An expat's complete guide to posting parcels from Spain — Correos vs Seur, DHL, MRW, UPS and SendCloud, the Paq 24/48/72 services, customs forms CN22 and CN23 for the UK and US after Brexit, tracking, and how to insure what's inside.
Sending a parcel from Spain looks simple until you actually try it. There's the Correos queue at lunchtime, a customs declaration in Spanish you don't fully understand, three Paq services with almost the same name, and a quote from DHL that's triple what your neighbour paid through SendCloud.
This guide explains how Spain's postal system actually works for expats — the difference between Correos Paq 24, Paq 48 and Paq 72; when to use a courier like Seur, MRW, DHL or UPS instead; how to fill in CN22 and CN23 customs declarations for the UK and US since Brexit; how the Correos app and citas en oficina work; and crucially, how to make sure the contents are insured if the parcel is lost, smashed or stolen. We'll also cover the paqueterías — the small shops on every corner that now act as drop-off and pick-up points for half the courier networks in Spain.
Coming from the UK, Ireland, USA, Australia or anywhere else, Spain's parcel landscape has quirks that will catch you out the first time you queue at the post office.
Spain has a single national postal operator, the state-owned Sociedad Estatal Correos y Telégrafos, which provides the Servicio Postal Universal — the guaranteed universal service. Around it sits a competitive courier market dominated by Seur (now part of DHL Group), MRW, GLS, DHL Express, UPS, FedEx, TIPSA and a wave of resale platforms like SendCloud, Packlink and Envialia that consolidate rates across all of them.
The legal backbone is Ley 43/2010 del Servicio Postal Universal, the 2010 postal services act that defines what Correos must deliver to every address in Spain — including remote islands and inland villages — at uniform prices. Private operators can compete on everything else.
Three things to know up front:
Six fundamentals every expat needs before walking into a Correos office or booking a courier online.
Correos handles letters and small parcels nationwide and is the only operator obliged to reach every address. Couriers — Seur, MRW, DHL, UPS — are faster and pricier, with broader express options but no rural universal coverage.
Correos's three flagship parcel services. Paq Premium 24 is next-business-day, Paq Estándar 48 is two business days, Paq Today 72 was an older economy tier. Prices scale with weight and dimensions up to 30 kg.
The international family includes Paq Light, Paq Estándar and Paq Premium Internacional. Coverage runs from EU neighbours through to the UK, US and Australia, with delivery windows from 3 to 14 working days.
CN22 covers parcels up to roughly €425 in value or 2 kg. CN23 is for higher-value or heavier shipments and is much more detailed. Both are Universal Postal Union standard forms used globally.
Every Paq service includes a tracking number. The Correos app is the simplest way to print labels at home, track status, redirect parcels to a Citypaq locker and book a cita en oficina to skip the queue.
Citypaq lockers, partner shops, estancos and the new generation of paqueterías let you drop off and collect without entering a post office. Most multi-carrier platforms route through these.
Whether you're posting a Christmas gift to your mum in Manchester or shipping client work from your home studio in Valencia, this guide is built for you.
Posting valuables abroad? Check your contents and travel cover before they leave the house.
Get a Travel Insurance Quote →The Paq family is the backbone of domestic and international parcel post in Spain. Here's how the tiers actually compare.
Correos rebranded its parcel range over the last few years and the names still confuse expats. The current flagship offers, sold direct at correos.es and in every post office, are:
| Service | Delivery | Max weight | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Paq Premium 24 | Next business day | 30 kg | Urgent domestic, signed-for |
| Paq Estándar 48 | 2 business days | 30 kg | Standard domestic parcels |
| Paq Internacional Premium | 3–6 working days | 30 kg | UK, EU, US express |
| Paq Internacional Estándar | 5–10 working days | 20 kg | Most international shipments |
| Paq Light Internacional | 6–14 working days | 2 kg | Small, low-value gifts |
If you're sending more than one or two parcels a month, register for a free Correos account at correos.es. Online prices are 5–15% cheaper than the counter, the customs declaration is pre-filled from your address book, and you can print labels at home to drop off at any post office without queueing.
The single biggest change for British expats. Every non-EU parcel — including to the UK — now needs a customs form.
Since the UK left the EU customs union, parcels from Spain to Great Britain (England, Scotland, Wales) are treated as international customs shipments. The same has always applied to the US, Canada, Australia, Switzerland and Norway. The form you need depends on value and weight:
Both forms originate with the Universal Postal Union and are standardised globally. Correos prints them automatically when you book Paq Internacional online. Couriers like Seur, DHL and UPS use their own equivalent commercial invoices, but the data needed is the same.
