Most AliExpress parcels clear customs in three to seven days. A fortnight is common in December and January. Beyond three weeks with no movement, something usually needs your attention — most often an unpaid duty charge nobody told you about clearly.
What the statuses mean
| Status | Meaning | Action |
|---|---|---|
| Arrived at destination country | In your country, not yet with customs | Wait |
| Inbound into customs | Queued for assessment | Wait 3 to 14 days |
| Held at customs | Duty owed or paperwork missing | Check post, email and texts |
| Customs clearance completed | Released | Nothing, it is moving |
| Returned to sender | Rejected or unpaid too long | Contact the seller about a refund |
Why it is stuck
Volume. Customs processes in batches. Your parcel is in a queue, not under inspection. Peak season doubles the queue.
Duty is owed and you have not paid it. This is the big one. Notification often arrives by post or an easily-missed text, and parcels are only held for a limited window before being returned.
The declaration is wrong. Sellers routinely under-declare value. If customs disputes it, the parcel waits while it is re-assessed.
The contents need a licence. Batteries, liquids, food, cosmetics and anything electrical can require documentation the seller did not provide.
What you can actually do
Very little directly, and it is worth being honest about that. Customs will not discuss a parcel with anyone but the importer, and the importer is you only once it is formally presented. In practice:
Check for a duty notice everywhere. Post, email, SMS, and the carrier's own portal. Most "stuck" parcels are waiting on a payment the recipient never saw.
Contact your national carrier, not AliExpress. Once it is in your country, your postal operator holds the useful information.
Ask the seller for the declaration. If customs is querying value or contents, an invoice from the seller sometimes resolves it.
Watch your buyer protection clock. A customs delay does not pause it. If clearance is dragging toward your deadline, open a dispute to preserve the option — you can always cancel it if the parcel arrives.
Will I have to pay duty?
It depends on your country and the declared value, and thresholds change often enough that any figure printed here would be out of date within months. Check your own customs authority for the current position. What is consistent is that the carrier usually adds a handling fee on top of the duty itself, and that fee is often larger than the tax.
You can follow the parcel through clearance and into your local network with our tracking tool, which picks up the national carrier's scans as soon as they start.