Courier Service from Nepal to Portugal

Every month, parcels sent from Nepal to Portugal get destroyed at the border. Not delayed. Destroyed. The reason is almost always the same: a packet of sukuti at the bottom of the box, or a block of chhurpi wrapped in newspaper, sent by a mother who had no way of knowing the European Union bans it outright.

That is the first thing you need to know about this route. The second is that Portugal now holds one of the largest Nepali communities in continental Europe, and most of the people sending parcels there are doing it for the first time.

Namaste Cargo Nepal handles courier and cargo shipments from Kathmandu to Portugal. We collect from your door in the Kathmandu valley, pack the parcel ourselves, complete the export documentation at Tribhuvan International Airport, and hand you a tracking number. Express parcels typically reach Lisbon in 5 to 7 business days. What follows is everything that decides whether your parcel arrives or gets held.

How long does a courier take from Nepal to Portugal?

There is no direct flight between Kathmandu and Portugal. Every parcel routes through a hub, usually Doha, Dubai or Istanbul, before it reaches Lisbon or Porto. Portugal also sits at the far western edge of Europe, so it runs one to two days behind Germany or France on the same service level.  

Three points that most people get wrong: 

• The clock starts at export processing at TIA, not at the moment we pick up your parcel. Booking after midday on a Friday usually means Sunday or Monday dispatch.

• Portuguese customs clearance is not included in the transit estimate above. A parcel held for a customs declaration can sit for one to four weeks.

• Portugal observes long public holiday breaks in August. Economy parcels booked in late July regularly land in the middle of that slowdown.

What you cannot send from Nepal to Portugal 

This is where most parcels on this route fail, and it has nothing to do with value or weight. 

Under Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/21/22, personal consignments of meat, milk, and their products cannot enter the European Union from a third country. The only exception is goods from the Faroe Islands or Greenland. The rule applies to parcels sent by post and courier, not just to what a traveler carries in a suitcase.

Items found in breach are surrendered for official disposal. Failing to declare them can bring a fine or prosecution.

Banned, no exceptions

• Sukuti and all dried or cured meat

• Chhurpi and any hard or soft cheese

• Ghee, khuwa, paneer, milk powder

• Milk based sweets such as peda, barfi, and lal mohan

• Any masala paste or ready meal containing meat or dairy

• Homemade achar made with meat

We will tell you at the packing stage if something in your box falls into this list. A few Kathmandu operators still quote a per kilo surcharge "for meat items" on Europe routes. That surcharge does not make the shipment legal. It only means someone is charging you to send something that will be thrown away. 

Allowed 

• Packaged tea, coffee, dry spices and masala

• Lentils, beans, rice, dry noodles, gundruk

• Vegetarian achar in factory sealed jars

• Honey, up to 2 kg

• Fish and fish products, in restricted quantities

• Clothing, pashmina, dhaka topi, saree, daura suruwal

• Handicrafts, singing bowls, wooden and metal statues that are not archaeological

• Books, printed material, documents

• Jewellery within declared value limits

Allowed with conditions 

Nepal to Portugal customs charges and the €45 gift rule 

Portugal applies European Union import rules. The thresholds are not the ones most people assume. 

The €22 VAT exemption that used to cover small items was abolished on 1 July 2021. If you find a blog or a forum post telling you anything under €22 arrives free, that information is more than five years out of date. 

Two things worth knowing: 

• Portuguese VAT is calculated on the value of the goods plus shipping plus insurance, not on the goods alone. A cheap item with expensive express freight can push past the threshold on freight cost alone.

• CTT charges its own customs handling fee on top of the tax. That fee is separate from anything we quote you in Kathmandu.

The €45 rule is often applied wrongly 

Portugal's Ombudsman has recommended that CTT stop charging VAT on low value shipments sent between private individuals, pointing out that goods sent by one private person to another for personal or family use are exempt up to €45 under Decree-Law 398/86.

If your family member in Portugal is billed VAT on a genuine family gift declared under €45, they have grounds to dispute it. Most people pay it because nobody told them otherwise.

