By Tracey Chandler
Is it really that difficult to receive a package in Argentina from abroad? Are there many complications? “My family wants to send me something from home while I’m on my working holiday in Argentina… will it really be that difficult for me to collect the package that they send?”
The answer to all these questions, unfortunately, is yes.
Connecting Worlds is highly experienced in all matters which relate to foreigners in Argentina. Receiving a package from abroad in Argentina can be really complicated, particularly if you are realising your working holiday, internship or volunteer program in any other part of the country which isn’t Buenos Aires.
Loving, family gift, turns into foreigner in Argentina’s nightmare
By way of example, here’s a quick story of the difficulties experienced by a British girl who had signed up to one of our many gap year programs in Argentina just a couple of months ago…
This particular British female signed up to a gap year program in Mar Del Plata, a coastal city approximately five hours by bus from Buenos Aires. The package that her family sent to her arrived to Ezeiza, the international airport in Buenos Aires. Relentless in her pursuit to retrieve this package, the Brit decided she would book a flight from Mar Del Plata, so she could arrive directly to the airport at Ezeiza (as the international airport is also a 45-minute shuttle-bus ride from the centre of Buenos Aires) to pick up what her family had sent to her.
She decided she would buy a flight which would arrive to Ezeiza really early in the morning, pick up her package, fronting all the costs that the trip and the airport taxes would imply, and then return to Mar Del Plata the same day by plane. Of course, the package was sent, it arrived and it was, eventually, received by our famous Brit, but not without a lot of hassle and hefty expenses.
From the UK to Argentina
Each country will have to follow certain guidelines and will have particular delivery issues to deal with, but with specific references to the UK, 86.4% of the population in Argentina have European ethnic origins. Therefore, it’s little surprising that lots of people from the UK want to send packages to Argentina.
The number of shipments from the UK to Argentina have been steadily increasing over the past decade and in general most packages consist of household items and business materials. However, the Argentine government has noticeably become more and more protective of its domestic economy over the past decade too.
As the country has gradually rebuilt its economy since the phenomenal crash in 2001, it has been importing more consumer goods from abroad. In 2010, there was a 46% increase in the number of imported goods and this surge prompted the Argentine government to place import restrictions on no less than 200 different items. These importation taxes are just one of the reasons why receiving packages from the UK to Argentina is so costly.
Customs nightmare, hefty taxes and lots of annoying paperwork
Another horror story of trying to receive packages in Argentina from abroad tells the tale of having to fill in lots of customs forms at the airport, pay lots of taxes and fines and spend hours wandering backwards and forwards from one office to another just to receive a few tiny souvenirs.
Just like the story about our British female, this couple had to travel to a DHL office in Buenos Aires from another part of Argentina, pay a number of taxes, then travel to Ezeiza airport, then pay more taxes and then get told to go forwards and backwards from office to office before paying out yet more money as a result of airport storage costs, with lost of time-wasting waiting in between.
This time the package was coming via DHL from New Zealand, but the process was equally, if not more, painful for the recipient. It just isn’t worth the hassle trying to receive a package from abroad, particularly when you’re only going to be in Argentina for a few months on a particular volunteer program or as part of a working holiday program, for example.
Any questions?
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Hi there,
I’m from the UK and am currently living and working in Salta, Argentina. I recently had problems with my UK laptop and had to send it back for repairs. Luckily one of my friends from the UK was visiting so i gave it to him to take back home with him.
My laptop has now been repaired and I would like it to be sent back to me in Argentina. I have found a courier, which will deliver straight to my address in Salta,which I’ll have to sign for.
Am I likely to have the same sort of problems as you have described above? The stories you’ve talked about have mentioned people having to travel to BA or other delivery offices - but did they originally arrange to have their packages sent to their address where they were staying?
Thanks for any advice you can give me!