I work in Logistics, applying for and receiving an EORI number should only take 10 mins to apply and a day or so to get your number provided you already have a VAT number or your countries equivalentSo someone at Fedex who actually knew what was going on finally got back to me, and I'm afraid it does seem to be more than just a time thing. Looks like I do need an EORI number for any imports above a certain price threshold, which my PC is. Though apparently I made a mistake and don't actually need to be a business to have one. Still, this means another few weeks of waiting, at least to get this all sorted, so that's quite depressing.