International courier from Bangalore to the United States. Free home pickup.
Collected from your Bengaluru door at any hour, packed and documented, and flown out of Kempegowda on the DTDC International network — no domestic leg to Mumbai or Delhi first. 5–8 working days door-to-door on express, from ₹1,400 per kilogram before fuel surcharge and GST.
Five steps from your Bengaluru door to a US address.
Pickup, Bengaluru.
Free at 5 kg+, at any hour — the HSR Layout desk runs 24×7, so an international parcel can be collected the same night you decide to send it. We bring tape, bubble wrap and the international airway bill.
Pack & document.
Commercial invoice with HS codes for anything commercial, sender KYC, honest contents declaration. Done before handover, because a declaration written carelessly at the counter is the single most common reason a US-bound parcel is held.
BLR gateway.
Handover into the DTDC International facility and out through Kempegowda. Bengaluru is a full international gateway, so parcels from here do not spend a day or two railing to Mumbai or Delhi before they fly — the transit clock starts sooner than it does from an inland city.
US customs (CBP).
Clearance at the arrival gateway — JFK, Newark, ORD, SFO or LAX depending on routing. CBP, the FDA and USDA APHIS flag food, dairy, plant and seed material aggressively. Paperwork-clean parcels typically clear in 24–72 hours.
Doorstep delivery.
Last mile via USPS or the local courier partner, then the POD comes to you on WhatsApp the same day it lands.
Starting rates. Real pricing depends on weight.
Final price depends on actual or volumetric weight, whichever is greater, plus the international fuel surcharge in force on your booking date. GST is extra.
Starting per-kg rates
- Express (5–8 days, door)from ₹1,400 / kg
- Economy (9–14 days, door)from ₹1,000 / kg
- Min billable weight0.5 kg
- Pickup from BengaluruFree at 5 kg+
Volumetric formula: (L × W × H cm) ÷ 5000.
Worked example
A 2 kg parcel — say a couple of sarees and a box of filter coffee powder, about 30 × 25 × 15 cm:
- Express, 2 kg × ₹1,400≈ ₹2,800
- + fuel surcharge (~25%)≈ ₹700
- + GST 18%≈ ₹630
- Approx total, express≈ ₹4,130
Indicative only. Fuel surcharge and rate cards change.
What you’ll need at pickup.
Customs paperwork, not transit, is what actually delays international parcels. We walk you through it before the parcel leaves your address so it does not happen to yours.
KYC of the sender
One photo ID for whoever's name goes on the AWB — Aadhaar, passport or driving licence. We photograph it at pickup; it is not retained beyond DTDC's own record.
Commercial invoice with HS codes
Required for anything commercial — samples, stock, B2B consignments. Printed, listing items, quantity, value and HS codes. CBP reads this carefully. For a personal gift a written declaration is enough, but the value still has to be stated honestly.
Prescription, for medicines
Sending tablets to a student or a parent: original sealed strip, a copy of the prescription with the doctor's registration number, and a one-line note stating the diagnosis. No liquids, no injectables, nothing on the FDA scheduled list.
What the United States doesn’t let in.
These are CBP, FDA and USDA rules rather than our own caution. Parcels sent against them are seized, destroyed, or returned at the consignee's cost. The items below are the ones Bengaluru senders most often get wrong.
Don’t even try
- All dairy — and this is the one that catches Bengaluru parcels most. Mysore pak, dharwad pedha, milk-based sweets and ghee are dairy to the FDA even factory-sealed.
- MTR / ready-mix packets containing milk solids — check the ingredient list. Plenty of instant mixes are dairy-based and are treated as such.
- All meat, including dried and sealed — USDA rules are absolute.
- Fresh produce, seeds, untreated plant material — USDA APHIS biosecurity. Curry leaves and fresh coconut are refused every time.
- Agarbatti and dhoop — paste-based incense is a flammable solid, and many US apartment fire codes flag it besides.
- Hemp and CBD — federal courier policy is strict regardless of what the destination state permits.
- Aerosols, lithium cells above 100 Wh, all liquids — universal courier rules, and Bengaluru parcels carry more loose electronics than most.
Allowed with care
- Filter coffee powder — ships freely and is one of the most common things on this lane. Sealed, commercially packaged, ingredients declared. The brewed decoction is a liquid and does not.
