EAD is the electronic capture of consignment note information for transmission to the overseas destination, before the item leaves New Zealand.

We require the electronic capture of sender, receiver and parcel content information on the customs declaration form for all international services,* i.e.:

• Economy
• Courier
• Express

^* Economy Letters and Economy Registered items do not require a customs declaration form.

The information is captured for purposes such as of fiscal, risk, security and border clearance in line with the national and international legislation.

If we do not comply with these international requirements the item may not be able to enter the destination country.

This requirement is not limited to New Zealand; all postal operators and other delivery service providers around the world are required to capture and transmit this data to all countries before parcels can be sent.

A service fee of $3 (GST Zero rated) is included in the in-store price of sending Economy, Economy Plus, Courier and Express international services overseas to cover the electronic data capture cost, processing and administration fee.

No, items sent using the Send it tool on the NZ Post website don’t need to be scanned for EAD. Sender, receiver and parcel content information is sent electronically to the overseas postal service or organisation.

The information may be shared, if required, with the postal administration and national government agencies of the destination and/or transit and transshipment countries for purposes such as fiscal, risk, security and border clearance, in line with national and international legislation.

As the sender, it’s your responsibility to provide true and correct information about the parcels you send overseas.

Check our customs declaration and consignment notes page for full details of customs documentation needed when sending parcels overseas.

If you need more advice, just ask a member of our team in-store when you’re posting your international item. They’ll be happy to help. Check our NZ Post store locator to find an outlet near you.

You are required to supply the following information on your customs declaration:

• Sender name, address, phone number, email address
• The name, address and phone number of the receiver
• Category of the item within the parcel (i.e. commercial, gift or other)
• Total parcel weight

For each item within your parcel:

• A detailed description of each item within your parcel
• Quantity
• Individual weight of each item^*
• Value

^* Individual item weight can be an estimate.

We recommend that commercial senders include additional information, including a Harmonised System (HS) tariff number and the country of origin of the goods.

You must give a detailed description of each item within your parcel such as 'men’s cotton shirts', 'child's jigsaw' or 'women’s woven synthetic dress'. General descriptions such as 'spare parts', 'samples' or 'food products' are not permitted. You must also specify the quantity for each item within your parcel in the quantity field of the Customs declaration form.

In circumstances where a HS tariff code hasn’t been provided for an item being sent to a European Union country, NZ Post will assign a tariff code based on the goods description provided by the sender, in order to avoid being returned/rejected or delays to shipment. Whilst NZ Post will endeavour to provide an appropriate HS Tariff Code(s) for your item(s), NZ Post accepts no liability for parcels that are returned to the customer due to the Tariff code or other required information being missed or incorrect.

You are however, required to declare an accurate, detailed and complete Goods Description of each item within your parcel such as ‘men’s cotton shirts’, child’s jigsaw puzzle of wood’.

The customs declaration can’t proceed with insufficient information. The items may be delayed, returned or rejected by us or by destination countries.

To be ICS2 compliant, we are required to monitor the error messages from the destination countries and can re-submit the accurate data for the process to be resumed. Customers may be contacted for accurate data via email where needed.