How to declare a gift correctly 

• Write a plain, honest description. "Cotton shirts and packaged tea" clears. "Gift" on its own gets pulled for inspection.

• Declare a real value. Writing €5 on a box of clothes invites a valuation query and a longer hold.

• Do not send several parcels from the same sender to the same address in the same week. Customs can combine the values and treat them as one consignment above the threshold.

What to do when CTT holds your parcel

When a parcel from outside the European Union arrives in Portugal, it is usually stopped for clearance. Your recipient gets an SMS, email or letter with the word Desalfandegamento and an object number. The parcel does not move until they act on it. 

Here is what you need to do:

1. Go to the CTT customs clearance portal and register a personal account, then activate it from the confirmation email.

2. Log in and switch the interface language to English.

3. Choose "Add New Object" and enter the object number from the CTT notice.

4. Complete the missing details.

5. Check the "Natureza do envio" field. Select "não comercial" or "oferta" if it is a family gift. Select "comercial" only if it was a purchase.

6. Pay any VAT or handling fee shown, then wait for release.

Step 5 is the one that costs people money. The field often defaults to commercial. A gift wrongly filed as a purchase loses the €45 exemption instantly, and correcting it afterwards takes far longer than getting it right the first time.

Tell your recipient to expect the notice before the parcel even leaves Nepal. Parcels sit in clearance for weeks simply because the message went to an old phone number or landed in spam.

Sending documents from Nepal to Portugal 

Document shipments are the fastest-growing part of this route, and the reason is paperwork.

Nepalis in Portugal applying for residence permits, renewals, or family reunification through AIMA need original Nepali documents: birth certificates, marriage certificates, police clearance reports, academic transcripts, and citizenship copies. Almost all of them need to be authenticated in Nepal before they mean anything to a Portuguese authority.

Nepal does not issue apostilles 

Nepal is not a party to the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention. Documents issued in Nepal cannot be apostilled. Anyone offering you a "Nepal apostille" is selling you something that does not exist. 

The correct chain is:

1. Certified English translation where the document is in Nepali

2. Notarisation by a licensed notary public

3. MOFA attestation by the Department of Consular Services, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tripureshwor, Kathmandu

4. Embassy legalisation, where the receiving authority asks for it

MOFA attestation takes 3 to 7 working days and the fee is NPR 500 per document. 

Build the attestation time into your plan

This is the mistake we see most often. Someone in Lisbon has an AIMA deadline in ten days, calls family in Kathmandu, and the family books an express courier the same afternoon with an unattested certificate inside. The document arrives fast and is refused on arrival. 

Work backward instead:

We send documents with a signature on delivery, so you get proof the envelope reached the right hands. For anything going to AIMA, ask your family to photograph every page before it is sealed. If the envelope goes missing, a clear photo of an attested document is the difference between a reprint and starting the whole chain again.

Nepal opened its resident embassy in Lisbon in March 2025, so consular services on the Portuguese side no longer route through Paris. That has shortened several steps for people who previously had to send documents onward from Portugal to France.

Where we deliver in Portugal 

Nepalis in Portugal are not spread evenly, and the delivery experience is not the same everywhere. 

Courier or cargo from Nepal to Portugal? 

The words get used interchangeably in Kathmandu. They are different services with different costs. 

For a family sending clothes, food and gifts, courier is almost always the right answer. Cargo makes sense for a business shipping handicrafts, garments or tea to a Portuguese buyer in volume.

Nepal also sets hard limits on courier exports. A courier consignment leaving Nepal cannot exceed 70 kg in weight or USD 5,000 in declared value. Anything above either limit has to move as cargo, no matter how you would prefer to send it.

How much does it cost to send a parcel from Nepal to Portugal? 

International freight is charged on whichever is higher, the actual weight or the volumetric weight. 

Volumetric weight = Length (cm) × Width (cm) × Height (cm) ÷ 5000

A carton of clothes weighing 4 kg can easily bill as 9 kg once you measure the box. This is the single biggest reason quotes surprise people on this route, because parcels to Portugal tend to be light and bulky: clothes, blankets, dry snacks. 

What you can do about it: 

• Let us pack it. We repack loose boxes into tighter dimensions and it often drops the billable weight by a third.

