How to send a parcel from the USA to Europe — options and tips

All parcels come together at our warehouse in Irvington, New Jersey. If you live nearby, drop your boxes off yourself; from other states, send them by courier or mail and have online orders delivered straight there. Before you send anything, call us at +1 973 372 1100 or use the quote form so we know whose boxes to expect.

At the warehouse we combine your parcels into one shipment and load it into a shared container to Gdynia, Poland, where we clear customs and then deliver to the recipient's address in Poland or elsewhere in Europe. You deal with one company from start to finish.

The sailing from New Jersey to Gdynia takes 16–20 days, and from our warehouse to a door in Poland you should allow 4–6 weeks: that includes waiting for the container to be loaded, customs clearance and final delivery. Online orders also need a few days to reach the warehouse, so send holiday or birthday gifts early.

Parcels travel as LCL (less than container load), sharing a container with other customers' cargo, and you pay for the space they occupy in cubic meters. The minimum charge is 1 m³ (about 35 cubic feet): boxes that take up less are billed as a full cubic meter. As long as everything fits within 1 m³, you pay the same minimum volume charge whether you send two boxes or ten. That's why it pays to pool parcels with relatives and add your online purchases.

Volume is easy to work out. In inches, multiply length × width × height and divide by 61,024: a 24 × 16 × 15 in box comes to about 0.094 m³, so ten such boxes take up about 0.94 m³. In metric, a 60 × 40 × 40 cm box is 0.6 × 0.4 × 0.4 m = 0.096 m³.

Above the minimum, you pay by the volume your boxes take up, and for a whole household a dedicated 40-foot high-cube (40HC) container usually makes more sense; a car can travel in it too, as long as it is empty. The price depends on volume and route, so we give it in an individual quote within 24 hours.

On the way, your parcel goes through warehouse intake, loading, more than two weeks at sea, unloading in Gdynia and final delivery. In the container, boxes are stacked on top of each other, and temperature and humidity change. The packaging has to cope with that, and nothing inside should shift. Sending something fragile? Ask us how best to protect it when you request a quote.

At customs clearance, what counts is what the paperwork says, so your contents list has to match what's in the boxes. We prepare the packing list and customs declaration from your list: you tell us what's inside and what it's worth.

Be specific: not “clothes” but “women's jackets, 2 pcs.” For each item, give the quantity, the value in US dollars and whether it's new or used. For purchases, give the price on your receipt or invoice (keep your order confirmations); for used items, their realistic current value.

Don't understate values or split shipments artificially: when the EU last changed its rules for low-value parcels, both practices were named explicitly as abuses. Also note whether a parcel is a gift for someone in Europe, as that matters for duty and VAT.

You can have orders from online stores and eBay delivered straight to our warehouse in Irvington. We add them to the boxes you drop off or send, so everything travels as one shipment, priced on its total volume.

To make sure nothing goes astray, check with us how to address the order before you buy, then send us the tracking numbers and order confirmations. The confirmations also help at customs, because they show the purchase price.

For new car parts, use our sister site lesniewskiczesci.com: you point to a part on eBay or at a US store, we buy it on your behalf, receive it at our US warehouse and add it to your shipment. It's especially handy if you live in Europe and don't have a US address.

Whether you pay duty and VAT depends on what's in the parcel, what it's worth and who is sending it to whom. We clear shipments in Gdynia on your behalf, based on a signed power of attorney (template in our Forms section) and your contents list, and tell you beforehand what to expect. For purchases, two EU-wide changes matter: since July 1, 2021, there has been no VAT exemption for small consignments up to €22, and since July 1, 2026, consignments worth up to €150 are no longer exempt from customs duty.

Gifts are treated differently. In Poland, goods worth up to €45, sent occasionally by a private individual in the USA to another private individual, for their own use and without any payment, are exempt from both duty and VAT. The relief doesn't cover things you buy and ship to yourself, or parcels the recipient pays the sender for. We check before shipping whether your boxes meet these conditions. Limits for alcohol, tobacco and perfume are covered below.

Moving to Poland for good? Then your boxes can travel as transfer-of-residence goods. In Poland, duty relief requires, among other things, at least 12 months of continuous residence outside the EU and at least 6 months of using the items before the move, and the Polish VAT Act sets similar conditions for VAT relief. Our household-goods guides cover the details.

Some items need a conversation before you pack them. We review batteries, chemicals and flammables before they go into an ocean container, and customs and tax rules set limits for certain products. We assess each case individually: sometimes different packaging or an extra document is enough, and sometimes it's better to leave the item in the USA.

For gifts to Poland, the limits include 1 liter of spirits over 22% alcohol by volume, 50 cigarettes, and 50 g of perfume or 0.25 liters of eau de toilette. If a parcel contains more, those goods lose the VAT exemption entirely.