Hello all,

Hope all is well.

I sent a letter little over a month ago from Cologne Germany intended for Sydney, and it still hasn’t arrived.

It was my first time sending a written letter so I was unaware of the fact that if I do not ask explicitly for express shipping, then I would more than likely just send it with economy priority..

I’ll attach a photo of the stamps.. perhaps one can tell just by looking at them if they warrant economy or express priority.

So how long do you think it will take? I’ve seen on some sites that it might take 2-3 months by sea.. while economy shipments with DP in general, would take 40+ days.

Thanks for any input!

by Xpertrob14

18 comments

  1. Isn’t that something that can be googled in a jiffy?

    Porto Brief Australien

  2. I dont think you get express via regular stamps. you need those printouts you can buy online or go to any post shop. also I think the smallest letter costs 85 ct, so just the 70 ct stamp wont do it. one of the 1 € will tho. I recently sent one to Hawaii and it took roughly a month. but chrismas is coming up and shit is getting batshit again. might take a bit longer now

  3. International postage is 1.10 euro

    if you need any extra Service like priority or anything, just go to a deutsche post office and ask the people workong there

  4. If it’s just a letter in the envelope it shouldn’t take much longer than a week (I post to Sydney too). However I have had situations where it’s taken over a month

  5. I did some research and it doesn’t look like Deutsche Post offers express for international letters but it’s always sent with “priority” shipping. Anyways, if you want extra services you specifically have to ask for them or print a stamp online.

  6. The stamps seems to be correct. I think all letter mail to Australia goes via airmail. It is better to put an airmail stamp on it together with the stamps.

    However I must say, with letters that are bigger than a standard letter I have experienced extraordinary delays sending as well as receiving from / to Australia. I’m not really sure but from the stamp vs. envelope size it looks like your letter might be a little bit bigger?

    I do think (this is just a theory, though) as it seems to happen with larger letters (in my experience) that maybe if the post is not sure that there is nothing else besides paper in the letter that they don’t send it via airplane but via ship (just in case there might be something prohibited in it). I don’t know, though.

    Anyways, I have quiet frequently experienced letters between Germany and Australia taking months, if they are bigger than a standard letter. I think the longest was around 6 to 8 months and I didn’t even believe it would arrive any more. This was a letter marked with stickers as airmail by the way!

  7. Hey mate, am an Aussie, truth be told, it’s probably arrived 3 weeks ago to the depot and Australia Post is taking their trade mark sweet arse time with it…..

    In seriousness it can take a long time (over a month – 6 weeks), I post to Germany and Austria.

  8. The Deutsche Post website clearly says – International letters are 1,10 Euro. If in doubt on weight etc, always best to go into the Post Office and hand them the letter and they’ll make sure the right postage goes on it. Especially if you don’t speak German.

    It usually takes a couple of weeks, but in December due to Christmas, it can take longer.

    [https://www.deutschepost.de/de.html](https://www.deutschepost.de/de.html)

  9. I have sent letters back home to singapore and it usually takes 2-3 weeks

  10. I’ve had postcards from Germany to Spain take 4+ weeks …

  11. You can do some kind of tracking with the QR code on the stamps (if these are the actual stamps you put on the letter).

  13. I’ll assume a standard letter

    Standard international post is EUR 1.10 so this is too much

    PRIO isn’t available for international post, but Einschreiben is. However the extra cost for international Einschreiben is EUR 3.50, so these stamps would be too few

    My guess is this letter would be treated as standard international post and you just overpaid EUR 2.60. In general, I drop letters in the postbox for standard service. If I need some extra service, I either go to the post office, or print one of those print-at-home stamps that specify the desired service

    In my experience it can take that long for a letter to reach my country (Argentina) but after examining the intermediate stamps most of the time delay is spent at the local receiving post rather than outgoing

  15. My fiance is German. She sends me letters and I her often. She has to go to the Deutsche Post store to do it and they put it in a special envelope for Australia. Depending on the time of year it takes 2-4 weeks normally.

  16. Post systems are complicated. Aside from the “normal” logistics of bringing it there. 

    Letters are presorted by machines, then, if theres some reason it can’t be read, it goes to manual sorting. It goes over lots of conveyor belts, it goes into Boxes with thousands of items of Mail. Some fall out,  or get sent to the wrong place, then re-sent to the right place.

    These things can delay Letters for weeks, months or years. It’s rare, but it happens.

  17. Actual Express costs like 50+ € so safe to say you just sent a regular letter. I wouldn’t worry yet.

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