How long does shipping from China to the US take in 2026?

Shipping time by method: the quick reference

Door-to-door ranges for a commercial shipment with complete documentation:

• Express courier (DHL, FedEx, UPS): 5 to 7 days. Best under 30 kg; the courier handles customs brokerage.
• Air freight (consolidated): 5 to 10 days. Best for 30 to 300 kg; clearance through a customs broker.
• Sea LCL: 25 to 35 days to West Coast addresses, 35 to 50 days to the East Coast. Best above roughly 1 CBM.
• Sea FCL: similar ocean transit to LCL but skips consolidation and deconsolidation, saving roughly 4 to 8 days.
• Postal and economy parcel services (China Post and similar): 2 to 6 weeks, with wide variance and limited tracking. Since the de-minimis exemption ended for Chinese-origin goods in 2025, these parcels also owe duties, which removed most of their old cost advantage for commercial sellers.

The sections below unpack where those days actually go, stage by stage. For the full factory-to-warehouse plan including production lead time, see the China to USA shipping timeline.

Air freight: 5-10 days door to door in the market

Air freight between China and the US moves quickly once it is on a plane, but the door-to-door clock starts before takeoff and ends after customs clears.

• China pickup and export: 1-2 days to collect cargo and complete export formalities at the Chinese side.
• Flight transit: 1-2 days from departure to arrival at a US airport.
• US customs clearance: 1-3 days depending on the broker, the shipment documentation, and whether CBP selects the cargo for examination.
• Last-mile delivery: 1-3 days from the airport to your address or FBA warehouse.

On a clean shipment with no customs complications, 5 to 7 days is achievable. Budget 10 days for any shipment that needs to be planned reliably. If customs holds the cargo for examination, add 5 to 10 days on top.

Our own air transit times and prices by weight

The ranges above are the market. These are the times and prices we quote ourselves for general goods from our China warehouse to a US address, taken from our pricing engine on 2026-10-30. Transit counts from the day the box leaves the warehouse.

Two things to read off the table. The door-to-door service is counted in working days because the last leg is a postal delivery, so a weekend in the middle adds two calendar days. And the consolidation service used for heavier loads takes a few days longer, and its price does not include US duty, which is paid at import. Sea prices for the same weights are in our China to USA shipping rates, and what common goods (clothes, electronics, furniture, toys) cost to ship by weight is set out in shipping costs by product.

Sea LCL: 25-50 days door to door

Sea LCL (less than container load) adds two steps that FCL does not have: consolidation at origin and deconsolidation at destination. Your cargo is grouped with other shippers' freight at a China CFS (container freight station) and separated again at a US CFS before it can move on. Each of those steps adds 2 to 4 days.

• China pickup and export: 2-3 days.
• Consolidation at China CFS: 2-4 days waiting for the container to fill.
• Ocean transit: 12-20 days to the West Coast (Los Angeles, Long Beach), 25-35 days to the East Coast (New York, Savannah).
• US port arrival and deconsolidation: 3-5 days.
• US customs clearance: 2-5 days.
• Last-mile delivery: 1-3 days.

Total door-to-door: 25 to 35 days for West Coast destinations, 35 to 50 days for East Coast. Budget the higher end for planning purposes. Our own sea service runs 28 to 32 days door to door, counted from the day the shipment leaves our China warehouse.

China to Los Angeles transit

Los Angeles and Long Beach are the main West Coast gateway for ocean cargo from China, which is why shippers search for the Los Angeles number on its own. Our transit figures are quoted from the China warehouse to a US address and our pricing engine export carries one range per service, not one per destination city: air door to door 6 to 12 working days, air consolidation 10 to 14 days, sea 28 to 32 days. We therefore do not publish a separate Los Angeles figure, and a Los Angeles address is quoted from the same engine as any other (2026-10-30).

For the market, the stage list above puts ocean transit to the West Coast ports at 12 to 20 days and sea LCL door to door at 25 to 35 days for West Coast addresses, against 35 to 50 days to the East Coast. Port congestion at Los Angeles and Long Beach can add 3 to 7 days in the August to October peak. For your own address and goods, the quote form shows the price and transit on screen.

What actually slows shipments down

The numbers above assume a clean shipment with complete documentation. These are the most common reasons shipments take longer than expected. If CBP selects your cargo for inspection, the exam type determines the delay and cost.

• Customs examination: CBP can select any shipment for physical inspection. An exam hold adds 5 to 10 days and is unpredictable. Clean, consistent documents reduce the odds but cannot eliminate the risk.
• Missing or incorrect paperwork: a wrong HS code, a vague commercial invoice, or mismatched weights trigger customs queries and delays that can stretch clearance from 2 days to 2 weeks.
• Port congestion: Los Angeles and Long Beach experience seasonal surges. Add 3 to 7 days during peak season (August to October).
• LCL consolidation wait: if your cargo arrives at the China CFS when a container is nearly full, it may wait for the next sailing, adding 3 to 7 days.
• FBA scheduling: Amazon warehouse appointments add their own unpredictable window of 1 to 14 days depending on the FC and current intake volume.

China's public holidays are the other predictable delay: factories stop for Golden Week in October and for the Spring Festival, and slow down either side of each. Our China holiday shipping calendar lists the official dates through 2027 with a book-by line for each.

How to plan your inventory around these numbers

The transit time is the minimum. The planning time is the transit time plus a buffer for every step that can slip.

• For air shipments: use 10 days as your planning lead time and add 5 days buffer for customs.
• For sea LCL to the West Coast: use 35 days as your planning lead time and add 7 days buffer.
• For sea LCL to the East Coast: use 50 days and add 7 days buffer.
• For FBA: add the Amazon scheduling window on top of the freight lead time, not alongside it.

The question to ask before every shipment is: if this cargo arrives 10 days late, do I run out of stock? If yes, either move to air freight or reorder earlier. Running out is almost always more expensive than the premium for a faster method.