United States

The following items are prohibited from importation, meaning they won't be allowed to enter the destination country, territory or region.

To check which items are considered dangerous and prohibited for sending from Australia, download our Prohibited and Restricted item list and packaging guide (1.1MB).

• Alcoholic beverages
• Animals and animal products
• Animal or vegetable fats/oils
• Arms and ammunition
• Cereals
• Chain letters
• Cork and articles of cork
• Dairy produce, birds’ eggs; natural honey
• Fruit, nuts and citrus peel
• Fertilizers
• Furs
• Inorganic and organic chemicals
• Lottery tickets or related advertising
• Lac, gums and resins
• Lithium batteries (including devices containing lithium batteries)
• Mineral fuels and oils
• Measuring, medical or surgical instruments
• Meat and fish products
• Optical, photographic, cinematographic products
• Printed books, newspapers, pictures- offensive by nature
• Preparations of meat, fish or crustaceans
• Schedule 8 & PBS drugs
• Tobacco and tobacco products
• Vegetables and vegetable products
• Wool, animal hair
• Wine
• Wheat products

Transporting food of any kind, cash and perfumes are prohibited under International Courier. 

US tariff update

The US administration recently announced new tariff arrangements for goods sent to the US. 

• Effective 24 February 2026, a 10% global import surcharge will apply to all items sent to the US, regardless of Country of Origin.
• This will be in force for 150 days until further notice. Further changes, including increases to the tariff rates, remain unconfirmed and subject to change. 
• There is no change to the current process for duty collection. 
• Letters and documents with no commercial value and gifts valued under USD100 are still exempt from tariffs.
  

Important notice: Resumed retail postal services to the US and new tariff rules

All postal services to the United States (US) and its Overseas Territories have resumed effective Tuesday, 7 October 2025, except for ‘International Courier’ branded services to the US which remain temporarily unavailable. 

Letters and documents of no commercial value, and gifts valued under USD100 are not impacted by the new tariff rules for the US and its Overseas Territories, including Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands and the US Minor Outlying Islands.

The online customs declaration (CN23) form is temporarily unavailable for the US and its Overseas Territories. Customers sending to these destinations will not be able to prepare the CN23 form ahead of visiting a Post Office, and must complete the form in-store.

Gifts valued under USD100

The tariff exemption only applies to individuals sending to individuals. If the sender’s information includes a business name or looks like a purchase it will not qualify as a gift. 

What do customers need to do?

When sending to the US, including if sending gifts under USD100, you must ensure that all mandatory customs declaration requirements are completed accurately.

These requirements are: 

• Country of Origin (COO) – this refers to the country of manufacture of the goods.
• Value of Goods – This must be declared accurately for each item within your parcel. Values of less than AUD1 will not be accepted.
• Harmonised System (HS) Tariff Code – It is your responsibility to ensure that the correct HS tariff number is used. You can use our auto-lookup or refer to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade website when entering manually.

Important note: 

• Items missing any of the required information will be returned to sender.
• US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) will not assess or accept items with incomplete declarations. 

Import Duties and Administration and Handling Fee

• Customers sending gifts valued at more than USD100 or other goods, will need to pay duties and an administration and handling fee at the counter as part of the transaction when they do their postage assessment.
• The Import Duty is calculated based on the item details in the parcel contents declaration and in accordance with the requirements of the US Customs and Border Protection authority (CBP). The Import Duty is payable to the CPB. Import Duty does not apply to:
  • Letters and documents of no commercial value, and gifts valued under USD100. 
  • Items valued at USD800 or more. These duties are paid by the receiver.    
• As Australia Post will be collecting the duties and then providing them to a Qualified Party authorised to pay duties to US Customs Border and Protection (CBP), there will be an administration and handling fee. The administration and handling fee covers the costs associated with the use of a Qualified Party as authorised and required by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) to remit and process the import duties payable for sending to the US and its Overseas Territories. This is in line with other postal operators globally, who are also charging handling and processing fees on top of the US customs import duties which are payable to CBP.
• The administration and handling fee include a percentage (%) of the dutiable amount of the item plus a flat fee.
• This will mean that retail customers will need to pay the US customs import duties, and the administration and handling fee on top of their postage at the time of lodgement. 

Both the import duty and the administration and handling fee will appear to the customers on the POS (POST+ terminal screen) and in their receipt.

What about ‘International Courier’ services?

‘International Courier’ is a premium service of Australia Post for customers requiring urgent delivery of parcels and letters to select overseas destinations, with tracking and Signature on Delivery. 

