French government clarifies rules for post sent to US
Updated official guidelines for letters, parcels, and gifts
There has been confusion on sending items via La Poste since the US introduced customs duties for all incoming parcels
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The French government has updated official guidelines on sending post to the United States, following confusion in recent weeks.
Guidelines were first published in September 2025, following the US decision to implement taxes on all incoming parcels regardless of their value. Previously, parcels with a value of $800 or below were exempt from duties.
The change led to the suspension of certain La Poste services to the country including the ‘Colissimo’ parcel service, creating issues for users attempting to send both parcels and letters through the French state postal service.
“Customs duties are now the responsibility of the sender, not the recipient [when sending post to the US] as is the case in the rest of the world,” says the government on its Service Public help site.
“They must be paid to US Customs before the items enter US territory.”
In February 2026, La Poste updated its services to resume Colissimo parcels to the US, however readers reported issues sending both parcels and letters.
In the official guidelines, the French government lists three options available for sending post to the US via La Poste:
‘International Letter’ (Lettre internationale), which is for documents with no monetary value and can be sent using prepaid international envelopes
The ‘Colissimo’ online service, which applies to all shipments valued at less than €650, to the United States only (not overseas US territories). Postage for these parcels must be purchased online
The Chronopost service, which is available at post offices or on the Chronopost website with prepaid, ready-to-ship packages
This only applies to La Poste services – you remain able to send letters and parcels using private third-party couriers, although higher fees may apply depending on the company, method used, etc.
The Connexion recently answered a subscriber question about sending a letter to the US but issues have persisted, with some saying international stamps could not be purchased in-store for letters to the US.
If you have any issues sending letters or parcels to the US at a La Poste office using the above methods, point workers to the Service Public website.
Be careful over ‘gifts’
Service Public highlights the definition of a ‘gift’ (cadeau) for US Customs, which can differ from other countries.
“For gifts, US authorities only accept shipments between individuals containing ‘homemade’ items.”
This means that an item with a market value, a book, DVD etc cannot be declared as a ‘gift’.
Items with a market value must therefore be sent as a normal parcel and not include the word ‘gift’.
Greetings cards can continue to be sent as (international) letters.
La Poste states that “any non-compliant shipment (incorrect customs declaration, commercial shipments using the Courier service, etc.) will be returned to the sender, or even destroyed by US Customs, and will be subject to a minimum penalty of $100 per package.”
