If you are importing something like cosmetics or foods to Russia, expect sanitary control issues.
We are abnormal people. We have like 350 positions in the invoice, which have 24 certificates, issued for groups of products.
The first reaction of the sanitary control people at the airport was "We can't check your invoice, way too big. Go to the central office (20 km into the city through heavy traffic)". I moaned, I ripped my hair and beat my head against the wall. They agreed and checked the invoice in 4 hours.
Next time I came, I had the boss of the department telling me, my cargo was too complex for the territorial office to check. I asked: "Cam I help?" The answer was, "Take the invoice and write the certificate number with a pencil for every position. Err, like put numbers like 1,2,3 on the certificates and err, put those numbers on the invoice".
I made a reference table, binding certificate numbers to item ref. numbers (excel rules). Printed the thing - this became a 30+ page document, but they agreed to work with it.
Now, we have an agreement: I will give them an offiicial invoice translation + a paper, with the invoice sorted by certificate number (the same as before). They say, it is going to take them an hour or so with such a table.
Looks like a guideline to fight bureaucracy.
We are abnormal people. We have like 350 positions in the invoice, which have 24 certificates, issued for groups of products.
The first reaction of the sanitary control people at the airport was "We can't check your invoice, way too big. Go to the central office (20 km into the city through heavy traffic)". I moaned, I ripped my hair and beat my head against the wall. They agreed and checked the invoice in 4 hours.
Next time I came, I had the boss of the department telling me, my cargo was too complex for the territorial office to check. I asked: "Cam I help?" The answer was, "Take the invoice and write the certificate number with a pencil for every position. Err, like put numbers like 1,2,3 on the certificates and err, put those numbers on the invoice".
I made a reference table, binding certificate numbers to item ref. numbers (excel rules). Printed the thing - this became a 30+ page document, but they agreed to work with it.
Now, we have an agreement: I will give them an offiicial invoice translation + a paper, with the invoice sorted by certificate number (the same as before). They say, it is going to take them an hour or so with such a table.
Looks like a guideline to fight bureaucracy.
