Being stuck at home I have recently made some online international orders. One from Taiwan and the other from the Netherlands. Tracking reports the item from Taiwan as being in New York now since June 6 while the other is still in transit. I wonder if the facility in New York is holding the package in quarantine for a period of time before forwarding it to my post office and will they hold the package from europe as well. Does anyone have any info about international shipping quarantines.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

I can't say for the US, but in the UK even before the CORVID-19 pandemic it was not unusual to see packages stalled in customs for weeks. This was more common when there was some debate about the import duty due or the sender hadn't completed the paperwork correctly (in the view of the customs officer). In the past I always found it best to contact customs directly with the shipping number, tracking number and supplier's export number (if available) as such a call would either get the reason for the delay or trigger release. Another thing is some of the big international shippers are not very pro-active when it comes to sending you the invoice for the duty, and most, if not all, won't deliver their paperwork for the release of the package to customs until you've paid your bill (which is difficult to do if you don't have it).

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

Have you checked your duty rates? Last time I checked, it was anything over £15 had duty payable (UK).

There hasn't been any communication regarding additional charges.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

I've had that on a few times - normally when customs are stuffed solid with "junk" to sort through.
late last year I had an issue where the carrier "lost" the paperwork so customs couldn't release until the vendor eventually sent replacement paperwork (note the word "eventually" - it was a couple of months, then the normal three or four days for the invoice to get from customs, via the carrier, to me, then a day to cover the twenty miles from customs to me.

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Bob Smith
Member of Seti PIPPS (Pluto is a Planet Protest Society)
Somewhere in the (un)known Universe?

As it turns out I have to assume that my package was being held in quarantine at the New York international postal facility. My package arrived on June 22 and had a sticker attached with just the numbers 6-20 written on it. As I know it arrived in New York on June 6 it is logical to assume it was held in quarantine for 14 days. This just adds to the wackiness of the whole covid19 reaction by various government agencies. It's pretty well known that this virus can only survive without a host for approximately 48 hours. It took 3 weeks for the package to get to New York from Kiev so they added 14 days which meant it sat untouched for 5 weeks.
While in the meantime business have started reopening and it was related to me that a local nightclub was stuffed to capacity with young party goers having a good time. No wonder there is another infection rate spike happening as I type. Go figure.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Maybe vote for that of the Washington DC it could be still.

... My package arrived on June 22 and had a sticker attached with just the numbers 6-20 written on it. .....

One thought. Your customs or postal agency may be working in 'quarantine batches' given your package will possibly be reinfected in the mail bins.

Plastic will hold living virus for 3 days but that is only if your mail is separately quarantined in it's own box. Each box will only come available after 3 days of self quarantine.

Obviously they can't separate mail individually so quarantine batches is the most logical. 14 days seems logical if you add all the normal delays on top.

Here in the UK I see no difference in time for the small electronic component I receive from china. It takes forever as normal ;)