Shipping from Vietnam to USA: Sea & Air Freight, Transit Time, Duties

Top origin ports

Ho Chi Minh City (Cat Lai) for factories in the south, with direct mainline services calling the deep-water Cai Mep–Thi Vai terminals near Vung Tau; Hai Phong for the Hanoi, Bac Ninh and Hai Duong clusters in the north

Top destination ports

Los Angeles and Long Beach on the West Coast (28–34 and 28–35 days from Ho Chi Minh City); Houston (32–40 days) and New York (35–45 days) by all-water service

Which air service to ask for

• Standard airport-to-airport: cargo goes on a scheduled service and is charged on chargeable weight. The usual choice for pallets and larger shipments.
• Consolidated air freight: smaller shipments grouped under one master air waybill, which lowers the per-kilo cost when a full pallet isn’t justified.
• Door-to-door air: factory pickup in Vietnam, the air leg, the US customs entry through a licensed broker and delivery to your warehouse, all under one booking.
• Buyer’s consolidation at origin: Airlift’s Ho Chi Minh City office can collect from several factories and ship them as one consignment, by air just as by ocean.
• Sea-air and expedited ocean: if the deadline is tight but doesn’t justify a full air rate, ask for a comparison against the fastest direct West Coast sailings before you book.

Documents and compliance for air shipments

• Air waybill, commercial invoice and packing list, with the HS code checked before the cargo is tendered, plus a certificate of origin if the buyer asks for one.
• No ISF: the Importer Security Filing covers ocean cargo only. For air shipments, the carrier or forwarder files advance air cargo data instead.
• Product-specific filings still apply: FCC for radio-frequency devices, a CPSC Children’s Product Certificate for children’s products, and FDA for food and cosmetics.
• Tariffs follow the goods, not the mode: the Section 301 forced-labor duty (a tariff on products of Vietnam generally, not only on goods made with forced labor; CBP calls it the Section 301 Forced Labor Import Duties) and every other measure in force apply to an air shipment exactly as they would to the same goods in a container.

Top 4 by container volume

• Furniture and home goods
• Textiles and garments
• Footwear
• Electronics

Other commodities we handle

Household appliances, packaging materials, retail inventory.

At origin: Vietnam

• Export declaration: filed electronically through VNACCS/VCIS, Vietnam Customs’ automated clearance system, which assigns it to a green, yellow or red channel (release, document check or physical inspection) before the container can gate in.
• Commercial invoice and packing list: the invoice value, description and HS code must match what is declared to US customs, because the two declarations are compared when origin is questioned.
• Certificate of origin: the United States has no free trade agreement with Vietnam (the 2001 Bilateral Trade Agreement provides normal trade relations, not preferential tariffs), so no preferential certificate reduces US duty. A non-preferential certificate of origin is still worth holding as evidence of where the goods were made.
• Wood packaging: must be ISPM 15 treated and marked. Untreated pallets and crates are refused at the US port.

At destination: USA

• ISF (Importer Security Filing): due at least 24 hours before the container is loaded in Vietnam. Late or inaccurate filings can draw liquidated damages of up to $5,000 per filing.
• Customs entry under a bond: a continuous bond covers a year of entries and ISF filings; a single-transaction bond covers one entry (and, separately, one ISF).
• Product-specific requirements: FCC for radio-frequency devices such as phones, routers and headphones, a CPSC Children’s Product Certificate for toys and children’s products, Lacey Act declarations for wood furniture and plant products, and FDA prior notice for food such as cashews and coffee.

