Can customs really hold our container for a long time?

[liora]

Hi,

Just read the account of a container being held for 7 months...I am hoping to hear that is a very rare event?.. We are moving in January to Wellington with 3 kids, hoping to get our things fro, the US to there in 6-8 weeks, including customs, is that realistic?

Thank you!

[Duncan74]

7 months??? Never heard of that one.

Ours arrived in port on the Tuesday I think, and was delivered to our home on Friday, and that was only because Friday was the first day Crown were available.

Your shipper can pre-clear the container by submitting the paperwork before it actually arrives in port so MAF /Customs can say which boxes they want to have a look at.

[Sun777]

Ours was cleared within 5 days of arriving at Auckland port.

[juxtajenny]

Like the other posts our container arrived and was cleared within 7-10 days, from arrival in NZ and delivery to our house was 2 weeks, that inclued clearance for the car that was also in the container. I can't think of any situation that your container would be delayed for 7 months!

[JandM]

Yes, where is this story of a 7-month hold up? Can anyone give a link?

[liora]

Thank you all for reassuring me. The post that concerned me is the one a few threads ago, the one about kitchen ware in Wellington . I looked at it again, it actually talked about 6 months not 9.
Thank you all!

[Moomette]

When our container arrived a few weeks ago, our contact at Pickfords told us that customs have to process the container within 7 days and hand it to the agent after that. Ours got delivered 10 days after arriving at the port (with declaring and paying duty on a couple of new items) and MAF came around the next day to have a very quick look at 7 boxes, most of these because the packers had labeled them somewhat misleadingly (funpool v FunPod, wooden unit v MDF cabinet, etc). The only two he was actually interested in were our vacuum cleaners. So unless you have loads of stuff of specific interest to MAF (like the other poster's geological samples, if I'm thinking of the right thread), then you should be absolutely fine. As an example, our container took 10 weeks door to door from the UK.

[JandM]

Thank you all for reassuring me. The post that concerned me is the one a few threads ago, the one about kitchen ware in Wellington . I looked at it again, it actually talked about 6 months not 9.
Thank you all!

I still don't know which one you mean. Can you give a link, please?