Sending letters and parcels to US from France: what are the latest rules?

Following reports of difficulties with sending letters or parcels to the US, we have reviewed the latest rules that must be complied with for this destination – which are more restrictive and often costly.

Rules on posting parcels to the US have been in flux since last summer, when there was a suspension of normal La Poste ‘Colissimo’ parcel post to the US, with only the expensive, fast Chronopost service being offered (or other private couriers).

This followed the introduction of new customs rules in the US that levy import taxes from the first dollar on goods other than narrowly defined ‘presents’, whereas previously there was an $800 allowance. Furthermore, these charges must be paid by the sender, rather than the recipient in the US, unlike the usual system applied elsewhere in the world as standard.

La Poste has now restarted Colissimo parcel deliveries and has clarified new rules on the sending of any form of small object/merchandise.

It comes as one reader even reports her post office refused to send a normal letter to the US with an international stamp. This appears to be an anomaly, but we have asked La Poste to investigate.

Sending parcels

Parcels to the US via La Poste’s Colissimo service now require the labels to be purchased on the internet and printed out. Service users may then take the parcel into the post office for sending (doing so from your letterbox is not offered for the US).

You should visit the website laposte.fr/colissimo-en-ligne to carry out the formalities, which includes paying the US customs duties upfront, plus a postal service customs admin fee. The cost for the US starts at €35.19, the website states.

During the process, you are required to make a customs declaration, including indicating the nature of the item sent, such as present, sale of merchandise, return of merchandise, a sample, a document or ‘other’.

The site will calculate total cost including postage charge plus, if relevant, US taxes and an admin charge for dealing with these. 

Admin fees are:

• a fixed $1 (including for sending gifts), and

• 40 cents per parcel; plus 2.5% of the amount of US import tax

Note that Chronopost also remains possible, including if purchased at a post office.

Small objects

It is no longer possible to send any small objects in a letter, whether the stamp is purchased via the Mon Timbre en Ligne website laposte.fr/mon-timbre-en-ligne (which allows you to print stamps off at home), or in a post office.

The website notes this rule and refers to marchandise (goods) but in this case this includes any items other than letters, greetings cards etc, that have a certain volume and value of some kind.

So, whereas it was previously possible to send small items in a letter (such as a lettre suivie internationale) as long as it was accompanied by a simple customs form, this is not now allowed, and only the Colissimo service as described above can be used for this.

La Poste states that the Colissimo process is set up to accompany you through the full required formalities.

It states that this is now obligatory for the US, unlike many other destinations, due to the strict US rules which now mean that any item arriving in the US deemed not to have followed the correct procedures risks destruction of the item and a $100 fine.

Presents

A ‘present’ denotes the sending of an item from one member of the public to another as a gift, without any commercial relationship. However, according to La Poste, the US authorities accept this only for ‘home-made’ items – shop-bought goods (books, DVDs…) may not be accepted as such in practice.

For the US, there is an import tax exemption up to $100 for gifts and the item must be described as such on the customs form CN23, if possible in English.

Can you still send letters to the US?

We have not identified any reason why it should no longer be possible to send ordinary letters with a stamp to the US, provided that they contain only paper letters or greetings cards, and nothing that may be considered ‘goods’.

La Poste’s official website states at present that stamps for this can be purchased via the website or at post office counters, but not from automatic machines in post offices.

However, we are double-checking the latest rules with La Poste and will update this article if further information is received.