Importing medications to Vietnam (from USA)

CJNordic wrote:

Does anyone have experience bringing medications into Vietnam by post or by airfreight?  Is it legal to airfreight medications into VIetnam?  Has anyone had good luck? Or bad luck?
I'm aware that many medications are available locally and not expensive, however my government Medicare supply is virtually free. 
Thanks
CJ.....moving to Vietnam in December 2019

What volumes are you talking about.

For my personal use.....3 month supply. Although I take a number of meds and nutrients. Good question.

CJNordic wrote:

For my personal use.....3 month supply. Although I take a number of meds and nutrients. Good question.

Well it depends on the volume, how many tabs, you should be ok as long as you carry your prescription.

I am asking about mailing in or air freight....I only go back to the USA once a year and need to have my meds shipped in every 3-4 months. It has worked well in Thailand via the postal service.

CJNordic wrote:

Does anyone have experience bringing medications into Vietnam by post or by airfreight?  Is it legal to airfreight medications into VIetnam?  Has anyone had good luck? Or bad luck?
I'm aware that many medications are available locally and not expensive, however my government Medicare supply is virtually free. 
Thanks
CJ.....moving to Vietnam in December 2019

As someone who brought a lot of meds here, I advise you to give your meds top priority in your carry on luggage.

Check with your airline, as most airlines make exceptions for medical devices in carry on (my CPAP machine is exempt and not counted against carry on limits).

If you use insulin, try to pack everything together in a separate bag and they 'might' exempt that, since insulin is always exempt.

Paying extra for checked baggage is your next best bet.

@Ciambella has posted on here about the types of boxes she uses on trips back and forth across the Pacific.

If it's a large enough box within the airline weight limits, I believe she said the price was about $125 as accompanied baggage (22 kg?) but don't trust that figure.

Carrying them with you or sending as accompanied baggage is the best option, because your chances of being hassled by customs/immigration is very low, based on most people's experience, as long as everything is properly labled with an Rx notation.

You'll especially be okay if your supply doesn't exceed the length of your Visa.

In other words, don't bring a 90 day supply with you on a 30-day Visa.

I've only had one V.A. prescription forwarded here.

It was sent from a regular USPS office with the annotation "forwarded prescription".

It was opened by customs but no duty was charged.

Thanks for all those details. So you have mailed medications successfully from USA to Vietnam? sounds like only once?

CJNordic wrote:

Thanks for all those details. So you have mailed medications successfully from USA to Vietnam? sounds like only once?

Correct.

The more you mail, the greater the chance that Customs is going to impose Duty

I researched this last year and I'm not aware of any changes since then. You can't have meds shipped to you or your Viet doctor. You can't have them shipped to Thailand or to a Thai doctor. Most of my meds are not available in Vietnam or in Thailand. What turned out easiest for was to get my prescriptions filled in Canada.
It' is possible things may have changed but I doubt it. I did 20 or 30 searches on Google and didn't find any loopholes. I considered trying to ship them in from friends but if they were found, I would lose many $100s of expensive meds.