Shipping period, validity period and effective place of letter of credit
(1) Shipping period and expiry date of letter of credit. The shipping period of letter of credit refers to the last date for the beneficiary to ship the goods. The beneficiary should ship the goods before or on the last shipping date. The expiry date of letter of credit refers to the last date for the beneficiary to submit documents to the bank. The beneficiary should submit letter of credit documents to the bank before or on the expiry date. The shipping period of letter of credit should be within the expiry date. There should be a certain time interval between the shipping date and the expiry date of letter of credit. The time interval should not be too long or too short. If the interval is too long, it is easy to cause the beneficiary to delay submitting the documents and the goods have arrived at the port. The importer cannot pick up the goods because he cannot get the shipping documents, resulting in the congestion of the port and the warehouse. If the interval is too short, the beneficiary has limited time from the time of obtaining the documents for shipment to the time of submitting the documents to the bank. This may cause the time for submitting the documents to be too tight or the documents cannot be submitted within the expiry date. Therefore, the shipping period and validity period of the letter of credit should be reviewed according to the specific circumstances. If necessary, the beneficiary should be advised or required to contact the applicant for modification. Generally, the interval between the shipping date and validity date of the letter of credit is about 10 to 15 days, unless otherwise specified in the letter of credit.
(2) Expiry place of the letter of credit. The expiry place refers to the place where the beneficiary submits documents to the bank within the validity period. Letters of credit issued abroad generally stipulate that the expiry place is within the territory of my country. If the expiry place is abroad, the beneficiary should pay special attention and must submit the documents in advance before the expiry date (about 7 days in advance for Hong Kong, Macao and near-sea countries such as Singapore and Malaysia; 10 to 15 days in advance for far-sea countries or regions) so that the bank can send the documents to the bank at the expiry place within the validity period. In actual business, if the expiry place is abroad, it is best to suggest that it be modified to be domestic. If the letter of credit does not specify the expiry place, the issuing bank should be asked to confirm it immediately. If the issuing bank does not respond at all, it is deemed that the expiry place is within the territory of my country.