- Silk sarees and textiles — Kanjeevaram, Mysore silk, cottons. Declare a fair value; under-declaring is what triggers a hold.
- Sealed dry snacks — chakli, mixture, dry banana chips, factory-packed and labelled. No dairy, no meat, ingredients listed.
- Sandalwood soap and powder — fine as manufactured goods. Sandalwood oil is a liquid and is not.
- Books, documents and printed material — straightforward; declare title and value.
- Non-precious jewellery and small electronics — declare make, model and value. Precious metal does not ship.
Students, tech families, and the things you can’t buy there.
Bengaluru sends more to the United States than any other lane we run out of this city, and the reasons are specific to who lives here.
Parents shipping to students
August and December, reliably. Books, bedding, kitchen kit, sealed dry snacks and festival clothing going to universities across the US. Give us the campus mailroom address and the student's US mobile — American campus mailrooms will not release a parcel without a matching name.
Tech households and H1B families
Bengaluru's IT workforce has family in the Bay Area, Seattle, Austin, Dallas, New Jersey and Chicago, and the traffic runs constantly in both directions. Documents, clothing, medicines against prescription, and things that are simply cheaper or unavailable there.
Wedding and festival outfits
Silk sarees, lehengas, sherwanis, blouse pieces sent for stitching and returned. Always express, always well ahead of the date — a wedding outfit stuck in CBP over a declaration error is the worst version of this lane.
Startup and B2B samples
Hardware prototypes, packaging mockups and product samples from Koramangala, HSR and Indiranagar going to US buyers, distributors and accelerators. Commercial invoice with HS codes is mandatory, and a stated meeting date lets us route for it.
Filter coffee and dry provisions
The single most-requested food item on this lane, and the good news is it ships. Sealed filter coffee powder, dry podis, chakli and factory-packed mixture all clear. Anything with milk solids, ghee or moisture does not — see the list above.
Documents and academic records
Transcripts for WES evaluation, degree certificates, passports, signed contracts, apostilled papers. Always express, always with a tracked AWB, and worth telling us the deadline so we route through the fastest gateway for that ZIP.
AWB on WhatsApp. Track on dtdc.in. POD when it lands.
The moment the parcel is booked into DTDC International we send the AWB number on WhatsApp — including at 2 AM, because the Bengaluru desk is staffed around the clock. Track it any time at dtdc.in. International tracking goes quiet for a stretch while the parcel is in the air and again during customs clearance; that silence is normal and is not a lost parcel. Once it is delivered the POD reaches you within the hour.
Asked most often on this lane.
Can I send filter coffee powder and Mysore pak to my son in the US?
The coffee yes, the Mysore pak no — and this is the most common disappointment on the Bengaluru–USA lane. Filter coffee powder is a commercially packaged dry good and clears without trouble as long as it is sealed and the ingredients are declared. Mysore pak, dharwad pedha and anything else built on milk or ghee is classified as dairy by the FDA, and dairy is seized even in factory-sealed packs. Send the coffee, the chakli, the dry podis and the mixture; leave the sweets. If you want something sweet that travels, sealed dry candy and jaggery-based items with a full ingredient list are a safer bet than anything milk-based.
Does shipping from Bangalore reach the US faster than from other Indian cities?
Marginally, and for a specific reason worth understanding. Kempegowda is a full international gateway, so a Bengaluru parcel is flown out from here rather than moved overland to Mumbai or Delhi first — an inland city can lose a day or two before the parcel is even airborne. Once it is in the air the transit is the same as anyone else's, and customs clearance at the US end is the real variable. So the 5–8 working day band is honest for express, and where Bengaluru genuinely helps is at the start of the journey, not the end.
My parcel has shown no tracking movement for four days. Is it lost?
Almost certainly not. International tracking has two quiet periods that alarm people: the air leg itself, where there is no scan until the parcel is received at the destination gateway, and customs clearance, which can add 24–72 hours with no visible update at all. Four days of silence across a weekend is well within normal on this lane. What is worth acting on is a parcel showing as held or requiring information at customs — that usually means a declaration or invoice query, and it is resolvable. Send us the AWB and we will chase it from our side rather than leaving you to call an overseas helpline.
Tell us the rough weight and the destination ZIP.
A real person at your Bengaluru door, at any hour.
Tap WhatsApp with your pickup details, or call directly. The HSR Layout desk answers 24×7 — international bookings included.