Australia Post is unable to confirm at this time when services will resume for ‘International Courier’ branded services to the US. We will continue to keep customers informed and up to date as the situation develops.

Information above is subject to change.  Australia Post is monitoring the situation closely and will provide updates on the impacts of the regulatory changes on our customers, and Australian outbound postal services to the US, as they become available. 

We recommend you visit the official websites of the relevant authorities for the most up-to-date information.

Mail Security

The United States Postal Service has advised that, owing to heightened security, longer delivery times are likely for articles addressed to US government agencies. This applies in particular to Washington DC five-digit zip codes ranging from 202xx - 205xx.

Mail may be subject to irradiation treatment prior to delivery. The irradiation process is safe, but the US Postal Service is advising mail users that particular commodities may be affected:

• Any biological sample e.g. blood samples, could be rendered useless
• Diagnostic kits e.g. to monitor blood sugar levels, may be adversely affected
• Photographic film will be fully exposed
• Food will be adversely affected
• Drugs and medicines could have their efficacy affected
• Eyeglasses and contact lenses could be adversely affected
• Electronic devices would probably be rendered inoperable

The US Postal Service advises that each irradiated mail article will bear an official notification to the addressee that the item was subjected to an irradiation process.

Batteries

All types of batteries and devices containing them (e.g. laptops, mobile phones, wireless headphones and equivalent, power banks, tablets, etc.) are prohibited from being sent via International Courier.

Medications

All types of medications are prohibited from being sent via International Courier:

• Non doctor prescribed e.g. Panadol
• Pharmacy only e.g. labelled with pharmacy and recipient name
• Doctor prescribed e.g. asthma puffer, insulin tablets/needle, heart medications
• Controlled/illegal e.g. Morphine, Methadone, Hemp Seed Oil, Cannabinoids

If an item is subject to import restrictions, it means that provisions must be met before it will be released from customs in the destination country, territory or region.

We recommend you confirm import restrictions with local authorities before posting:

• Alcoholic beverages
• Animals and animal products
• Firearms
• Foodstuffs
• Goods originating from Cuba, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria
• Hides
• Knives
• Pharmaceutical products
• Registered articles
• Skins
• Tobacco and tobacco products
• Vegetable and other plant products
• Weapons
• Wool

Please note that tobacco, alcohol and pharmaceutical items cannot be sent from Australia to the US as gifts.

Import Tax Threshold

Any goods valued over $800 USD (de minimis value) are subject to import duty tax. However, items valued below $800 are exempt from duty, unless they fall under the De Minimis exception list. The USD$800 duty exemption will be suspended on 29 August 2025.

In addition to our customs forms, authorities in the destination country, territory or region require further documentation for some items.

Senders should provide a Certificate of Origin, whenever possible.

As a result of new regulations issued by the Food and Drug Administration under the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002, all shipments of articles of food to the United States must be preceded by a prior notice of shipment. This applies to articles shipped for commercial purposes or as gifts.

Articles of food include (but are not limited to): food for humans or animals, dietary supplements, nutritional supplements, vitamins, food and colour additives.

Articles of food which are non-commercially prepared by an individual in his own residence and sent to another individual as a (non-commercial) gift are exempt from submission of this prior notice. This prior notice may be submitted and a prior notice conformation number obtained via access.fda.gov/index.html#prior.

Mail shipments containing food articles for which a prior notice conformation number has not been entered on the customs declaration may be returned to the sender or (if no return address is included) destroyed.

Should you require information on what must be submitted with a prior notice, consult the Food and Drug Administration.

Before sending to this destination, it’s worth noting a few more details about our international delivery services.

• International Express (carried via the EMS network) - Parcels deliver to all destinations
  
  International Express - Parcels does deliver to a Post Office Box and Poste Restante.
  
  
• International Courier
  
  Check our International Courier page for more details.
  
  Shipments must be lodged at the counter at a participating Post Office (PDF 832kB) by the cut-off time, which may vary by outlet.
  
  International Courier does not deliver to a Post Office Box or Poste Restante.
  
  Metropolitan delivery to (valid postcodes in brackets):
  • New York (10000 to10292)
  • Los Angeles (90001 to 90189)
  • Chicago (60290 to 60827)
  • Houston (77001 to 77299)
  • Philadelphia (19019 to 19255)
  • Phoenix (85001 to 85099)
  • San Antonio (78201 to 78299)
  • San Diego (92101 to 92199)
  • Dallas (75201 to 75398)
  • San Jose (95101 to 95196)

For more information from the overseas carrier, check the United States Postal Service website.