What customs will look at:
Spanish customs is administered by the Agencia Estatal de Administración Tributaria (AEAT) through its Aduanas e Impuestos Especiales department. For UK-bound parcels the rules at the other end are published by GOV.UK — import VAT, customs duty and the £135 / £39 thresholds for commercial and gift shipments.
A genuine gift between private individuals, valued under £39, sent for a birthday, Christmas or similar occasion, is generally free of UK import VAT and customs duty. You must tick "Gift" on the CN22, give a clear contents description, and the parcel must be from one private person to another — not from your business to a family member.
Five private courier networks dominate Spain. Knowing when to use which can halve your shipping bill.
Correos is almost always cheapest for one-off small parcels and for any remote rural address. Couriers tend to win on speed, on city-to-city, on heavier parcels and on international express. Here's the working shape of the market:
Seur — part of DHL Group, strong national coverage, the default carrier for many e-commerce sites in Spain. Seur Now (1-hour), Seur 13:30 (next-morning) and Seur 24 are the standard tiers. Pickup from home included as standard.
MRW — Spanish-founded courier, very strong franchise network in smaller towns. Often beats Seur on prices in the south and the Balearics. Excellent for autónomos shipping locally.
DHL Express — the international express specialist. Expensive but unbeatable for time-critical UK, US and Asia shipments. Handles customs paperwork as part of the service.
UPS — strong on transatlantic routes to the US and Canada, with consistent transit times and a robust tracking app. Often the carrier of choice for commercial document shipments.
SendCloud, Packlink and similar aggregators — not carriers themselves but resale platforms. You enter weight and destination once and they quote across Correos, Seur, GLS, UPS, DHL and others. For small businesses and one-off senders alike, they routinely beat counter prices by 20–40%.
Always cross-check three things: the price of Correos Paq Estándar at correos.es, the SendCloud or Packlink quote with the same dimensions, and a direct quote from Seur or MRW. For domestic parcels you'll often find Correos cheapest under 2 kg, aggregators cheapest 2–10 kg, and direct courier deals best above that.
Most of these networks no longer collect from your front door unless you pay an upgrade. Instead you drop the parcel at one of tens of thousands of partner points — paqueterías, estancos, convenience shops and Citypaq lockers. Look for the sticker on the door, scan the QR code on your label and you're done in two minutes.
The single area where expats lose the most money. The default cover on a Spanish parcel is far thinner than people assume.
Under the Universal Postal Union convention, the basic compensation Correos owes for a lost international parcel is set in Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) — usually only a few tens of euros for a standard small parcel, regardless of the actual value of what was inside. Domestic Paq Estándar carries similarly modest default cover.
To raise the limit, Correos offers Valor Declarado — a paid add-on at booking where you declare the value of the contents and pay a percentage premium. Couriers offer equivalent declared-value cover, often labelled "seguro a todo riesgo" or "extended liability".
What declared value usually excludes:
This is where your home contents and travel insurance can fill the gap. Many home policies cover personal possessions temporarily outside the home, including items in transit — subject to limits and exclusions. Travel insurance often covers baggage you've sent ahead or shipped to your destination. Always check the wording before assuming the parcel is covered.
Shipping watches, electronics or jewellery? A good contents policy is the safety net the courier won't be.
Get a Home Insurance Quote →The post office queue is no longer the only way to send a parcel. Three tools make it dramatically faster.
The Correos app — free on iOS and Android. You can buy postage, generate labels, pre-fill CN22 and CN23 declarations, redirect incoming parcels to a different address or locker, and book a slot at your nearest post office. It accepts card, Bizum and PayPal.
Cita previa en oficina — through the app or at correos.es you can book a specific time slot in your local Correos branch. You skip the walk-in queue and a clerk takes you straight to a dedicated desk. Indispensable in tourist areas where the queue can be 30+ minutes at lunchtime.
Citypaq lockers — Correos's network of self-service lockers in supermarkets, petrol stations, metro stations and apartment lobbies. You can collect incoming parcels 24/7 and drop off prepaid outgoing parcels at any time.
Drop-off at paqueterías — small shops, often combined with newsagents, mobile-phone repair and printing services. Look for the SEUR Pickup, GLS Parcel Shop, MRW or InPost branding. The franchisee handles the carrier handover for you.
If a parcel goes missing: the Correos claims process runs through correos.es with the tracking number and original receipt. You typically have 6 months from the dispatch date to lodge a claim on international shipments, longer for domestic. Couriers have their own internal claims windows — usually 7–21 days from expected delivery.
