How to send a shipment abroad?

You can post international mail at any post office. Only ordinary letters with stamps affixed can be posted in the post box.

CN 22/CN 23 customs declaration forms required for shipments

Provide the shipment with a correctly completed customs declaration to avoid complications (return of the shipment due to missing customs data, delivery complications, etc.) and speed up the entire delivery process.

If the shipment contains documents, indicate this by checking the box in the "Documents" category.

Ideally, all address, contact, and customs data for shipments should be submitted electronically, e.g., via the Send Shipment application.

Why Česká pošta needs this information:

  • Providing complete data ensures notification, smooth delivery in the destination country, and, where applicable, speeds up customs clearance.
  • For legal reasons, ČP is required to provide this data to destination postal operators (this obligation arises from ČP's participation in European and global postal associations).

Customs declarations to countries outside the EU ARE NOT REQUIRED ONLY FOR LETTER-SIZE MAIL CONTAINING WRITTEN INFORMATION WEIGHING UP TO 50 g. All other shipments must always have a customs declaration.

Do you want to export goods within the European Union?

You can send shipments containing goods of a commercial nature to these European Union countries without prior customs clearance:
Belgium Bulgaria Denmark Estonia
Finland France Croatia Ireland
Italy Cyprus (including the territory of the British bases of Akrotiri and Dhekelia) Lithuania Latvia
Luxembourg Hungary Malta Monaco
Germany Netherlands Poland Portugal (including Madeira
and the Azores)
Austria Romania Greece Northern Ireland*
Slovakia Slovenia Spain Sweden
*Northern Ireland is not an EU country, but all goods entering (or leaving) Northern Ireland are subject to the Union Customs Code.
Customs and tax territories are an exception – in these cases, you must clear the shipment through customs before sending it:
  • Denmark: Greenland and the Faroe Islands
  • Finland: the Åland Islands
  • France: French overseas territories, French Guiana,
  • Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Martin, Mayotte, and Réunion
  • Italy: Livigno and the territory of Campione d'Italia
  • Germany: Heligoland and Büsingen
  • The Netherlands: the Netherlands Antilles
  • Greece: the territory of Mount Athos
  • Spain: the Canary Islands and the enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla 
More information:
  • customs territory (REGULATION (EU) No 952/2013 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL, Customs Code, Article 4)

  • tax territory (VAT Act, Section 3 Territorial Scope).

Do you want to export goods to countries outside the European Union?

What do you need to do?

In practice, this means taking two essential steps:

  1. First, you must clear the goods for export through the relevant customs office.

How can goods be cleared for export?

  • You can use the services of a commercial declarant, who will submit a customs declaration for the export of goods electronically on your behalf. To do so, they will need a list of the exported goods (number of cargo items, i.e., number of postal items, exact contents, country of destination, and your company's business details).
  • or you can use the option to clear the goods yourself using the link on the  Customs Administration website (dále CS).
  • If the goods are being exported, you must obtain an Export Accompanying Document  (hereinafter referred to as EAD), which you must attach to the shipment.
  • For goods subject to excise duty (beer, wine, tobacco products, alcohol, and mineral oils), the VDD must be accompanied by a document entitled "Commercial accompanying document for the transport of selected products subject to excise duty under the conditional tax exemption regime.

What is the purpose of releasing goods for export?

When goods are released for export, it means that they leave the customs and tax territory of the EU, but their actual exit must be confirmed by the exit authority, which in this case is Česká pošta.
The Czech Post confirms the exit of goods exclusively by electronic means in cooperation with the CS by assigning a number from the VDD, i.e., MRN (movement reference number), to each postal item released for export.

  • If the goods have been duly confirmed as having been shipped, you can claim a VAT deduction.
  1. After customs clearance of the goods, the shipments are submitted to Česká pošta.  

How to submit customs-cleared export shipments to Česká pošta?

  • As registered consignments – Standard parcel, Insured parcel, Commercial parcel, EMS, Insured letter and Registered consignment (consignments cleared for export cannot be sent as ordinary letter!)
  • separately from other consignments (not cleared through customs);
  • with service 44 – Goods with VDD;
  • for each customs-cleared shipment, the MRN number must be entered in the notes in the shipping documents; in the case of one VDD for multiple shipments, the MRN must be entered for each individual shipment with a serial number (1/3, 2/3, etc.);
  • notify the receiving employee of shipments cleared through customs for export to countries outside the EU.

ČP procedure after accepting a shipment for transport:

  • The receiving Česká pošta employee enters service 44 – Goods with VDD into the system and records the MRN number from the relevant VDD or from the shipping documents under the shipping number of the individual shipment.  
  • They will clearly mark the shipment with a postal sticker reading “shipment with customs document.” 
  • They will check that the VDD customs document is attached to the shipment, or place the VDD in a transparent adhesive “pocket” and attach it to the shipment. 

Obligation to complete customs declarations CN22 and CN23 even for shipments with an export accompanying document

  1. An export accompanying document (hereinafter referred to as EAD) is a document used as a basis for the Customs Administration of the Czech Republic (hereinafter referred to as CA CR) to terminate the export regime.
    For goods that a company wishes to export outside the European Union and claims a VAT deduction upon exit, the goods must be released for export by the Czech Customs Administration – the company itself or its representative/declarant submits a customs declaration electronically to the Czech Customs Administration requesting that the goods be released for export – if this happens, the CS ČR will release the goods and send the release data to the applicant/proponent of the release.
  2. This CS ČR client then prints out the VDD with a barcode and MRN number, which is scanned by a Customs Administration employee at the European Union border when leaving the European Union, thereby ending the export regime (or, in the case of exit via the Czech Post, the export procedure is terminated. the export procedure is terminated). The information is combined in the CS ČR system, and the Financial Authority has information about the exit of goods from the European Union, and the company can claim a VAT deduction. This clearly shows that the documents from the VDD are used solely for the purposes of the SC CR and the Tax Office in the CR. The official language in the CR is Czech – the document is written in Czech.
  3. In contrast, CN22 and CN23 are used to provide information to the approved postal operator and customs administration at the destination of the shipment, where standard customs procedures are carried out – based on the information provided in CN22 and CN23 – in the near future, this data will also be collected and provided in electronic form. The Acts of the Universal Postal Union stipulate the obligation to provide the shipment with a CN22 and CN23 form – failure to fill in/provide the shipment with the form may result in the shipment being refused. CN22, CN23 must be completed in the language specified in the Foreign Postal Conditions, i.e. the language of the country of destination or in English.

Possible complications

  • If the above procedures are not followed, the postal dispatch number and the MRN number from the VDD will not be matched, the dispatch of this shipment will not be confirmed, and you will be asked by CS to prove the dispatch of the goods in another way - by alternative proof (alternative proof of the goods leaving the EU may be a duly completed posting document with the MRN confirmed by the Česká pošta).
  • The shipment is being held at the exit post office for random inspection by the Customs Administration, and you may therefore be asked to cooperate.
  • In the event of a system failure, export mode will not be automatically terminated and you may be asked by CS to cooperate.

Important notices:

  • The customs declarant for the export of goods is the sender.
  • Binding information on customs regulations and the export of goods is provided by customs officials.
  • Česká pošta, s.p. is not liable for damage caused by the export of items whose import is prohibited in the country of destination.

Česká pošta, s. p., hereby informs its customers that it does not accept for transport shipments containing goods that are subject to customs supervision under the TRANSIT regime and are transported on the basis of T1, T2, TIR carnet, ATA carnet, Rhine Manifest, and Form 302 under the Convention of June 19, 1951.