As has been said on this forum before, shipping more than you can carry into Argentina is a big mistake when travelling on a tourist visa - a mistake you pay for again when trying to ship it out. As we have just been through the process of shipping stuff out of here, I thought it might be helpful to provide an overview of our experience – and of course to vent a little.
We arrived in January from the South Pacific with 350kg of personal effects shipped air freight via TNT. In mid April we departed for Europe. The hellish time we had getting our stuff into the country was nothing to the stress we experienced getting it out.
We originally contacted TNT thinking this to be the simplest method of repatriating our stuff. They informed us that they only deal with businesses for shipments out of Argentina. DHL and Fedex were willing to work with us, but quotes from both were understandably exorbitant. Next we tried the expat friendly moving companies - who were excellent in their responsiveness and professionalism, but were mandatory full service (door to door + packing) and as a result, extremely expensive for sea freight (www.exportainer.com). My impression is that these companies generally deal with expats in Argentina on work visas - and company shipping allowances.
We tried the freight forwarders - most of whom, in typical Argentinian fashion neglected to return our initial emails/phone calls (Tiger Cargo, Ketras - google them for website). In the end, we did receive quotes from these companies. However, this is when we once again encountered the draconian Argentinian customs regulations. While in Argentina on a tourist visa, you are only entitled to ship a maximum of 50Kg of personal effects out of the country. I assumed originally that this was merely a matter of money and that anything over 50Kg would be liable for export duties (a similar case to what happened when we arrived), but I was told repeatedly that it was simply impossible - as utterly ridiculous as that sounds.
Additionally, all of our paintings and artwork accumulated over 2 years in Papua New Guinea were untouchable for these companies. Everything required government certification through an incredibly complex, lengthy and possibly expensive process (See exportainer’s website for the details in english). The maddening irony is that this might well have been avoided. We paid customs duties to bring all this stuff in – and the customs agent was particularly interested in the paintings, yet didn’t bother to note the entrance of the paintings on the customs documents.
So, in the face of these obstacles, we decided that the best thing to do would be to take as much with us as possible on the flight to Madrid. Aerolineas charges $146 US per piece (up to 23Kg) for anything over the 2 bag allowance on this route. I bought some cheap duffel bags and we maxed out each one – travelling with 4 bags each. The paintings were deframed, rolled and folded when necessary and went into a suitcase – along with carvings, masks and other assorted artwork. We had no trouble at all at Ezeiza and all the luggage made it through to the other side without incident. (Special thanks Bob for the advice on this.)
On top of this, we hired an excellent unaccompanied baggage company to ship 100Kg direct to Bucharest (www.bluestarcargo.com.ar - english speaking). This cost $1400 US for 4 boxes – approximately 50% more expensive than one of the quotes we received from Ketras - but it was well worth the money. The boxes shipped air freight (via the company’s agent DHL) and breezed through Argentine customs – showing up in Europe before us.
Of course, that only took care of about half of what we originally brought into the country - our friends in BsAs were quite happy to take the rest off our hands. All in all, a bitter lesson learned the hard way – and we have only ourselves to blame. For the most part, this info was available in some form or another on this forum. It just never occurred to us, having shipped possessions out of developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific over the past decade without issue, that it would be so relatively difficult to achieve the same in Argentina.
Hoping this helps others avoid our mistakes (and standing-by for admonishing responses
)
We arrived in January from the South Pacific with 350kg of personal effects shipped air freight via TNT. In mid April we departed for Europe. The hellish time we had getting our stuff into the country was nothing to the stress we experienced getting it out.
We originally contacted TNT thinking this to be the simplest method of repatriating our stuff. They informed us that they only deal with businesses for shipments out of Argentina. DHL and Fedex were willing to work with us, but quotes from both were understandably exorbitant. Next we tried the expat friendly moving companies - who were excellent in their responsiveness and professionalism, but were mandatory full service (door to door + packing) and as a result, extremely expensive for sea freight (www.exportainer.com). My impression is that these companies generally deal with expats in Argentina on work visas - and company shipping allowances.
We tried the freight forwarders - most of whom, in typical Argentinian fashion neglected to return our initial emails/phone calls (Tiger Cargo, Ketras - google them for website). In the end, we did receive quotes from these companies. However, this is when we once again encountered the draconian Argentinian customs regulations. While in Argentina on a tourist visa, you are only entitled to ship a maximum of 50Kg of personal effects out of the country. I assumed originally that this was merely a matter of money and that anything over 50Kg would be liable for export duties (a similar case to what happened when we arrived), but I was told repeatedly that it was simply impossible - as utterly ridiculous as that sounds.
Additionally, all of our paintings and artwork accumulated over 2 years in Papua New Guinea were untouchable for these companies. Everything required government certification through an incredibly complex, lengthy and possibly expensive process (See exportainer’s website for the details in english). The maddening irony is that this might well have been avoided. We paid customs duties to bring all this stuff in – and the customs agent was particularly interested in the paintings, yet didn’t bother to note the entrance of the paintings on the customs documents.
So, in the face of these obstacles, we decided that the best thing to do would be to take as much with us as possible on the flight to Madrid. Aerolineas charges $146 US per piece (up to 23Kg) for anything over the 2 bag allowance on this route. I bought some cheap duffel bags and we maxed out each one – travelling with 4 bags each. The paintings were deframed, rolled and folded when necessary and went into a suitcase – along with carvings, masks and other assorted artwork. We had no trouble at all at Ezeiza and all the luggage made it through to the other side without incident. (Special thanks Bob for the advice on this.)
On top of this, we hired an excellent unaccompanied baggage company to ship 100Kg direct to Bucharest (www.bluestarcargo.com.ar - english speaking). This cost $1400 US for 4 boxes – approximately 50% more expensive than one of the quotes we received from Ketras - but it was well worth the money. The boxes shipped air freight (via the company’s agent DHL) and breezed through Argentine customs – showing up in Europe before us.
Of course, that only took care of about half of what we originally brought into the country - our friends in BsAs were quite happy to take the rest off our hands. All in all, a bitter lesson learned the hard way – and we have only ourselves to blame. For the most part, this info was available in some form or another on this forum. It just never occurred to us, having shipped possessions out of developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific over the past decade without issue, that it would be so relatively difficult to achieve the same in Argentina.
Hoping this helps others avoid our mistakes (and standing-by for admonishing responses
)