International

Nepal is where we start.
Not where we stop.

Send a parcel from Kathmandu to 220+ countries — or bring stock into Nepal from anywhere. Express, air and sea freight, with the customs paperwork handled before your shipment moves.

  • 220+ destinations
  • 9 overseas gateways
  • Door to door, customs included
Parcels leaving Kathmandu for destination regions worldwideEuropeAmericasAfricaGulfEast AsiaSE AsiaOceaniaKathmandu

The network

What we can reach

Our own operation covers Nepal and nine gateways. Everything beyond moves on partner carriers under a routed schedule — and we quote the honest range, not the best case.

Destination countries
220+Destination countries
Overseas gateways
9Overseas gateways
Districts inside Nepal
77Districts inside Nepal
Median customs clearance
24hMedian customs clearanceOutbound from Kathmandu

Services

Six ways a shipment leaves the country

Which one is right depends on weight, urgency and how much duty you are willing to absorb. We will say when the cheaper option is the better one.

  • International express3–8 days

    Documents and parcels up to 30 kg, on the next available flight. Tracked from your door in Nepal to the recipient’s door abroad.

  • Air freight30 kg+

    Consolidated cargo by weight or volume, for consignments too heavy for express but too urgent for sea.

  • Sea freight4–8 weeks

    LCL and FCL through Kolkata and Visakhapatnam. Slow, and a fraction of the air rate for anything bulky.

  • Customs clearance~24h

    Export documentation, permits and duty classification, prepared before the shipment moves rather than argued about after it stops.

  • Import to Nepal9 gateways

    Ship to our overseas gateway, we consolidate, clear and deliver to your door in Nepal.

  • Fragile & high valueInsured

    Thangka, glass, instruments and jewellery, crated to survive an international belt rather than a valley road.

Transit times

How long it actually takes

Working days, door to door, including clearance at both ends. Ranges rather than single figures, because a Monday booking and a Thursday booking do not catch the same connections.

South Asia

2–4 days
  • India
  • Bangladesh
  • Sri Lanka
  • Bhutan
  • Pakistan
  • Maldives

Trade samples, spare parts, documents, e-commerce parcels

The shortest and cheapest lane out of Nepal. India moves by road as well as air, which is why bulky consignments are viable here and nowhere else.

Middle East

3–5 days
  • UAE
  • Qatar
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Kuwait
  • Oman
  • Bahrain

Family parcels, documents, food and clothing for workers abroad

Our busiest personal lane. Several hundred thousand Nepalis work in the Gulf, and most of this traffic is families sending and receiving rather than businesses shipping.

East & Southeast Asia

3–6 days
  • China
  • Japan
  • South Korea
  • Singapore
  • Malaysia
  • Thailand
  • Hong Kong

Inbound e-commerce stock, electronics, garments, machinery parts

Mostly inbound. Nepali merchants sourcing stock from Guangzhou and Yiwu consolidate at our Hong Kong gateway rather than paying per-shipment air rates.

Europe & UK

4–7 days
  • United Kingdom
  • Germany
  • France
  • Italy
  • Netherlands
  • Spain
  • Portugal

Pashmina, handicrafts, tea and coffee, felt goods, silver jewellery

The highest-value export lane. Customs paperwork is the difference between four days and three weeks, so this is where our documentation service earns its fee.

North America

4–8 days
  • United States
  • Canada
  • Mexico

Handicrafts, apparel, thangka art, ayurvedic and herbal products

Herbal and food products need FDA prior notice for the United States. We file it before the parcel leaves Kathmandu — filing on arrival is how shipments end up held for weeks.

Australia & New Zealand

5–8 days
  • Australia
  • New Zealand
  • Fiji

Family parcels, student documents, handicrafts

Biosecurity is stricter here than anywhere else we ship. Anything wooden, woollen or plant-based is declared and treated before departure, not argued about on arrival.

Africa & Latin America

6–12 days
  • South Africa
  • Kenya
  • Nigeria
  • Egypt
  • Brazil
  • Argentina
  • Chile

Documents, trade samples, project cargo

Served entirely through partner carriers on a routed schedule. We quote the honest longer range rather than the best case that only holds when every connection lands.

Customs

Paperwork is the slow leg. Not the flight.

A parcel to London flies in nine hours and can then sit in a bonded warehouse for three weeks. Almost every international delay is a document that was missing, wrong, or filed too late — which makes it the one part of the journey a shipper can actually control.

Prepared before pickup, not after
We classify the goods and prepare the declaration when you book, so nothing is being chased while your shipment is already sitting in a warehouse accruing storage.
Declared at real value
Under-declaring to save duty is the most common reason a Nepali export is seized rather than merely taxed. We will not file a value we cannot defend.
Duty settled your way
Receiver pays on arrival by default. Ask for Delivered Duty Paid at booking and we bill it back to you, so your customer is never ambushed by a bill.
A shipment being cleared through customs with its documentsCUSTOMS

Exporting from Nepal

What leaves the country, and what stops it

These six categories are most of Nepal's export volume. Each carries the restriction that most often holds it at a border — worth knowing here rather than from a seizure notice.

Pashmina & cashmere

Needs a Chyangra Pashmina certification mark to clear as genuine at most European borders. We arrange it with the trade association before pickup.

Handicrafts & thangka

Anything over 100 years old requires a Department of Archaeology clearance certificate. Modern reproductions need a declaration saying so — without it they are assumed antique and held.

Tea, coffee & spices

A phytosanitary certificate is mandatory almost everywhere. The United States additionally needs FDA prior notice filed before the aircraft departs.

Garments & felt

A certificate of origin decides the duty rate the buyer pays. Getting it wrong does not delay the parcel — it just costs your customer more than you quoted them.

