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Shipping household goods into Guadalajara airport from Canada?


Sarita

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Wanting to hear from anyone who has done this- specifically, shipping boxes of household goods by freight forwarder service out of Vancouver Int`l Airport to Guadalajara: what was involved, size & weight allowances, any restrictions on items permitted, time frame from send off to receipt, cost, and most important- what happened at Mexico end with retrieval of shipment, dealing with customs people, was duty charged & on what, everything arrived safely or damaged...?

Can`t drive down again so this looks to be the only way to get my things down there- luckily, not a whole lot, just personal stuff (kitchenwares, clothes, books, photos, etc.). Thanks!

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Not sure if this will help you, but just this week I went to UPS at the Guad airport and had 6 large boxes of 'personal effects' (what they call used household items) shipped to Maine. The best info I was able to get was at the UPS International Shipping telephone number. She told me just what I needed to do, what was OK, and not OK to ship, how many copies, what forms to use, etc etc. The boxes are hopefully going to arrive next week...we'll see, and no telling what if any customs fee I will need to pay on the other end. Anyway, good luck, and it's a bit cheaper to use a major UPS center, and not just one of the drop off locations. I'll let you know when the boxes arrive, and how it all worked out, once I know.

Thanks. I have found a shipper out of YVR but they can not tell me specifics as most of their clientele are sending to the Orient and Europe, and of course, Mexico has a whole different set of regulations vastly different in every respect. I just don't want to run into any problems with anything being refused entry or being confiscated as these are what little remains of my personal effects, of sentimental value more than anything, as many things were lost in a fire last year. I really need to know nothing will happen when bringing my things into the country on a flight I will not be on.

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Okay, so if shipping used household goods (clothing, kitchenwares, photo albums, toiletries, etc) by freight forwarder is not a good and viable idea, what is? I will only have about 6-8 big boxes, hardly enough to justify hiring a moving company. Neither do I want the hassle of having to hire a broker to get it through customs. Short of driving it down, which I can no longer do since I am now Permanente, what is the best way to move a reasonably small amount of personal goods from Canada to Mexico, the one that will result in the least amount of beaurocratic botching and grey hair? I am only there 2 weeks then back to Canada, so it needs to arrive in that time frame for me to be able to receive it and deal with any potential issues that arise.

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Shipping stuff from Mexico to the USA is totally different from shipping from USA, or in this Canada, into Mexico when you will not be personally accompanying the goods, but if Strom-White has a minimum charge of that amount that is indeed a game changer.

I think the bottom line here is that if you are bringing personal effects into Mexico that implies you must accompany them, unless you have a menaje de casa in which case a Mexican customs broker must be used.

But I will also add this, I had a friend from England who followed all of the rules with a menaje de casa and he ended up spending a substantial amount of pesos to get his stuff released, so I just don't see how doing the same without a menaje could result in a more favorable ending, even if UPS is used.

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Thanks for the feedback. However, the issue is not with finding a company to move the items- I already have that. The problem is with customs at Guadalajara airport as I have read of others horrendous experiences and would like to avoid the same fate. I only have 2 weeks there, if any problems arise and my goods are held after I return to Canada, they will consider the shipment abandoned and it is all toast- right? That is what others have said happens.

My understanding is that NOTHING made of wood will be permitted entry into Mexico when by air, though driving no one bothers to look or care. So does this mean the wood block my kitchen knives sit in, and my wood photo frames and jewelry box, are they going to be refused entry? Will my entire shipment be pulled aside because of this? If so, I am screwed as every box has at least one wood item.

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It is extremely problematic to ship goods to Mexico and not accompany them. Best to bring them as luggage or pay people to take extra suitcases.

Yes, wood requires special permits and fees paid so your stuff will sit and you will pay a daily fee until you get the permits.

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I recommend you ship all the wood items you have separately or bring them with you as luggage. Wood block for knifes may go through or not if customs decides it should be fumigated or cannot be admited. As luggage it would be ok otherwise the shipment may or may not be ok. You are better off buing a wood block here. I bought a beautiful one for 500 pesos a couple of months ago. You can also have it made here. The artisans who sell knifes in Sayula (there are various family doing so)also sell wood blocks so it is not worth the trouble bringing wood blocks.

Ship the pictures without the frames and have the frames made here.

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