Registered mail to Europe - stuck in customs?

customs in any country can choose to hold packages up for as long as they feel like. even if u had sent it by xpresspost witch has a service time guarantee customs can hold the item up as long they feel like and canada post won't pay out on the guarantee.

fedex or ups can normally get stuff though customs way faster then any postal service but every since the covid there is even times were they don't get stuff though customs same day.

aaron158 wrote: ↑ customs in any country can choose to hold packages up for as long as they feel like. even if u had sent it by xpresspost witch has a service time guarantee customs can hold the item up as long they feel like and canada post won't pay out on the guarantee.

fedex or ups can normally get stuff though customs way faster then any postal service but every since the covid there is even times were they don't get stuff though customs same day.

Sure, but if you send a Christmas card to Europe stuffed with a few family photos and 12 handwritten pages, it's just ordinary mail containing documents. You don't need to make a customs declaration; it bypasses customs completely. Never occurred to me that sending a passport would be any different. If it had, I would have happily asked for a customs declaration form and filled it in.

Did you check with Canada Post if it was legal to send a passport by mail?

I've heard that sending a passport by mail internationally is not legal. At least some countries don't allow it.

sudesingh wrote: ↑ Did you check with Canada Post if it was legal to send a passport by mail?

I've heard that sending a passport by mail internationally is not legal. At least some countries don't allow it.

Couldn't find it on the list of non-mailable matter in Canada, nor on Austria's list of stuff that's not allowed to be mailed there. Maybe my mistake was sending it be registered mail. If I had just slapped the $5 worth of stamps on and dropped it in the mailbox it probably would have arrived already.

Kiraly wrote: ↑ Sure, but if you send a birthday card stuffed with 10 handwritten pages to Europe, that bypasses customs completely. Never occurred to me that sending a passport would be any different. If it had, I would have happily asked for a customs declaration form and filled it in.

i find to that when u send letter mail untracked stuff seems to make it though fast then when it has a tracking number.

a few years back when canada customs was really heavily checking over registered mail packages from china it then started slowing down all packages that were sent registered because china was shipping the packages to Europe and then reshipping it using a European post office to Canada to bypass the slow downs. once that they figured out they were doing that then they slowed packages down from everywhere it was taking anywhere from 2-3 months at times to get packages sent registered mail stuff though customs.

also i'm not sure how Austria post is but i know that if u get stuff sent here to canada via registered mail canada post refuses to provide the tracking for the package once it gets into canada even though there scanning it and the scans are in there system they refuse to provide the tracking. Austria post may do the same thing.

aaron158 wrote: ↑ also i'm not sure how Austria post is but i know that if u get stuff sent here to canada via registered mail canada post refuses to provide the tracking for the package once it gets into canada even though there scanning it and the scans are in there system they refuse to provide the tracking. Austria post may do the same thing.

Austria Post does track inbound international mail. I used their website to track it arrive on Feb 5, and then get stuck in customs on Feb 7.
My biggest concern is that they dispose of it without even trying to deliver it or return it to me. If it spends too much longer stuck in customs I might try contacting the Canadian consulate in Vienna. Maybe they can do something given that it’s a Canadian passport.

Kiraly wrote: ↑ Sure, but if you send a Christmas card to Europe stuffed with a few family photos and 12 handwritten pages, it's just ordinary mail containing documents. You don't need to make a customs declaration; it bypasses customs completely. Never occurred to me that sending a passport would be any different. If it had, I would have happily asked for a customs declaration form and filled it in.

I just asked a friend of mine who is a Post Office Manager and he stated that it's definitely legal to send a Canadian Passport to Europe.

Sometime when it arrives in customs the status doesn't get updated until it's delivered.

Don't stress it will get there.

MartinaC32 wrote: ↑ I just asked a friend of mine who is a Post Office Manager and he stated that it's definitely legal to send a Canadian Passport to Europe.

Sometime when it arrives in customs the status doesn't get updated until it's delivered.

Don't stress it will get there.

Thanks. Yes I learned it's definitely legal to send Canadian passports internationally by mail. In fact, if you live in the US and need to renew your Canadian passport, according to this you *have* to mail it to Canada.

It all worked out. I had to make an account on the Austrian Post website. I was then able to add the tracking number to my account. There was a button to upload missing customs information. I did that. It was released from customs and delivered four days later.

Oh wow, that seems like a smooth process. Don't think have seen that anywhere else. Last time my item was stuck, UPS waited a whole week before they got in touch

kramer1 wrote: ↑ Oh wow, that seems like a smooth process. Don't think have seen that anywhere else. Last time my item was stuck, UPS waited a whole week before they got in touch

ups is quite slow when things don't work out. but it depends like when i was doing an RMA to ring they don't include a customs paper with the value and info on it i sent it out assuming they efiled it. cuz i know when i send stuff with netparcel the customs stuff is efiled but. but apparently ring don't efile it and they don't bother to give customers the paper work. the lady from the local dept caught it and contacted me the same night by email with the blank forum to fill out i sent it back to her and she attached it and got the package on its way the next day. but i've had other times were no one noticed it and they forwarded it on to the us side and then it sat there for ages before anyone contacted to say something. i guess it depends on the country to. because once a guy from england send me something he had the customs thing on it but it wasn't filled out canada customs didn't even open the package to check what was in it or hold it up for not having the info.

i wonder if he shipped that out from the post office if he did its odd they didn't say something to him about filling out a customs delectation the one i go to is its normally pretty good about letting u know if u need to do something like that. normally not needed for normal letter mail but u add that tracking to anything and then customs people get all picky about it.

Kiraly wrote: ↑ Sure, but if you send a Christmas card to Europe stuffed with a few family photos and 12 handwritten pages, it's just ordinary mail containing documents ........

I don't think that is true anymore.
Canada Post tightened up on what can go as Lettermail a few years back. Involving thickness, min. and max. dimensions, bendable or not, etc.
Probably to be aligned with other countries.

They should have advised you that it needed Small Packet International (as opposed to Parcel).
They now encourage customers to check at home what service their specific mailing requires and to print out the Customs Declaration before heading out to the P.O.
(But maybe that was only a Christmas thing - dunno.)

If you hadn't resolved it online for them, I would hope Austria Customs would have eventually opened it up, clarified what it was and cleared it for delivery.

macnut wrote: ↑ I don't think that is true anymore.
Canada Post tightened up on what can go as Lettermail a few years back. Involving thickness, min. and max. dimensions, bendable or not, etc.
Probably to be aligned with other countries.

They should have advised you that it needed Small Packet International (as opposed to Parcel).

The specs are all here: https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/ ... r-post.pdf

It was within the size and shape requirements for letter-post, it contained Items made of paper or other material with the general characteristics of paper (A passport is paper, including the cover which is just thick paper). A passport is also not on the list of unacceptable items on page 2.

The envelope containing the passport checked all the boxes for qualifying as letter-post (and therefore not needing customs declaration) and not a small packet or parcel.

Oh well, Austria Post disagreed, so that point is moot now anyway. Lesson learned if I have to do this again.