Clearance delay for watch coming into the US from Germany

None of this is the norm, at least in my experience.

I send watches to the US using FedEx 2 day service on a regular basis, and in most cases they arrive the next day, often less than 24 hours after being sent. I understand it’s upsetting when you run into these situations, but they are rare and typically get resolved without a lot of trouble.

Usually it's pretty seamless. I currently have an inbound watch from a dealer in Tokyo, while the plane was in the air DHL had transmitted the Commercial Invoice and the filled in Watch Worksheet to the San Antonio office which generated a bill for the duty, fees and service charge which alerted me via text and email. Total was right at 2% of the watch cost. Paid that Friday morning online and got an automated note back saying the 'payment is received and recorded for shipment related fees' and that is noted on the tracking info history. Shipment arrived in Cincinnati Friday night, cleared customs and departed for San Antonio Saturday morning which means I'll get it Monday. Sometimes a snafu will occur no matter how well the paperwork was filled out, it just gets routed to the wrong person or department and then sits. Your watch will eventually get to you, but these days who needs the aggravation. No shipment is ever complete until it gets delivered safely to you.

I just ran into the Form 5106 issue for the first time with FedEx. Have an inbound watch from Europe that got to Memphis last Friday (3/18) at midnight, but no FedEx customs people work over the weekend. This Monday morning a FedEx Customs Specialist sent a note to the sender saying they needed the watch breakdown (which was already presented to them) and a completed Form 5106 from the receiver (me). Sender sent another copy of the watch worksheet and asked FedEx to contact me about the Form 5106. The FedEx agent sent me an email with a copy of the Form 5106 and the instructions, and I was told to fill it in and email it back to him. It's a Department of Homeland Security Form and it is pretty simple; name, address, phone, email and your Social Security Number which acts as your Importer Identification Number within CBP (Customs and Border Protection) for future use. You can opt to have a CBP number assigned to you instead but you still must provide your SSN on the initial form. So if you don't provide your SSN up front you aren't getting the parcel.

I completed the form and emailed it back to the Customs Specialist and 30 minutes later I got an email from him saying the shipment has been released, and the FedEx system is showing delivery tomorrow.

The smoothness of this process is somewhat agent dependent, in this case it was all cleared up in a couple of hours, but the sender, the FedEx agent and I were on our toes to get things done quickly. But if one of those people was non-responsive due to travel or a wrong email address or something else the system will grind to a halt.

(Many people in the US are reluctant to share their Social Security Numbers but they have been so compromised over the past few years through hacks of the three credit reporting agencies that they are all over the dark web. I have my accounts frozen at the agencies so if someone has my number they can't open credit in my name because credit guarantors won't open accounts without being able to access your credit files). It's the result of living in a digital age.