Tell me about shipping gifts from Canada to the US
December 3, 2020 7:41 AM   Subscribe

Due to everything, I'll be staying in Canada for Christmas while my parents and siblings celebrate together in the US. Naturally I'll need to ship gifts from here to there, but I'm having trouble finding answers to my specific questions online.

You'd think I'd know the answers to some of these questions after living here for over 4 years, but international parcel mail remains somewhat of a mystery to me.

Specific questions:
  • Will I have to worry about owing customs fees on either end? Is there a max dollar value per item or per package below which I don't have to pay fees? I expect all the individual items I'm shipping are worth less than ~$50 or so.
  • Can I ship wrapped gifts? I know the general advice is "don't ship wrapped gifts internationally" but I can't find anything specifically about Canada to the US. I don't really mind if the gift ends up getting unwrapped by customs, but I don't want the package to get returned to me.
  • How the heck do I fill out the customs declaration? I usually overthink it, but I honestly am not really sure what level of detail to go into. Can I just write "gifts - $20" and call it done?
Ideally I would ship via Canada Post but I'm willing to use a private carrier if it will make life easier. I'll also try to get as many items as possible shipped directly from the seller to my family, but there's some personal/specialized items I'll need to mail myself.

Personal anecdotes welcome. Links to official guidelines also welcome if you're better at google than I am.

I am also interested in the answers to these questions in the US -> Canada direction so that I can advise my family.
posted by mekily to Home & Garden (10 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
I'm not an expert, but I do ship a gift to a friend in the U.S. twice a year through Canada Post, so from my experience:

- Under $50 incurs no customs fees if it's marked as a gift. I believe the limit for the U.S. is $99 on this.
- I ship wrapped gifts, and they have only been unwrapped to be checked once in the last sixteen years. I believe usually the first step is a scan and they only open it up if something looks hinky on the scan. On the other hand, my friend's stuff to me gets opened and denied all the time, and I don't know if that's just a Canadian issue or if I'm inadvertently on some sort of watchlist, so mileage may vary based on exactly who it's sent to.
- I've always been told to give an itemized description to avoid some further scrutiny. That's one of the reasons I wrap the presents - so my friend can immediately ditch the outer packaging and try to avoid spoilers. I write things like, "Chocolates - $10, Bath Beads - $10, Card - $5."

The only advice I have in reverse is that my experience with the Canada Border Service mail centres has been hit and miss. As mentioned, stuff sent to me often gets scanned and opened, I've been hit with a fee for them having had to do some extra investigation, and I twice had a gift parcel with a DVD box set of HBO's Rome rejected and sent back for "containing illegal pornography." (I don't know if they were confusing it with Caligula or what, but I wasn't impressed.)
posted by northernish at 7:58 AM on December 3, 2020 [2 favorites]


I've shipped gifts with a declared value of less that $50 CAD in small parcels (Canada Post info here) to the U.S. at least once a year for the last few years and have never had duty imposed at either end.

When filling out the customs form, just be sure to declare "gift" (obviously!). You can fill out the form at that link ahead of time so you don't need to do it at the post office.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:58 AM on December 3, 2020


From personal experience:

- be more specific than 'gifts' on the form - I've had packages returned for that reason
- I haven't had gifts unwrapped - except the time I learned Kindersurprise eggs were illegal to send
- leave WAY more time than you think if you are used to US mail. I might let your family know you're already in the "may not make it on time" zone if you aren't shipping today
- if you haven't used Canada Post before (apologies if this is super basic) be ready for sticker shock
- due to the above I have mostly switched over to ordering US gifts from US online stores to ship within the US, but of course this means they aren't handmade etc.
posted by warriorqueen at 8:35 AM on December 3, 2020 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Thank you all for the advice so far, very helpful.

Just to confirm -- the $50 limit is per package, not per item, right? So if I wanted to send two $50 items, I would need to split them into two packages to avoid customs fees?
posted by mekily at 8:47 AM on December 3, 2020


Via U.S. CPB:

Gifts You Mail

Gifts worth up to $100 may be sent, free of duty and tax, to friends and relatives in the United States, as long as the same person does not receive more than $100 worth of gifts in a single day.

posted by mandolin conspiracy at 8:54 AM on December 3, 2020


Canada Post customs forms should now be filled out online before going to the post office.
posted by heatherlogan at 9:02 AM on December 3, 2020


You’re over thinking this. I regularly get packages from Canada to California. I just got four in the last week.
Don’t wrap them.
Just write the gift item and rough dollar amount.
I can’t find the reference but I’ve received gifts up to $100 no fees.
posted by St. Peepsburg at 10:38 AM on December 3, 2020


I have fedex specific info if it's of any use:
- I was told by the FedEx guy to use the phrase "unsolicited gifts" to be sure to avoid customs.
- You can flag it for customs fees to be billed to shipper in case something does go wrong.
- get a quote from Canada post and a couple of the fedex/ups/DHL (you can do these online) often fedex ended up cheaper in certain speeds/areas.
posted by platypus of the universe at 10:58 AM on December 3, 2020


I ship regularly for my business.

Anything under $800 has no taxes or duty to the US.

For the declaration just be general, "toys", "books", that sort of thing.

If you live in Toronto or some border areas, there are services called Cross Border Shippers. You pay US post office postage plus a buck or two. Drop it off to them and they drive it across the border into a USPS sorting facility.
posted by dripdripdrop at 6:58 PM on December 3, 2020


Fedex and UPS recently got expensive again, as they've cracked down on resellers and bulk-shippers.
Be prepared for sticker-shock no matter what carrier you use. Canadians pay more for stuff because we're used to paying more for stuff.
Your gifts are only borderline likely to get there by Christmas now if you use CanadaPost. Small Packet deadline is Monday- and that's just the guideline.
CanadaPost Ship online is pretty decent - it prompts you for everything you need, and you can build up shipments of lots of packages and ship in one go. For some reason, the "print it yourself" shipping labels have barcodes that don't scan at my local post office, so maybe print the QR code receipt as well and have your post office print the labels.
posted by scruss at 9:09 AM on December 4, 2020


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