Duties on goods from Vietnam (September 2026)

• Column 1 duty: the normal HTS rate for the product. Most electronics lines are duty-free, while footwear and apparel carry double-digit rates — which is why a running shoe from Vietnam can owe more duty than a laptop.
• Section 301 forced-labor duty: an additional 12.5% on products of Vietnam since July 24, 2026. Vietnam is in the higher of the two tiers (the lower tier, 10%, covers economies such as India and the EU, where the EU rate is 10% including the normal Column 1 duty). The duty is reported ahead of the other Chapter 99 lines. Goods under the Section 232 headings listed in 9903.05.90 (metals; passenger vehicles, light trucks, medium- and heavy-duty trucks and buses, and their parts; wood products; patented pharmaceuticals; and the 25% band of semiconductors) and the products listed in U.S. note 52(b) of HTS Chapter 99, such as computers, smartphones, network equipment and many chips, are exempt from it; newer Section 232 programs, such as drones, are not.
• Section 232 duties, where the product is covered: upholstered wooden furniture and kitchen cabinets and vanities (25% since October 14, 2025, with increases deferred to January 1, 2027); steel, aluminum and copper articles and their derivatives (assessed on full customs value since April 6, 2026, with metal furniture and shelving under heading 9403 added on June 8, 2026); a narrow band of advanced semiconductors (25% since January 15, 2026); and drones (100% or 25% by type since September 3, 2026) and drone components (100% on critical components since September 3, 2026; 25% on other listed components from February 9, 2027).
• Antidumping and countervailing duties, at case-specific rates: crystalline silicon solar cells and modules from Vietnam (AD and CVD orders effective June 24, 2025), corrosion-resistant steel from Vietnam (AD and CVD orders effective December 19, 2025) and mattresses from Vietnam (AD order in force since May 14, 2021; in its first sunset review, Commerce found on July 31, 2026 that dumping would likely continue, and the ITC’s review was still pending as of October 2026). Hardwood plywood completed in Vietnam from Chinese veneers or cores was found in July 2023 to be circumventing the China orders, so those entries need the exporter certification on file. Separately, new AD and CVD cases on hardwood and decorative plywood from Vietnam reached affirmative final determinations in 2026 (Commerce in July; the ITC’s, published September 9, 2026), so check plywood entries for the new orders.
• IEEPA tariffs no longer apply: the Supreme Court held on February 20, 2026 that IEEPA does not authorize tariffs, collection stopped on February 24, 2026, and refunds of IEEPA duties paid since February 2025 are being processed through ACE. The 10% Section 122 surcharge that replaced them expired on July 24, 2026.
• Duties are assessed on the customs value of the goods, not the freight. The merchandise processing fee and harbor maintenance fee are added at entry.

Origin, transshipment and forced-labor scrutiny

• Country of origin follows substantial transformation, not the port of loading. Goods only assembled, packed or lightly finished in Vietnam from Chinese components keep Chinese origin in CBP’s eyes and are treated as transshipment if entered as Vietnamese; complex manufacturing in Vietnam does confer Vietnamese origin. Keep a bill of materials by country and a description of the process steps performed in Vietnam, and ask for a CBP binding ruling where the answer isn’t obvious.
• The Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) applies wherever the goods were finished. CBP presumes that goods made wholly or partly with Xinjiang inputs, or by an entity on the UFLPA Entity List, are made with forced labor, and detains them until the importer proves otherwise. Cotton, polysilicon and tomatoes are the priority sectors, so apparel, footwear and solar products from Vietnam draw the most scrutiny.
• CBP’s June 2026 forced-labor guidance sets out what a rebuttal needs: purchase orders, invoices, bills of materials, production and transportation records, supplier attestations and sub-tier supplier documentation, translated and indexed. Map your supplier’s inputs before booking: a detention can hold a container for weeks while evidence is assembled after the fact.

Full container load (FCL)

• Equipment: 20′ standard (about 33 m³ of usable space), 40′ standard (about 67 m³) and 40′ high cube (about 76 m³), plus open-top and flat-rack equipment for out-of-gauge cargo.
• The container is loaded and sealed at your supplier’s factory or a container freight station, moves under one bill of lading and reaches your door intact. No other shipper’s cargo touches it.
• Volume, not weight, usually decides the container on this lane: furniture, mattresses, footwear and garments fill a 40′ high cube long before it reaches a road weight limit, so one high cube normally beats two 20′ containers on cost per piece.
• Cut-offs: the booking confirmation lists the document, verified gross mass (VGM) and gate-in cut-offs at Cat Lai or Hai Phong. A missed cut-off rolls the container to the next sailing, and for a Cai Mep mainline call the cut-off comes earlier than the vessel date because of the barge leg.