• Vacuum or compress clothing before it goes in.

• Do not pad an underfilled box. Send a smaller box instead.

What our quote includes: pickup in the Kathmandu valley, packing, Nepal export documentation, freight and tracking.

What it does not include: Portuguese VAT, customs duty and CTT handling fees. Those are paid by your recipient in Portugal, after arrival.

Tell us the destination city, rough weight and box dimensions, and what is inside. We will quote you options rather than a single rate, because the right carrier for a 500 g document envelope to Lisbon is not the right one for a 20 kg carton to Odemira.

How to book a courier from Nepal to Portugal 

1. Send us the details. Call, WhatsApp or email our Thamel office with the destination, estimated weight, box size and contents. We quote you within the day.

2. We collect. Same day pickup across the Kathmandu valley if you book before midday on a working day.

3. We pack and document. We pack in house, complete the air waybill, the customs declaration and the commercial invoice where the shipment is commercial.

4. Export clearance at TIA. The parcel clears Nepali export customs and is handed to the outbound flight.

5. You track it. We give you the air waybill number the same day it dispatches.

Before you book, get two things from your recipient: a full Portuguese address including floor and door number, and a working Portuguese mobile number. Missing door numbers in shared worker housing is the most common cause of a failed delivery on this route, and CTT will not hold a parcel indefinitely while they try to find someone. 

Frequently Asked Questions 

How many days does a courier take from Nepal to Portugal? 

Express usually takes 5 to 7 business days to Lisbon or Porto. Economy takes 10 to 15 business days. There is no direct flight, so every parcel routes through a hub, and Portuguese customs clearance can add time on top. 

Can I send sukuti or chhurpi from Nepal to Portugal? 

No. The European Union bans personal consignments of meat and dairy products from countries outside the EU, and that includes parcels sent by courier. Sukuti, chhurpi, ghee, khuwa and milk based sweets will be seized and destroyed. Packaged tea, dry spices, lentils and vegetarian achar are fine. 

Will my family in Portugal have to pay customs on a gift parcel? 

Not if it is a genuine gift sent from one private person to another and the value is €45 or less. Above €45, Portuguese VAT applies. Above €150, customs duty applies as well. CTT also charges its own handling fee. 

What happens if CTT holds my parcel? 

Your recipient receives an SMS, email or letter with an object number and the word Desalfandegamento. They register on the CTT customs portal, add the object number, complete the declaration, and pay anything due. The parcel is released after that. 

My parcel is a gift. Why was it charged as commercial? 

Because the "Natureza do envio" field on the CTT declaration was left as commercial. It has to be set to "não comercial" or "oferta" for a family gift. This is the most common reason people lose the €45 exemption. 

Can I send medicine from Nepal to Portugal? 

Yes, in personal quantities, in original sealed packaging, with a copy of the Nepali prescription. Send an amount that clearly matches one person's use. Bulk quantities get treated as a commercial import. 

Do I need MOFA attestation before couriering documents to Portugal? 

Almost always, if the document is going to a Portuguese authority. Nepal is not part of the Hague Apostille Convention, so documents cannot be apostilled. They go through translation, notarisation and MOFA attestation, which takes 3 to 7 working days at NPR 500 per document. Complete that before you book the courier. 

What is the maximum weight I can courier from Nepal to Portugal? 

Nepal limits courier exports to 70 kg per consignment and USD 5,000 in declared value. Above either limit, the shipment has to move as air cargo instead. 

Do you pick up from outside Kathmandu? 

Contact us with your location. We arrange collection from Pokhara, Chitwan, Butwal, Biratnagar and other major cities, with an extra day for the parcel to reach Kathmandu before export. 

How do I track my parcel after it leaves Nepal? 

We give you the air waybill number once the parcel dispatches from Kathmandu. Enter it on our tracking page. Once the parcel reaches Portugal, CTT tracking takes over for the final leg. 

Ready to send? 

Message us on WhatsApp or call our Thamel office with your destination city, rough weight, and what is inside the box. We will tell you what can go, what cannot, and what it will cost before you pack anything.