber / desalfandegar »

3) this is where you need 

   a) the tracking number of the parcel you want to clear through Customs

   b) to have created (or create) an account with CTT, with your particulars, including the Portuguese NIF number

4) go through the Customs’ clearance process (mostly filling forms that specify whether it’s a gift or commercial transaction, the nature of the goods, the sender’s particulars, the good statistic code in the European nomenclature - there are links to sites which will help you find them, the value of the good. etc. )

5) at the end of the process, you will be told how much to pay in tariffs and handling fees. You can pay in multiple ways, the easiest and fastest ones being MBWay or Multibanco payment.

Once you went through this, after between a few hours and two days (that depends on how you paid - for me using MBWay, it’s hours - ), you will get an email telling you the parcel has been cleared through Customs. It takes another week to physically receive it.

You normally receive a Registered letter from CTT telling you you have a parcel waiting for clearance - with its tracking number - or a SMS, if you gave the sender your phone number and it is a Portuguese one.  If you did not get one (and it happened to me for an amazon.com parcel coming from the US a few years ago), then it either was sent back to the sender after some time (assuming the proper box was ticked by him) or .. you’re screwed, unfortunately  

The process seems daunting at first, and the first time can be frustrating, but the learning curve is a short one. Once you get the knack of it, it’s fairly easy. Having done it many times, it’s now a breeze for me.

HTH

Hubert

I have done all of that multiple times.  I’ve paid the required (ridiculous) tax and ‘fees’ and I have the proof the money came out of my bank account.  CTT says “ask Customs”.  I’ve emailed Customs three times on each package, including the tracking number, and I have yet to receive a single reply.  I simply won’t buy anything from outside the EU any more in the future.  It’s not worth it.  

[HubertB]

Sorry to read that. The Portuguese administration is generally efficient with good, fairly integrated, systems, but, unfortunately, when things go sideways, it’s nearly impossible to get any answer from them. I have had this happen more than once. It’s then about finding the right connections, which is completely the opposite of the integrated systems efficiency principle …

Hubert