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How long shipping from India actually takes

Transit time is the part everyone quotes. The delays come from the parts nobody mentions.

Published transit times measure the flight and the delivery. They do not measure the days your parcel spends waiting for you, or sitting in customs because of a paperwork problem. Both are avoidable.

Indicative transit, once despatched

  • Gulf and Middle East. The fastest lane from India — a small number of days on Premium.
  • Singapore, Malaysia, Southeast Asia. Comparably quick.
  • United Kingdom and Western Europe. Roughly the middle of the range.
  • United States and Canada. Similar to Europe on Premium; noticeably longer on Economy.
  • Australia and New Zealand. The longest of the major lanes.

Economy adds several days on every route. We quote a range for your specific destination when you request shipping.

The four things that add days

  1. Waiting for you. The clock starts when you request shipping, not when the parcel arrives with us. Parcels sitting in free storage awaiting a decision are the single largest source of "slow" shipping.
  2. An undeclared customs value. We cannot generate the export invoice without it, so the shipment cannot be booked.
  3. Incomplete KYC. Customs requires a verified ID for the shipper. Uploading it when you sign up rather than when you are in a hurry saves a day or two.
  4. An address customs queries. Missing postcodes, no phone number, no landmark. Couriers abroad frequently do not call before delivering.

Peak periods

Diwali, Christmas, and the Indian wedding season all congest the network at origin and destination. Add a buffer, and if something has a hard date, ship Premium and ship early.

What we do to keep it moving

We log parcels the day they arrive, photograph them, and flag anything that will be refused before it reaches a booking. Most delays we see are documentation, and documentation is fixable in advance.

Common questions

When does the transit time start?

From the day your consolidated shipment leaves our warehouse. Time spent in free storage while you decide does not count towards it.

Can you guarantee a delivery date?

No forwarder honestly can, because customs at the destination is outside anyone can. Premium is materially more predictable than Economy, and we will tell you if a deadline looks tight.

What slows parcels down most often?

Missing customs values and incomplete KYC, both of which stop us booking the shipment at all. Both take a few minutes to fix in your account.

Work out your own shipment

The calculator shows every service level available for your destination and weight, and lists the charges nobody can quote in advance so none of them is a surprise.

Open the calculator Get my Indian address

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