Less than container load (LCL)

• LCL from Vietnam is available on request: your cartons or pallets are consolidated with other shippers’ cargo and deconsolidated at a CFS near the US port before delivery.
• LCL is charged on weight or measure — per cubic meter or per 1,000 kg, whichever is greater — plus CFS handling at origin and destination.
• The ocean transit matches FCL on the same service, but consolidation at origin and deconsolidation at destination add days, so door to door takes longer than a container of your own.
• Packaging matters more than in FCL because the cargo is handled several times: palletize, shrink-wrap and mark every piece, and use ISPM 15 treated pallets.

How to choose

• Below roughly 13 m³, LCL is usually cheaper. Between about 13 and 20 m³, ask for both: a 20′ container often costs little more than the equivalent LCL once CFS charges are added. Above 20 m³, FCL usually wins on cost, handling and transit.
• Buying from several factories in the same region? Buyer’s consolidation, arranged by Airlift’s Ho Chi Minh City office, can turn three LCL shipments into one FCL container and one customs entry.
• Time-critical or fragile goods favor FCL even at small volumes, because the container is sealed at origin and opened at your door.
• For very small shipments — a few cartons — air can be cheaper once LCL minimums and CFS charges are counted. The air section above explains how chargeable weight is calculated.

What the US delivery leg involves

• Drayage: a truck and chassis move the container from the terminal or rail ramp to your door, and the empty is returned to the depot.
• Free time: terminals and rail ramps allow a few days to collect the container before demurrage starts, and carriers allow a few days to return the empty before detention applies. Both are billed per day, so book the delivery appointment before the vessel arrives.
• Transloading: for retail distribution, containers can be unloaded at a warehouse near the port and reloaded into domestic trailers. This suits multi-stop deliveries and Amazon or retailer routing rules, and is common for furniture and footwear programs.
• Delivery appointments, liftgate service and residential delivery cost extra; mention them when you request a quote so they’re priced in.

Carrier, NVOCC or forwarder: who does what

• Ocean carriers (shipping lines) own or charter the vessels and set their own rates and schedules. Vietnam is served both by direct transpacific strings, with no transshipment, and by services that relay Vietnamese cargo through a hub such as Kaohsiung, Yantian, Shanghai or Singapore. As of September 2026, for example, CMA CGM’s Mekong Transpacific Express (launched May 28, 2026) calls Vung Tau (Cai Mep) and Shanghai before Los Angeles and Oakland, and since August 31, 2026 its Hai Phong call has moved to the PEARL service, which continues through Yantian to Los Angeles. The routing, not the carrier name, is what sets your transit.
• An NVOCC (non-vessel operating common carrier) buys space from those lines, issues its own house bill of lading, and is licensed and bonded by the FMC. Airlift USA is an NVOCC, so the rates in its rate search are its own carrier rates, not a referral.
• A freight forwarder arranges the whole move around the ocean leg: pickup, export clearance, ISF, the US customs entry and delivery. Most importers want a forwarder that is also an NVOCC, so one company is accountable for both the bill of lading and the service around it.

What to check before you choose a forwarder

• FMC license and NVOCC bond, so the forwarder can issue its own bills of lading.
• Its own staff at both ends of the lane, not an agent at one end. That decides who answers when a factory misses a cargo-ready date.
• Buyer’s consolidation, if you buy from several Vietnamese suppliers into one container.
• Ocean and air on the same lane, so a delayed order can switch modes without switching forwarders.
• ISF filing record: late or inaccurate filings can draw CBP liquidated damages of up to $5,000 per filing.
• US customs handled through licensed brokers, with HTS classification, origin review and duty estimates available before you book.
• Live tracking and online document access, not emailed status updates.