How to Pre-Order Your iPad Outside the USA in Seven Easy Steps [Apple iPad Pre-orders are U.S. Only For Now; at Least In Theory]

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American Apple customers have overwhelmed Apple with iPad pre-orders and the word on the street is that Apple sold no less than 50,000 iPad units in the first two hours. That’s all good and dandy but what happens if you crave the iPad but aren’t in the USA at this particular time?

International Apple customers will only be able to get the iPad later in April, but that’s not exactly fast in my book, is it?

Well there are various means of pre-ordering your iPad from outside the USA. You just have to be really desperate to get the iPad in the first week of April and have extra cash to pay for it. Because if you’re going to pre-order it now then you can expect to pay extra fees in order to cover shipping costs to your country and taxes for the goods you are importing.

So here’s what you basically need to do in order to be able to get an iPad right now:

1. Get yourself a debit/credit card which you’d be able to actually pre-order the iPad with. I think most of you have such cards already but it’s still safe to tell you that you need one in order to pay for the iPad and its shipment.
2. Fund your account and make sure there’s plenty of extra cash for delivery and taxes. You can check DHL.com standard worldwide shipping quotes in order to get an estimate of how much extra cash you’ll have to fork out for the iPad.
3. Get a Borderlinx.com account which, once obtained, will get you a shipping address in the USA to which Apple will then deliver the iPad. Once Borderlinx gets it, it will ship it to your door via DHL (see step 5). I’ll have to note, for the record, that we are not affiliated with Borderlinx in anyway and we’re simply using it as an example. Alternatively you can use a friend in the USA for steps 3) and 5) but you’d still be required to pay for the DHL shipping and the sales tax in your country. But since not everyone has a friend in need in the USA at any given time you could find other similar shipping services whose solely object is to send stuff from U.S.-based stores to other countries.
4. Go to Apple.com and pre-order your chosen iPad model. If you have an U.S. iTunes account you can sign in using it and complete the purchase otherwise you’ll have to create an Apple account before actually paying for the device. Make sure you use the address obtained from Borderlinx/other company/your friend. Since you’re at it you should rather get two iPads and sell one later for an exorbitant price in order to recover some of your shipping fees. You will not be able to order more than two iPads so don’t think you’ll be able to get away with ordering more. Don’t order iPad accessories at this time since they might ship later and thus delay your final DHL shipment. You can simply get the accessories at a later time from your local Apple Store.
5. Instruct Borderlinx.com to ship the iPad to your home and pay the shipping fee and extra taxes that apply. Apple ships the iPad free of charge to your Borderlinx account but shipping to your country, done via DHL, will not be free in any case. Borderlinx will save your stuff for 30 days but you’ll want to have it shipped immediately.
6. Receive the iPad about a week later than regular U.S. customers and start complaining about how much you paid for a device that’s not able to do exactly everything you wanted. It’s still a great device which you can keep or sell to someone that hasn’t read this post in time.
7. Check back plenty of times with TFTS in order to get all the iPad details you might have missed. Maybe there’s a chance you’ll change your mind about purchasing the Wi-Fi iPad right now. Oh wait, maybe this should have been step 1) so you could be better informed before you go through steps 1) to 6). So, again, subscribe to our full RSS feed, follow us on Twitter, comment on posts and once you feel like you can make an informed decision, follow the six very easy steps above.
8. So there you have it, folks! Where there’s a will there’s a way! Mind you that you might end up paying a ton of extra money on top of the regular iPad price. You’ll have to ask yourself again if it’s worth getting the iPad a few weeks before the iPad becomes available in your country and pay a couple hundred dollars extra for having it shipped there, or simply wait for your local Apple store to get it.

We will advise you that this is not a 100% safe procedure. Problems could occur during any step of the way so you should make sure you carefully read all the provisions of your collaboration between you and any other third-party that will be handling the shipping of the device for you. In case anything goes wrong it’s likely that Apple will not exactly come to your rescue since what you’re doing, although not illegal, it’s not exactly comprised in Apple’s customer care book.

In case you’re aware of any other smoother iPad pre-ordering from abroad process, then, by all means, do let us know!