A Guide to Moving to the UK
The UK is an exciting place to live and work, you’re never far from an exciting city, beautiful countryside or a coastal area and you can enjoy the benefits of living in a culturally and historically rich country. Expats here will find that there are lots of interesting places to explore in this green and pleasant land.
Moving your household items
If you are planning to bring your household items with you, you will need to contact a Moving Company to arrange this for you. If you are moving from within Europe, in most cases road transportation would be the best option. For destinations outside of Europe, sea or air freight are usually the preferred modes of transport.
As a general rule, sea freight is more cost efficient than air freight but usually has a much longer transit times. Air freight is useful if you have a small amount of items that you will urgently need upon arrival, the total transit time for an air freight shipment is 2 weeks approximately door to door.
For sea freight options, the most common ways to ship household effects are as follows:
FCL (Full Container Load) – this is where you will have sole use of your own 20ft, 40ft or 40ft high cube container.
LCL (Less than Container Load) – this is generally used for smaller shipments. Your shipment will be cased and consolidated with other freight to be shipped in a container.
Groupage / Shared Consignment – this option is generally used for smaller shipments also. Your items will be loaded into a shipping container which will contain other household effects.
Customs Requirements when Moving to the UK
In order to import your household effects into the UK from outside the EU, a C3 Customs form is required. Your Moving Company should provide you with a copy for your completion for the import process.
It is advised not to include foodstuffs in your shipment to the UK if possible as they could cause delays during customs clearance. If you do decide to include food, a detailed list of the items must be provided to customs and the cartons where they are contained clearly labelled. It is also helpful if these cartons are placed in an accessible place in the shipment e.g. loaded last into the container.
For further information on moving to the UK, don’t hesitate to contact us. Experienced members of our team are always on hand to provide advice and information regarding moving and shipping services.
