A licence or a declaration · D
Needs a declaration with teeth
Things that are perfectly legal to own and conditional to import. Some need declaring on the entry, some need a licence from an authority at the far end, and the same item can sit in different places depending on where it is going.
A wine collection is routine in one country, licensed in the next and refused in the third. There is no general answer.
What falls here
The difference between declaring and licensing
A declaration is something we handle: the item is named on the entry, supported by the inventory, and it clears. It costs you a sentence at survey and nothing else.
A licence is something you obtain from an authority in the destination country. It has its own application, its own criteria and its own timescale, and no removals firm can apply for it on your behalf or make it come faster.
Why there is no general answer
Because these categories are exactly where countries make their own rules. Alcohol allowances, medicine schedules, radio spectrum licensing and drone regulation are all national matters, and two neighbouring countries routinely take opposite positions.
So the useful question is never "can I ship wine" but "can I ship wine to this address". The country pages answer it route by route rather than offering a rule that would be wrong somewhere.
The medicine cabinet
The most frequently overlooked item on this page, because nobody thinks of it as cargo. Prescription medicines in a shipment are declarable almost everywhere, controlled in many places, and permitted in lower quantities than people assume.
Carry what you personally need with you, with the prescription. Declare the rest. And ask your own doctor rather than us about anything you depend on — we are a removals firm and that is genuinely not our expertise.
What we do, and what we do not
We identify these categories at survey, name them on the entry, and tell you plainly where a licence is yours to obtain. We do not apply for licences, and we are not a customs broker or a source of legal advice.
What we will not do is put something on a vehicle and hope. A declared item is a process; an undeclared one is a seizure that delays everything travelling with it.
Needs a declaration with teeth
Questions about needs a declaration with teeth
- Can we ship alcohol?
- It depends entirely on the destination — declared in one country, licensed in another, refused in a third. Ask before packing it; on several routes the honest answer is to sell it here.
- What about our prescriptions?
- Declarable almost everywhere and controlled in many places. Carry what you need personally with the prescription and ask your own doctor about anything you depend on.
- Do you apply for licences?
- No. We name the requirement and tell you which authority it sits with. The application, the criteria and the timescale are all outside a removals firm's control.
- Is a drone worth shipping?
- Frequently not, given how variable the rules are and how quickly they change. We will say so where the destination makes it more trouble than the device is worth.
- What happens if something is undeclared?
- At best a delay while it is resolved; at worst a seizure that holds up everything travelling alongside it. Declaring costs a sentence at survey.
- Are you a customs broker?
- No. We prepare the entries that come from the inventory with our appointed agent. We are not a broker, not a licensing agency and not a source of legal advice.
Which rung are you on?
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and anything in the house that might sit higher up the ladder — an instrument, an antique, a wine collection, a drone, a car.