Parcel from France

August 12, 2008 3:15 PM

Package shipped from France, really should have been sent by Chronopost, instead was shipped surface mail. How long will it take to arrive in the U.S.?

Roughly speaking.

posted by gimonca to Travel & Transportation (3 answers total)

6-8 weeks is the stated timeframe, but 2-3 months is the more likely case for anything actually shipped via surface mail. Interestingly enough, you can't send international surface mail anymore thru USPS, but presumably, they will still deliver packages coming from outside the US.
posted by nomisxid at 3:32 PM on August 12, 2008

It's my understanding that much of the slowness of sea mail is because the parcel is put in a shipping container that doesn't go anywhere until it's full. The crossing-the-ocean part doesn't actually take that long anymore. So the amount of time it takes can vary greatly if your parcel is one of the first into the container vs. one of the last.
posted by winston at 5:27 PM on August 12, 2008

ABout 2 months.
posted by Penelope at 8:24 PM on August 12, 2008