Never throw away the resguardo (receipt) until the parcel has been confirmed delivered for at least 14 days. Without it, any claim — postal or insurance — becomes vastly harder. Photograph it on your phone the moment the clerk hands it over.
The two destinations expats use most. Both share the same Brexit/post-Brexit customs reality.
The procedure for the UK now mirrors the long-standing process for the US, Canada and Australia. Whichever carrier you use, the workflow is broadly the same:
The permanence trap to watch: some courier contracts for businesses include monthly minimums or annual commitments. If you're an autónomo signing a Seur or MRW commercial account, check the cláusula de permanencia carefully. The PVPC of parcels — i.e. counter Correos — has no such commitment.
Step-by-step for the UK:
A quick guide to the inbound side — how customs charges, IVA and delivery work when something is shipped to your Spanish address.
The Agencia Tributaria's Aduanas e Impuestos Especiales department handles import VAT (IVA) and customs duty on parcels arriving in Spain from outside the EU. Since the 2021 EU rule change, the previous €22 low-value exemption is gone — every commercial parcel from outside the EU is liable for Spanish IVA at 21% (10% or 4% on reduced-rate goods).
For postal-route parcels, Correos sends an SMS or app notification when import duties are due. You pay online or at delivery. For express couriers (DHL, UPS, FedEx) you typically pay through the courier's pre-delivery portal before the parcel is released.
Apply via your Correos or courier customer portal to dispute incorrect duty charges. Genuine refunds for over-charged IVA are issued through the AEAT, sometimes via the carrier as your representative.
After helping thousands of expats navigate Spanish post and customs, here are the six errors we see most often.
The questions expats ask us most often about sending parcels from Spain.
Yes — domestic and international Correos shipments only require a sender name, address and contact number. The recipient does not need to be a resident. For courier business accounts with credit terms, an NIE or CIF is needed; for one-off card-paid shipments, a passport is enough.
Paq Internacional Estándar is typically 5–8 working days; Paq Internacional Premium 3–5 working days; DHL or UPS Express 1–3 working days. Add 1–3 days for customs clearance in the UK if the contents need inspection.
Correos is the universal postal operator handling letters and parcels. Correos Express is Correos's subsidiary courier arm competing directly with Seur and MRW. It's used inside Correos's own Paq Premium 24 service and for B2B express deliveries. Pricing is broadly similar to Seur for next-day.
Many Spanish home contents policies include "objetos personales fuera del hogar" — personal items temporarily outside the home — which can include items in transit. Limits are typically €1,000–€3,000 and there are exclusions for cash, jewellery above a sub-limit and unattended items. Always check the wording, and consider declared value at the carrier as well.
Since Brexit the UK has restrictions on meat, dairy and certain plant products from the EU. Vacuum-packed jamón and cheese are routinely refused at the UK border. Wine and olive oil are generally fine, but subject to alcohol duty above small personal quantities. Always check the UK's GOV.UK guidance before posting.
Yes — both are licensed Dutch- and Spanish-regulated platforms that resell Correos, Seur, GLS, DHL and UPS capacity. Your parcel travels on a real carrier's network with a real tracking number. The trade-off is that claims for loss or damage go through the platform's customer service rather than direct, which can be slower.
Correos leaves a notice and the parcel goes to your nearest Correos office for 15 days; you can also redirect to a Citypaq locker via the app. Couriers either re-attempt the next business day, leave at a neighbour, drop at a partner shop, or return to depot. Always set delivery instructions in the carrier's app the day before to avoid a wasted run.
Travel insurance can sometimes cover baggage shipped ahead of you to a destination — useful if you're sending suitcases by Paq before a long stay or relocation. Cover varies widely and usually requires a tracked, signed-for service and proof of value. Declare any high-value items in advance and check the wording for transit and storage exclusions.
Choosing the right courier and filling in the customs forms is half the job. The other half is making sure that if the parcel is lost, smashed or stolen — or if you yourself are abroad when something goes wrong — a Spanish-regulated insurer will respond without arguing about jurisdiction. 247 Expat Insurance arranges DGSFP-regulated travel and home insurance for expats across mainland Spain, the Balearics and the Canaries.
Get a Travel Insurance QuoteWe arrange Spanish home, health, car, travel and life insurance for British, Irish, American, Australian, Canadian and South African expats living in Spain. Every policy is issued by an insurer regulated by the Dirección General de Seguros y Fondos de Pensiones — Spain's national insurance regulator — so claims are paid under Spanish law, in Spain, by a Spanish entity. No grey-area UK policies that may not respond to a Spanish loss.
