Shipping to the U.S.? Please Allow a Minimum of 10 Business Days

If you have a U.S. delivery on the calendar this season, this is the one update we would like every client to read before the order is placed. Recent changes to U.S. tariff and customs regulations mean that parcels crossing the border are now cleared more thoroughly than they were a year ago, and that clearance takes time we cannot compress.

Our guidance, effective immediately: please allow a minimum of 10 business days for delivery on any shipment to the United States.

What changed at the border

For years, most of our shipments into the United States moved under simplified, low-value entry rules and cleared almost as soon as they landed. In 2025 the U.S. suspended duty-free de minimis treatment for imports from every country, so commercial parcels of every value are now entered formally, with duties assessed line by line. That adds a real review step for U.S. Customs and Border Protection and for the courier's brokerage team, and it adds it to every single package.

The result is that transit time is no longer just the truck. It is the truck, plus the queue at the port of entry, plus whatever the broker needs to finish the entry. On a good week that is a day or two. When volumes spike, or when an entry is selected for a closer look, it can be considerably longer.

What "10 business days" actually means

• Business days, not calendar days. Weekends and holidays on either side of the border do not count. Ten business days is two full working weeks.
• Counted from the ship date. The window starts when the courier scans the parcel at our dock in Markham, Ontario, not when the order is confirmed. Production, proofing and packing happen before it.
• A minimum, not a promise. Many shipments will still arrive sooner. The number is there so that an in-hands date built on it will hold even if customs takes its time.

Why delays in transit are outside our control

Once a parcel leaves our warehouse, its progress is in the hands of two organisations we do not manage: the courier and the customs authority. We choose reliable carriers, we prepare complete commercial paperwork, and we track every shipment, but we cannot speed up a customs inspection, reroute a courier hub, or shorten a brokerage queue.

For that reason, we cannot be held responsible for delays caused by couriers or customs. This is not a change in how much we care about your deadline. It is a plain statement of where our control ends, so that nobody plans an event around a date we cannot guarantee.

Please acknowledge before we proceed

To keep every U.S. order moving without surprises, we now ask each client to confirm that they have read and understood the above before production begins. Kindly review and acknowledge our Order and Shipment Agreement. Once we have your acknowledgement, your order proceeds as usual and you can expect to hear from us shortly with updates.

If anything in the agreement is unclear, contact us before you confirm. We would rather answer a question up front than explain a delay later.

What we do on our side

• Ship from Canada, with real stock. Our stocked-in-Canada items are on the shelf in Markham, so they can leave the same week the artwork is approved.
• Complete paperwork. Every U.S. shipment carries a full commercial invoice with country of origin, HS codes and values, which is the single biggest factor in a clean clearance.
• Tracking from door to door. You receive the tracking number when the parcel ships, and our team watches for customs holds so we can respond to a broker's request the same day.
• Honest dates. When you ask for an in-hands estimate, we quote the conservative date, not the best case.

Planning tips for distributors with U.S. clients

1. Work backwards from the event. Take the in-hands date, subtract 10 business days for transit, then subtract production time. That is your latest safe order date.
2. Tell us the in-hands date on the order. We will flag it immediately if the timeline is tight, while there is still room to choose a different product or decoration method.
3. Prefer stocked items for tight deadlines. Anything we hold in Canada skips the overseas leg entirely.
4. Keep the recipient's phone number and a complete address on file. A missing suite number or an unreachable contact is still the most common cause of a courier hold.

Thank you for reading this far, and for your patience while the border adjusts. We will keep this page updated as the rules settle, and we will keep quoting dates we can stand behind.