@Oliver You also have to pay forwarding company. Frame.work promised that they will open sales in the EU this year, so I decided to wait, mainly because shipping from the US won’t speed up the process significantly, but also because I want to have it with a clear keyboard.
@Wiktor_Tomanek Opening EU pre orders and actually sending laptops to customers are two different things. In my opinion don’t expect framework before second half of 2022.
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@IT1 Yes, I expect that it may arrive as late as the end of February or the beginning of March, but one from the US December batch would probably arrive as late or just a little earlier.
@Wiktor_Tomanek Saying 2nd half of 2022 I meant official EU distribution. The one imported by yourself might arrive around February/March.
BTW Poland? 
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@IT1 I am in the Netherlands and I have family in Germany. Poland is part of the EU, so it completely does not matter that it is not a country they might want to open sales in.
I haven’t noticed that you wrote 2nd half of 2022, I thought, you just wrote 2022, anyway I will wait, because Frame.work said in their email, that when they open sales in the EU then they will also say when we can expect machines to arrive, more or less of course.
Framework’s latest (vague) update that I’m aware of is that you will be able to pre-order in the EU this year but it will ship in “early 2022,” which I take to mean 2022 Q1, although it could also be 2022 H1 in a more pessimistic scenario.
There is no duty as such. Total cost to import from the US is:
(Checkout price + Shipping cost) * (1 + Destination VAT rate)
Where:
- Checkout price is what you pay to Framework, so no surprises here. Just be aware that the AC adapter and expansion cards are extra if you choose the DIY variant. As an example, what I’d be getting from them would cost $1,200 total.
- Shipping cost depends on the forwarder and shipping method, typically at least $60.
- Destination VAT rate is 21% in the Netherlands, where you said you are. For other countries, see here: Value-Added Tax Rates | 2021 VAT Rates in Europe | Tax Foundation
In this example: ($1200 + $60) * (1 + 0.21) = $1524.60
This is assuming the US forwarder’s warehouse is in a place with 0% sales tax rate. Otherwise, the US sales tax could easily add another 10% or so at this step. Make sure you check this when choosing a forwarder.
Also be aware that some forwarders might prohibit Li-Ion batteries (and that some of those restrictions only apply to batteries being sent separately, so it’s still fine to ship one in a laptop or phone).
The shipping company (such as DHL) might also try to charge you some customs agent fees, although the legality of it is dubious for shipments to consumers, and there might be a way to avoid paying it if you research it beforehand. This is country-specific.
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bought a cheap laptop from Black friday. IT will do for now until Framework releases EU orders etc.
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I ordered mine today (Batch 6) and will import it via MyUS (US sales tax free warehouse). Their shipping rates don’t look too bad actually (~50 EUR for a 2.5kg package with DHL Express). Let’s see how that goes!
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@Oliver Great to hear that! Hopefully everything will go smoothly, and you’ll have your laptop in no time. Please share your experience afterwards, I’m also considering jumping on the bandwagon.
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My old T440s is pratically dead, so I bought a t480s for 600€. I’ll wait for the release in Europe, I really want a Framework laptop, I love to assembly my own desktop and I want to do the same with my laptop.
I’ve done exactly the same as Oliver and everything went fine 
I’d say don’t wait… Join the dark side!
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Hi Josh
I’d been keen to hear how you get on with myus - I’ve not used one of these shipping services before, so finding one that delivers reliably to Australia would be excellent.
I am kind of torn, but as I been thinking lately my biggest problem is keyboards, I only ever liked the original Thinkpad one, I don’t like the new one but can tolerate it, and I hate every other notebook keyboard I typed on and can’t type on them properly.
With all these issues and potential prices (1500? really? i know it was just a rough calculation) I’m probably better off with either a t480 or some lower end, newer machine. 
I imported it from the USA to Latin America, it’s worth it to import it i think, maybe the fact that am already using an American keyboard on my desktop helps.
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I just got the shipping confirmation (with estimated delivery on Friday), now is where the real fun starts (for me, this is the first time I’m using a freight forwarder)! I had already uploaded a PDF of the shipping confirmation email with the list of items into the MyUS account under “My Incoming Packages”, and it has already been processed, this will hopefully slightly speed up things on their end once the package has arrived there.
My excitement had tanked quite a bit the last couple of days after a brief exchange with Framework’s support, whom I had contacted in order to ask them to add my VAT ID to the billing address. That turned out to be too late as the order was already preparing to ship, okay, no real problem. I also understand that they don’t officially endorse the whole freight forwarding and DIY import thing and I’m fine with taking the risk, so far, so good.
Here’s a quote from the message I received from support:
We noticed you may be shipping to an unsupported region. We do not officially support any countries/regions other than the United States and Canada at this time and if you proceed with utilizing a freight forwarder, we will be unable to support the product should something go wrong hardware-wise, nor will we be able to address any VAT or Customs issues that may arise. If you decide to proceed, you are acknowledging that Framework is not responsible for anything that may happen as a result of not utilizing a direct shipping route to a supported country/region, and that you are fully accountable for any additional costs incurred, or documentation required.
Now as my reply apparently wasn’t seen enough of explicit acknowledgment, after the next email from them, I felt a bit unsettled, where they write:
we do not support any sort of VAT documentation or formal invoicing at this time. If your order is stuck via the Customs process, we will be unable to assist as we are not authorized for sales or shipment anywhere outside of the US and Canada at this time.
This is when wild fantasies arose in my head of my package ending up being stuck in customs due to no invoice being included. To reassure myself, that’s why the freight forwarder will add a proforma invoice to the package in order for customs to be a able to know the value of the items. Still this left me a bit puzzled, as in various posts in this forum people reported that they did get an invoice which is what I would expect. I’m taking comfort though in many of you guys having shared your experiences of already having successfully received your packages in overseas, so I’m crossing my fingers that all goes well.
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Looks like my package will arrive at the MyUS facility in Florida by tomorrow.
In preparing the shipping preferences for the MyUS freight forwarding service, I now realize that in addition to the shipping quotes they provide you beforehand, there will actually be a considerable extra (optional) fee for adding insurance in case of loss or damage ($2.99 per $100 insured value), which I’ll definitely add, having heard all the stories from people working at shipping providers and how packages are handled there.
@Josh_Cook and the others who have been using freight forwarders, did you have them add extra packaging material around the original box or just have them ship it in its original shipping box?
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Just used what it came in, Nirav said to me that the boxes they use are rated for international shipping and didn’t really want the staff touching it much. Will comment when I receive it on Friday. Was about 170USD for budget economy or 200 USD for dhl express with all charges, cannot check if that had customs in it. One extra note is that they valued it at 727 USD when it was 1030 USD and provided them a invoice of that, if you have a account it will automatically ship it with budget economy and insurance to the value of item. Change it to whatever carrier you prefer.
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Awesome, thank you! Then I will set my shipping preferences accordingly (ship in original box, add insurance, add proforma invoice).
Kinda feels like a kid waiting for Santa
Yep, very exciting. Should be receiving it soon as it’s already landed in Aus
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