Package Held at Customs in Dubai – VAT Registration in the UAE

[Randon]

Hi. I don't often send international packages myself, but three weeks ago I sent a package from the Preston delivery office to my brother, who just started his own small business in Dubai.

Nothing too exotic inside—just samples and business documents for his company. Except the package got stuck in customs over there. Nine days with no movement on the tracking—I checked it every day between delivery rounds, and nothing. Honestly, after a week, I was starting to think it was going to be returned to the sender again.

So I called my brother to figure out what was going on on his end, and it turned out it wasn’t a problem with the carrier or Royal Mail… After digging into it with him, we realized that as long as his VAT registration in the United Arab Emirates wasn’t validated on their portal, the package would remain stuck at customs. He’d just launched his business, so the paperwork wasn’t finalized yet. He took care of it on his end (I won’t go into details—it’s his business, not mine), and two or three days later, the package cleared customs on its own and was delivered as usual. In short, if you’re sending professional equipment to Dubai and it gets held up at customs, it’s worth checking this out with the recipient before worrying about the shipping itself. After all, we’re only responsible for the shipment until it leaves the country.