Russian New Year holidays: how to time your shipment to Russia and keep it moving

Our office calendar over the New Year break

Russia takes a long public holiday at the turn of the year, and it falls in the middle of the season when suppliers try to close the annual contract. Our office works to the following calendar:

• 30 and 31 December — closed;
• 1, 2 and 3 January — closed;
• 4 and 5 January — working days in a limited mode;
• 6, 7 and 8 January — closed;
• from 9 January — normal working hours.

On 4 and 5 January the team is available for urgent matters, so a shipment that has already arrived can be dealt with, but this is not the time to start a new clearance from scratch. You can reach our managers by phone, by email, or through the call-back service — the green icon in the bottom right corner of the site.

What the break means for cargo already on the way

The holidays do not stop your vessel, truck or aircraft. They stop the paperwork on the receiving end. A container that berths on 2 January, a truck that reaches the border crossing on 6 January or an air consignment that lands on 7 January will stay where it is until the declaration can be filed and released. For you as the shipper this shows up in three places: the delivery date promised to your buyer, the storage bill at the terminal, and the free time on your equipment.

Storage, demurrage and detention keep counting through the whole break, even though nobody is clearing the cargo. A consignment that arrives on 30 December can accumulate ten days of charges before the first working day, and that bill lands on whoever the contract makes responsible — often the seller under DAP or DDP terms.

The practical conclusion is simple: for the last shipments of the year, plan arrival either before 29 December or after 9 January. If the schedule is already fixed and the cargo will land inside the break, tell your buyer now, so the terminal, the storage period and the customs clearance sequence are agreed in advance rather than discovered on 9 January.

The Russian New Year break: offices are closed from 30 December to 8 January, with limited work on 4 and 5 January

Documents your Russian buyer will ask for before the holidays

Your buyer's broker cannot file a declaration on documents that are still travelling as scans in somebody's inbox. Before 29 December the Russian side should have the complete set for each consignment:

• commercial invoice and packing list matching the goods actually loaded;
• the contract and any annexes or price appendices referred to in the invoice;
• transport documents — bill of lading, CMR, air waybill;
• the export declaration, when your buyer normally receives one;
• technical description of the goods: composition, material, purpose, model — everything that supports the HS code;
• documents that feed certification — test reports, manufacturer declarations, labelling artwork.

Certification and permits are the part that suffers most from a long break. If a certificate of conformity or a declaration is still being prepared when the holidays start, the work resumes only in the second week of January, and the cargo waits for the document, not for the customs office. Sending your technical file in the first half of December is the cheapest insurance available.

Shipping windows: when to send and when to wait

What the shipper should do

1. Look at your December and early January bookings and mark every consignment that lands in Russia between 30 December and 8 January.
2. For each of them, ask the buyer whether clearance before the break is still possible, and by which date the documents must be with the broker.
3. Send invoice, packing list, contract and transport documents by 29 December at the latest — as one complete set, not in instalments.
4. Close outstanding certification and labelling questions in December; after 29 December the answer will come only in the second week of January.
5. Check who carries the storage and demurrage cost under your delivery terms, and put the expected waiting days into the price or into the schedule.
6. Where the goods are genuinely urgent, discuss the shipping mode with the buyer before the break rather than after it — the decision on delivery and clearance is much cheaper to take in advance.

Frequently asked questions

Can we still ship so that the goods arrive on 3 January?
You can, but nothing will be cleared before 4 January, and 4 and 5 January are limited working days. In practice the consignment will be processed from 9 January, and the terminal will charge for the whole waiting period.

Will anyone answer us during the holidays?
On 4 and 5 January managers work in a limited mode and can take urgent questions by phone, email or the call-back service. From 9 January the office is back to normal hours.

What is the last date to send documents?
Aim to have the complete set with the Russian side by 29 December. Documents that arrive on 30 December will be looked at after the holidays.

Our invoice is dated December, but clearance will happen in January. Is that a problem?
No. Documents are not reissued because of the date change; what matters is that the invoice, packing list and transport documents describe the same goods consistently.

Summary

Our office is closed on 30 and 31 December and on 1–3 January, works in a limited mode on 4 and 5 January, is closed on 6–8 January and returns to normal on 9 January. For a shipper this means one thing: plan arrival before 29 December or after 9 January, and get the complete document set to the Russian side before the break. Cargo that lands inside the holidays keeps accruing storage while nobody can declare it. Request a consultation, and we will go through your specific consignment and its documents.

Send us your shipping documents before the break and we will check them, so your buyer's cargo is declared the moment the holidays end.

Request a consultation