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Hi,

Just looking for some advice, I started importing my skyline 3.5 months ago and its been stuck in customs/quarantine for approx 2 weeks or more now (I've lost count!)

Apparently, quarantine cleared it and sent it to "Holford" motors for washing and then they must book a second brief inspection to double check the car before it leaves.

They have been planning to book this inspection for more than 5 business days, and my importer rings them daily to try to get it sorted out.

Last time I heard it would be Monday this week, but they have been saying they will do it soon for more than a week.

Has anyone else experienced this problem when importing from Japan?

Is this normal for quarantine?

Regards,

Gareth

I got lucky - Ship arrived Friday, Weekend went by, car went into quarantine inspection Monday passed with flying colours picked up same day and is in my garage by late arvo.

I got stuck for around a week but that was because 2 brokers submitted clearance for my car and it took 3 days to reverse the one I had no contact with and still don't know how they got my details. From what I know though it's around a 3-4 business day process, as you can get charged storage after ariund that. About $25 per day.

haha, 1 week and you're complaining. Try weeks.

My whole importing process took about 8 months. longest wait of my life.

MANWHORE, its been 3.5months all up, it looks like 4 months to get the car or even longer :)

8 months is absolutely ridiculous.

vrfour, thanks for the info, thought I was getting screwed over here, other people who import said they've never heard of this.

My importer has given the customs broker a helping hand with booking it and hopefully it will be done very soon. :)

I was actually wondering if it related to end of financial year but I'm not sure if that makes a difference to quarantine.

Regards,

Gareth

my car got out in 1 week, but now its been stuck at the compliance shop waiting for the government to clear the papers for the compliance plate, going on 6 weeks now. how long can ot take?? :dry:

Sorry to hijack, but that just sounds very wrong.

I was in and out of complaince within about 10 business days only 2 weeks ago.

I think the shops have access to where the government is up to, so they should be able to check this.

For e.g if your paperwork was submitted on the 20/06, the shop can check what day the government body is up to, as in, today they may be working on all submissions which were put in on the 16/06, so you would have 4 days left till they get to yours.

That's what happened in my case anyway, (or what the shop told me was happening) and at all times I knew pretty much exactly when the car would be ready. For around $30 I had the plate flown in overnight as well to reduce even more waiting, cause the weekend was coming up.

I was also constantly ringing/emailing to see where things were up to, not being a pr!ck or anything, just simply asking for an update.

well I've gone from buying a car, to having it on the round in around 8-10 weeks. so that includes shipping, clearance, comlpiance, rego right through to enjoyment. I've had some take longer than that but I would say 2-3 months is the norm from purchase in japan, to driving it registered on the road. 8 months is insane though!

Sorry to hijack, but that just sounds very wrong.

I was in and out of complaince within about 10 business days only 2 weeks ago.

I think the shops have access to where the government is up to, so they should be able to check this.

For e.g if your paperwork was submitted on the 20/06, the shop can check what day the government body is up to, as in, today they may be working on all submissions which were put in on the 16/06, so you would have 4 days left till they get to yours.

That's what happened in my case anyway, (or what the shop told me was happening) and at all times I knew pretty much exactly when the car would be ready. For around $30 I had the plate flown in overnight as well to reduce even more waiting, cause the weekend was coming up.

I was also constantly ringing/emailing to see where things were up to, not being a pr!ck or anything, just simply asking for an update.

Ive been ringing the shop every second day, just too see whats going on with it.

They gave me the number of the government department, i rang them too see why it was taking so long, i couldnt get much out of them, appart from the guy who's doing my papers is away sick, and has been for the last 3 weeks. apparently he looked at the papers the day b4 he went off sick, but there was somthing wrong, so some more papers had to be sent from the compliance workshop to him.

Nothing has happend with my car for 3 weeks now, gettin kinda pissed off. >_<

DoTaRS being slow is a constant problem, because they're always horrendously understaffed and overworked - you think the government will devote resources to a system that takes sales away from the big car manufacturers?? :thumbsup:

tp1gts2, I suspect your workshop ran out of plates and had to wait for new ones to roll over (they can only do 100 cars in any 12 month period), but there can be all number of reasons, none of which would make your workshop look very good if they told you the truth :)

The workshop, RAW Imports have been fantastic, however I was informed that my car cleared quarantine last Friday.

And was supposed to be transported to Richmond but it now it hasn't got to Richmond yet.

I keep calling but I'll have to wait till it gets to Compliance before I can do anything.

Wow, in Adelaide we don't wait very long at all for quarentine to inspect our stuff. Couple of days really. Unless you are coming out of a long holiday such as Christmas or Easter it might be longer...

^^^ Not as good as it used to be - everything's getting pinged for quarantine at the moment. Apparently there's a new inspector not winning many friends...

Maybe Im just lucky :) I havent had any probs as yet (fingers crossed) my last container and 2 RO/ROs were cleared this wed. But Adelaide is small and quiet so Im bound to run into this guy or girl soon boohoo. Surely this inspector doesn't stuff you for more than a week??? arghhh

Yep, 8 months is totally spasticated. Basically, that goes down to everyone taking a lot longer than they are supposed to (including my jap agent not putting it onto a boat because the boats were supposedly full for months - more like he needed a car to drive)

I recently bought over a R33, and i did the customs broking myself.

for the quarantine process it's always better to find out who the inspector was and get in touch with the particular inspector.

for me, car landed on a Monday, it was ready to be picked up on the Friday. (this was because the inspector that initially inspected the car is likely to have the final inspection for clearance)

i had to arrange a tow truck to pick up the car.

Apparently they are going hard on people using trade plates to move cars around.

anyone can shed some light on this? (i used to use trade plates)

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