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

Air freight: 5-10 days door to door

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.

Sea LCL: 30-45 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.

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.

• 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 (September to November).
• 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.

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.