I registered for lvl 2 exam a week ago and my curriculum has just arrived. Now it waits for customs clearance. I just called to UPS - I will have to pay $40 of VAT (I am in Russia), $10 of customs fee, $80 of UPS customs brokerage fees. In total it is $130. And I thought - maybe the best idea is to leave all this waste of paper where it is now, since I already use Schweser (which I have already) to prepare in any case?
If I have to pay $130 to get it, I will leave it at the customs. 4200+ A4-sized pages really is a lot of wasted paper.
Could you eleborate more on this customs procedure? Do they do this for all packages?
In Russia your delivery has to pass special customs clearance if it’s declared value is over 5000 roubles (24.5 RR/USD). Since declared value of the curriculum is $220, which is just a bit more, it’s a kind of a problem. The fun thing is that those who sit the exam for the 2nd or more time now, they receive same books and their declared value is actually less, so it’s just below 5000 RR and they have no problems about customs. Of course in each country rules are different.
That’s pretty stupid. I think you might be better off just buying it from someone here and have them put a small declared value if you really want this thing.
I wonder why doesn’t CFAI to distribute books in .pdf files (maybe protected, just like Schweser). In any case even piracy won’t reduce their profits because everyone who needs the curriculum now has to buy it.
I agree, too. They should give out PDFs because now they force every registered people to pay for the curriculum.