You have decided to sell your goods on the russian market and have already found a business partner in Russia. It turned out, that your product underlies the EAC conformity assessment and shall be assessed within the framework of the technical regulation. Therefore you have to send your samples to the laboratory in Russia.

In the following we give you the most important advices on how you can send your samples to Russia without risking problems at the customs.
As Russia is part of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) this holds also for all other member states of the EAEU.

Careful planning of the shipment

An international shipment might be quite expensive. Therefore it would make sense to send more samples or catalogues within one shipment. In order to avoid problems at the customs we recommend you to find out about import regulations, costs and eventual import bans of the EAEU before the dispatch.

Compliance to legal regulations

It is easiest to send the samples as a postal item. The following requirements must be met:

• The total value of the shipment, which covers the value of the goods including delivery, should not exceed the value of 200€.
• The weight of the packages in which the samples are sent should not exceed 31 kg.

Correct completion of the proforma invoice

Possible difficulties at the custom may be caused especially by missing or incorrect documents or non-conforming details on the sample products, the producer or the consignee. Therefore you should examine precisely whether the proforma invoice is filled out correctly. It also shall contain a detailed description of the sample commodities with informations about the product name, purpose, serial number, material, components, size ecc. As well required are the country of origin, exact quantity, price per unit, overall price, weight and the HS code.

It is of particular importance that the consignee is not a private person but a company, whose corporate structure is also specified correctly. Most russian companies have the designation OOO, OAO, ZAO (equal to Ltd., LLC, GmbH), while most government entities will be an FGUO or NPO. We strictly recommend you to check, whether the name and the address of the recipient is equivalent to the indicated information in the registration documents of the recipient. In order to avoid undue delay during the shipment, you may be prepared to release additional documents or reissue documents which have already been issued. Also prepare further information and explanations about the samples in advance, in case they should be required.

Reliable contact person in Russia and suitable courier

It may make sense to be always in close contact with your business partner in Russia and to follow his advice, as he is usually more familiar with questions regarding shipping and customs. This way you can avoid unnecessary difficulties.

Of equal importance is the choice of a suitable courier. Strict customs legislation may complicate the shipments of sample goods if they do not meet the requirements. Therefore
we suggest to choose an international courier, who can support you with his expertise in case of any problems. Some courier services also handle customs clearance for the customer.

Importance of the dispatch time

Before you ship the sample goods you should ensure that in the corresponding period there are no national holidays. Especially inconvenient times are for example the month of december and the period between the end of april and the beginning of may. During these periods customs offices may not be continuously available due to the public holidays, which may cause unwanted delays in dispatch.