Silver & handmade jewellery

Declared at real value, always. Under-declaring to save duty is the single most common reason a Nepali export shipment is seized rather than merely taxed.

Herbal & ayurvedic goods

Plant-based products face the tightest biosecurity rules, particularly into Australia and New Zealand. Some ingredients are simply prohibited; we check before quoting.

Choosing a service

Express, air or sea

Weight and urgency decide this, and the honest answer is often the slow one.

Comparison of Udan Express international services by weight, speed and pricing basis.
 ExpressAir freightSea freight
Best forUp to 30 kg30–500 kgBulk, 100 kg+
Door to door3–8 days5–12 days4–8 weeks
Priced onChargeable weightWeight or volumeContainer or cubic metre
CustomsIncludedIncludedIncluded
TrackingPiece levelConsignment levelContainer level
Typical useSamples, gifts, ordersWholesale stockFurniture, machinery

How it works

From your door in Nepal to theirs

Five steps. You do the first; we do the rest.

A cargo aircraft carrying parcels over the mountains
  1. 1

    Book and declare

    Tell us what is in the box and what it is worth. Accurate beats optimistic — the declaration is what customs read.

  2. 2

    We collect

    Free pickup anywhere in the Kathmandu Valley, and from any of our branches across the country.

  3. 3

    Documents filed

    Invoice, packing list, certificate of origin and any permit the category needs, prepared before the shipment leaves.

  4. 4

    Flown and cleared

    Consolidated at the gateway, cleared at the destination, handed to the final-mile carrier.

  5. 5

    Delivered and proved

    Signature or photo at the door, visible on the same tracking page you started from.

Documentation

What we will ask you for

Missing paperwork causes most delays, and it is the one cause you can fix before the parcel moves.

Export documents required by Udan Express, when each applies and why.
DocumentWhenWhy it matters
Commercial invoiceEvery non-document shipmentCustoms value the goods from this. It must match what is in the box.
Packing listMulti-item or multi-box shipmentsLets an inspector verify contents without unpacking and repacking everything.
Certificate of originCommercial exportsSets the duty rate your buyer pays at the far end.
Export permitRestricted categoriesHandicrafts, herbs and antiques each have their own issuing department.
Phytosanitary certificatePlant, food and herbal goodsProves the consignment is pest-free. Non-negotiable in most markets.
Recipient tax IDCommercial importsMany countries will not release a commercial parcel without the buyer’s registration number.

Gateways

Nine places we clear and consolidate

A gateway is where shipments pool before the final leg. Consolidating is what makes an international parcel from Nepal affordable — one cleared consignment costs far less than fifty cleared parcels.

Delhi, India
Road and air feeder for South Asia
Dubai, UAE
Middle East hub and onward Europe connections
Hong Kong, China
Inbound consolidation from Guangzhou and Yiwu
Singapore, Singapore
Southeast Asia distribution

Plus 5 more: Doha, Istanbul, Frankfurt, London, New York.

A stack of parcels of different sizes ready for dispatchkg

Tracking

One number, the whole journey

An international shipment normally changes hands three or four times, and most carriers hand you a new tracking number at each one. Ours does not change. The same code you get at booking follows the parcel through the gateway, through customs and onto the final carrier.

A phone showing a parcel's live tracking timelineUDN26H4K2M9QPArriving today, by 6 pmPicked upAt Kathmandu hubIn transitOut for delivery

Questions

International, answered

Which countries can I send to from Nepal?
Around 220 destinations. Our own network covers Nepal end to end and nine overseas gateways; everything beyond those moves on partner carriers under a routed schedule. South Asia is two to four working days, the Gulf three to five, Europe four to seven, North America four to eight, and Africa and Latin America six to twelve.
Are the transit times airport to airport or door to door?
Door to door, including customs clearance at both ends. Airport-to-airport figures are shorter and are what most carriers advertise, but clearance is usually the slowest leg, so quoting it would set a promise the parcel cannot keep.
Who pays the import duty and tax?
By default the receiver pays on arrival — that is Delivered Duty Unpaid. If you would rather absorb it so your customer is not surprised, ask for Delivered Duty Paid at booking and we bill the charges back to you afterwards. Choosing this at booking matters: it cannot be switched once the shipment is in transit.
What paperwork do I need to export from Nepal?
A commercial invoice on every non-document shipment, and a packing list once there is more than one box. Commercial exports also need a certificate of origin, which sets the duty your buyer pays. Restricted categories — handicrafts, herbs, anything antique — need a permit from their own issuing department. We prepare and file all of it.
Can I send pashmina, tea or handicrafts abroad?
Yes, and these are our highest-volume exports — but each has a catch. Pashmina needs the Chyangra certification mark to clear as genuine in Europe. Tea and spices need a phytosanitary certificate, and the United States additionally needs FDA prior notice filed before the aircraft leaves. Anything over 100 years old needs Department of Archaeology clearance.
Can I import into Nepal as well?
Yes. Give your overseas supplier our gateway address and we consolidate, clear and deliver to your door in Nepal. Merchants sourcing from Guangzhou or Yiwu usually consolidate at our Hong Kong gateway, which is substantially cheaper than paying per-shipment air rates.
What is the heaviest thing you can move?
International express suits anything up to about 30 kg per piece. Above that, air freight is the sensible choice, and above roughly 100 kg sea freight usually costs a fraction of air — at four to eight weeks instead of days. We will tell you when air is not worth it.

Send it further

Tell us what you are shipping and where it is going. We will come back with a rate, a realistic transit time, and the exact list of documents your shipment needs.

Export desk: +977-1-5970700 · sales@udanexpress.com