Destinations
Destinations, and their regimes
Every country applies the same six classes of permission and weights them differently. On one route the inventory description does all the work; on another the controlled list reaches further into a normal house than anybody expects.
Four pages, four different rungs of the same ladder deciding the outcome. That is more useful than four pages about four climates.
Four routes, four deciding factors
Morocco, where the inventory is read closely and vagueness is expensive. Sri Lanka, where the controlled list reaches into the study and the spare room. Peru, where consular certification and a protected-material permit can land on the same shipment. Indonesia, where what the furniture is made of becomes the whole question.
Removals from the UK to Morocco
A list that says "six boxes, kitchen" is an invitation. A list that says what is in them is a clearance.
- Casablanca and Rabat
- Marrakesh
- Tangier and the north
- Essaouira and the Atlantic coast
Removals from the UK to Sri Lanka
On this route the second rung of the ladder is busier than the first is difficult.
- Colombo
- The western coastal strip
- Kandy and the hill country
- Galle and the south
Removals from the UK to Peru
Two long lead times that run in parallel if you start early and in series if you do not.
- Lima
- Miraflores and San Isidro
- Arequipa
- Cusco and the sierra
Removals from the UK to Indonesia
How much furniture you have is the easy half. What it is made of is the other one.
- Jakarta
- South Jakarta and the expatriate districts
- Surabaya and Java
- Bali
The same ladder everywhere, weighted differently
Every destination on this site applies the same six classes: an inventory is enough, a declaration is needed, a licence is needed, a permit is needed, it is a separate import, or it is refused. What changes between countries is which class a given object lands in.
A wine collection is a declared quantity in one country, a licensed import in the next and refused in a third. That is why there is no general rule on this site and why the pages answer route by route.
The rung that travels with you
Protected material is the exception to all of that, because it follows the object rather than the destination. A piano with ivory keys raises the same question wherever it goes, and it carries the longest lead time of anything on the ladder.
So it is the first thing we ask about on any international enquiry, before the destination has even been discussed properly.
What we prepare, and what is yours
We prepare everything derived from the inventory: the described list, the export declaration, the import entry and the relief claim, working with our appointed agent at the destination.
Licences, permits, residence documents and consular certifications are yours to obtain. We name which authority each sits with. We are not a customs broker or a permit agency, and nothing here is legal advice.
What we will not carry anywhere
Pets, live plants, seeds and soil. Vehicles and powered machinery. Anything hazardous. On the first two we describe the kind of specialist to use and take no referral fee; on the third it is a safety rule that applies before any border is reached.
Destinations
Questions about destinations and regimes
- Which countries do you actually cover?
- France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Poland and Czechia by road; Morocco, Egypt, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, South Africa, Kenya, Peru, Chile, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand by sea and air.
- Why do these four have their own pages?
- Because each one makes a different rung of the ladder the deciding factor — inventory specificity, a broad controlled list, protected material meeting consular certification, and timber species. That is more useful than four pages describing four climates.
- Which regime is the strictest?
- It depends entirely on what you own. A household with no instruments and no antiques finds Australasia strictest because of biosecurity; a household with a piano and a Victorian cabinet finds the permit rung decides everything, wherever it is going.
- Do you obtain permits or licences?
- No. We hold none and issue none. We identify at survey what is likely to need one and name the authority it sits with; the application is yours to make and nothing we say about it is legal advice.
- Shared container or sole use?
- We quote both on every international enquiry. A shared container is consolidated at a depot and handled several more times by people who never saw your house; a sole-use one is sealed at your door and opened at the far end.
- Where do you collect from?
- Anywhere on the UK mainland, including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Bristol. Where a consignment is consolidated before departure we say so on the quotation.
Where is it going?
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and anything that might need a declaration, a licence or a permit. We will tell you which rungs apply.