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Sendcloud enables you to deliver orders from Europe to destinations across the globe, through a large selection of reliable and cost-effective shipping methods.

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Customs documents

Customs documents are always required for parcels shipping to destinations outside the EU. In most cases a commercial invoice is required by commercial carriers (e.g. UPS and DHL), however postal carriers (e.g. PostNL and Royal Mail) require a CN22 or CN23 form. Sendcloud will automatically generate the correct type of documentation for your parcel when you create an international parcel through our API. You just need to include some additional properties in your API call, as listed below.
Tip: You can find extensive guides to help you navigate the various types of documentation required for international shipping, and tips on shipping post-Brexit, in our help center.

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Required fields for international shipments

When you create a parcel for an international shipment, you need to include the properties below in your request. This is to ensure that customs documentation can be correctly rendered, and that the items in your order are listed alongside their value and description, as required.
ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
country_statestringYes (for Australia, Canada, Italy and USA)Code of the state (e.g. New York = NY).
parcel_itemsarray of parcel_item objectsYesAn array of objects describing the items in the parcel. See the parcel item object section below for details.

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Parcel item object

The following properties should be included in each object in the parcel_items array:
ParameterTypeRequiredDescription
descriptionstringYesDescription of the product
quantityintegerYesNumber of items shipped
weightstring (as a decimal number)YesWeight of the product in kilograms
valuestring (as a decimal number)YesValue of the product, to 2 decimal places
hs_codestringYes8 digit Harmonized System code for the product
origin_countrystringYesISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country code for the product’s origin
product_idstringNoYour internal ID for the product
propertiesarray of property objectsNoProperties of the product, e.g. color: "Black"
Example parcel_items array
{
  "parcel_items": [
    {
      "description": "T-Shirt",
      "hs_code": "6109",
      "origin_country": "SE",
      "product_id": "898678671",
      "properties": {
        "color": "Blue",
        "size": "Medium"
      },
      "quantity": 2,
      "sku": "TST-OD2019-B620",
      "value": "19.95",
      "weight": "0.9"
    }
  ]
}
Tip: Adding items to commercial invoices & CN22/23 customs formsThe amount of items you can include on a single commercial invoice differs depending on the type of shipping carrier you have selected. For a full overview, refer to our help center

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Providing additional customs information with the customs_information object

The customs_information object contains optional customs information that should be provided for international parcels. The parameters are listed in the Create a parcel or parcels endpoint specification. The tax number validation for the tax_number field in this object is implemented with the following principles:
  • By Sender: the country code can match either the sender country code or the destination country code.
  • By Receiver or Importer of record: the country code can match only the destination country code
  • For IOSS, the country code can contain any value in the EU and does not follow the logic above.

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Downloading customs documents

Once you have created an international parcel via the API, the response will contain customs documents for the parcel in the documents object.
Example response body
{
  // ... other parcel properties
  "documents": [
    {
      "type": "commercial-invoice",
      "size": "a4",
      "link": "https://panel.sendcloud.sc/api/v2/parcels/1/documents/commercial-invoice"
    },
    {
      "type": "label",
      "size": "a6",
      "link": "https://panel.sendcloud.sc/api/v2/parcels/1/documents/label"
    }
  ]
}
In most cases, you’ll need to download and print the documents, ready to attach them to your parcel. Note that some carriers require multiple copies of the commercial invoice or CN23 form to be attached to the parcel. You can download documents using the URL provided in the response, or via the Retrieve parcel documents endpoint by providing the parcel id.
Tip: Paperless tradeSendcloud supports digital sending of customs documents for carriers who support Paperless trade. You can find a list of supporting carriers in our help center.