Once your medication has passed the pharmacy's final check, the package leaves our pharmacy the same day and heads to the airport.
From there, the journey is handled through the courier networks and Customs. You do not need to file Customs information or coordinate anything between Canada and the United States yourself. You can simply follow the shipment status through the tracking information we provide.
Day 0: the package starts in Canada
Your order is packed at our pharmacy in Vancouver, British Columbia, and handed off to the Canadian courier network.
Because our pharmacy is close to Vancouver International Airport, the package is taken directly to the airport once it is picked up by the courier and prepared for the next scheduled daily flight to the United States. We coordinate courier pickup around the available flight schedule so the package can move toward the United States without unnecessary waiting.
The first part of the journey happens in Canada. From there, the package moves toward the United States and the cross-border handoff.
Day 2: the package arrives in the U.S. and goes through Customs
When the package lands in the United States, it is unloaded and prepared for U.S. Customs review.
Most packages clear U.S. Customs within about one to three days. Some packages are selected for additional routine review, which can add time.
Customs timing is outside anyone's control. It depends on the U.S. Customs workload and when an officer is able to review and release the shipment. Express shipping does not make U.S. Customs review the package faster. If Customs selects a package for additional review, the same delay can affect either Standard or Express shipping.
After Customs: normal U.S. domestic delivery begins
Once Customs releases the package, it enters the U.S. domestic delivery network and continues toward your address.
This is where destination and shipping service make a much bigger difference.
For Standard shipping, packages going to the West Coast can sometimes arrive within a day or two after Customs release. Packages traveling farther across the country, especially to the East Coast, can take up to about a week for the domestic portion of the trip.
For Express shipping, most U.S. destinations are typically reached within about one to two days after Customs release.
The exact route can vary from package to package, but the farther the shipment needs to travel after Customs, the more noticeable the difference between Standard and Express can become.
Standard and Express follow the same overall route
Both services follow the same basic journey:
Canadian pharmacy → Canadian courier network → U.S. Customs → U.S. domestic delivery → your address
What changes is how quickly the package moves through the parts of the route where the shipping service can make a difference.
Before the package leaves Canada, we optimize the parts we can control. Our pharmacy is set up to move completed orders into shipping quickly, and in most cases an order that is ready to proceed can be dispensed and shipped the same day. We also coordinate courier pickup around the available flight schedule so the package can move toward the United States without unnecessary waiting.
At U.S. Customs, however, the timing is controlled by Customs, not by the shipping service. Once the package is released, Express service can make a significant difference in domestic transit time, particularly for destinations farther from the West Coast.
We do everything we can to minimize the parts of the delivery time that are within our control, but some parts of the journey are outside the pharmacy's control. That is why planning ahead is still important when ordering medication internationally.
What will tracking look like?
Tracking works much like the tracking for any other online order, except that a cross-border shipment has more handoffs along the way.
You may see regular facility scans as the package moves through Canada, Customs, and the U.S. delivery network. At other times, the tracking may appear unchanged for a period and then suddenly update at the next facility.
That can happen because not every movement or handoff produces a visible scan. In our experience, packages being truly lost or never delivered is rare; temporary gaps in tracking updates are much more common.
If you want to understand the different tracking updates, Customs statuses, or when a delay may need attention, see Understanding tracking and U.S. Customs.
Where to go from here
Now that you know the overall route, the next useful question is what the tracking updates mean and what happens when a package is being reviewed by Customs.
Next, see Understanding tracking and U.S. Customs.