Shipping Personal Belongings from UK

[leytonorient]

Hi,

I just got a new Non-O visa as my old one with retirement extension expired while here in the UK.  I am returning to Thailand next month and will get the extension and stay in Thailand permanently. My Thai partner is here and will return with me, she has been coming back and forth from here for the past 4 years.

I will be shipping a Movecube crate of personal belongings such as clothes, a 65 inch tv, 2 bicycles, kitchen items and various small personal items.

Does anyone have experience with this? I plan to ship it in my Thai partner's name, is that best or is my name better? I figure she could haggle with duties agents in Thai. I don't have a work permit, just a non-o visa based on us having a son, we are not married.

Will we be smashed with duties? We have a shipping agent but they are not responsible for customs duties etc.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Thank you. 

Edited February 17, 2021 by leytonorient

[DrJack54]

50 minutes ago, leytonorient said:

I will be shipping a Movecube crate of personal belongings such as clothes, a 65 inch tv, 2 bicycles, kitchen items and various small personal items.

Surely this is a wind up. The items you list are rudimentary at best. Gift it to family or friends or charity.

Just crazy idea.

 

[CharlieH]

Moved to General forum as not Visa related

[onebir]

5 minutes ago, DrJack54 said:

Surely this is a wind up. The items you list are rudimentary at best. Gift it to family or friends or charity.

Depends how much it costs! But IDK that because when I tried to get Movecube quote just now, after entering all the details the result was "Server Error in '/' Application."

 

But surface freight isn't necessarily that expensive. I sent about 15kg of stuff internationally from China once; I think it was USD25 for the first 1 or 2kg, then about 2USD per kg. So ~55USD - way less than buying the same things over again. (The package did however end up sitting in the post office for several months longer than necessary, because the delivery notice went missing. Sigh.)

 

[gamb00ler]

I have no idea how big a Movecube is but I think the only economically feasible amount to ship is a full container.  My Thai wife and I did just that a few months ago when we moved from US.

 

My recommendation is that you sell your goods and re-purchase what you need when you get here.  Below, I'll give you the hurdles we had to clear for our shipment.  You and your Thai partner may not qualify for the exemption from customs duty on your goods.  That is one of the reasons I suggest not trying to ship goods to Thailand.

 

We packed our own boxes, removed all glass from furniture,  wrapped and boxed mirrors, wrapped furniture in moving blankets, secured the moving blankets with tensioned poly strapping.  We also prepared a lengthy inventory that gave the general contents of each box, etc.

 

I hired a company that supplied the container, delivered it to our house (it remained on the truck), arranged for a local moving company to load our boxes etc. into the container, trucked it to the closest port, transported to Lam Chabang, cleared it through customs (duty was only 1,200฿), delivered to our door and unloaded into whatever room we indicated.  They would have unpacked the boxes as per the contract, but we decided to do that ourselves.

 

The agent who cleared our shipment into Thailand made me nervous when I communicated with them.  However, in the end they did ensure that our household goods were given the exemption given to Thai citizens moving back to Thailand.  The duty we were charged was for non-exempt items such as tools and golf clubs.  We also shipped two bicycles.  I included them on the inventory and was expecting them to be subject to duty, but customs ignored them.  Our container was not opened for inspection after it was sealed at our house in US.

 

Importantly my Thai wife was the shipper and receiver.

 

The Thai agent (Boonma) said that my wife must not have returned to Thailand for at least 12 months prior to the shipping date.  That is much more strict than the requirement stated on the Thai customs website.  We had to give Boonma my wife's current and previous passports, house registration book and her Thai ID.  We also had to pay Boonma an extra fee for them to get a statement from Thai Immigration detailing my wife's travel record to and from Thailand for the last year+.

 

Good luck!

 

Edited February 17, 2021 by gamb00ler

[Lomsakboy]

Not sure about MoveCube.

No problem to ship in your Thai partner’s name. Before the shipment arrive, The Thai Customs would need copy of her passport, copy of her Thai ID card and Tabien Baan. (Thai house book) upon arrival The Thai Customs would need these as original. Also, needed would be a packing list with value. Please put this low as possible., because even when returning Thai citizen, The Thai Customs will find a way to let her pay some sort of money. 1 important thing is that, please only state 1 electric item of each on the packing list.

The owner of the goods has never imported goods into Thailand (returning citizens). The owner of the goods must be in the origin country at least 365 days (returning citizens).

 

Also, please find a good moving company/ agent who knows about Thai Customs law and have license to make custom clearance.

[leytonorient]

On 2/17/2021 at 3:58 PM, DrJack54 said:

Surely this is a wind up. The items you list are rudimentary at best. Gift it to family or friends or charity.

Just crazy idea.

 

If you have nothing useful to say don't answer. The Movecube is only 146x161x187 cms. Not a huge amount of stuff. Basically a sealed wooden crate.

A lot of the stuff has sentimental value and the clothes are designer ware which is 3 times the price in bkk. The bikes are boxed and are very expensive ones. Can't sell anything now because of lockdown. Most of our stuff I already gifted. 

[leytonorient]

On 2/17/2021 at 4:45 PM, gamb00ler said:

I have no idea how big a Movecube is but I think the only economically feasible amount to ship is a full container.  My Thai wife and I did just that a few months ago when we moved from US.

 

My recommendation is that you sell your goods and re-purchase what you need when you get here.  Below, I'll give you the hurdles we had to clear for our shipment.  You and your Thai partner may not qualify for the exemption from customs duty on your goods.  That is one of the reasons I suggest not trying to ship goods to Thailand.

 

We packed our own boxes, removed all glass from furniture,  wrapped and boxed mirrors, wrapped furniture in moving blankets, secured the moving blankets with tensioned poly strapping.  We also prepared a lengthy inventory that gave the general contents of each box, etc.

 

I hired a company that supplied the container, delivered it to our house (it remained on the truck), arranged for a local moving company to load our boxes etc. into the container, trucked it to the closest port, transported to Lam Chabang, cleared it through customs (duty was only 1,200฿), delivered to our door and unloaded into whatever room we indicated.  They would have unpacked the boxes as per the contract, but we decided to do that ourselves.

 

The agent who cleared our shipment into Thailand made me nervous when I communicated with them.  However, in the end they did ensure that our household goods were given the exemption given to Thai citizens moving back to Thailand.  The duty we were charged was for non-exempt items such as tools and golf clubs.  We also shipped two bicycles.  I included them on the inventory and was expecting them to be subject to duty, but customs ignored them.  Our container was not opened for inspection after it was sealed at our house in US.

 

Importantly my Thai wife was the shipper and receiver.

 

The Thai agent (Boonma) said that my wife must not have returned to Thailand for at least 12 months prior to the shipping date.  That is much more strict than the requirement stated on the Thai customs website.  We had to give Boonma my wife's current and previous passports, house registration book and her Thai ID.  We also had to pay Boonma an extra fee for them to get a statement from Thai Immigration detailing my wife's travel record to and from Thailand for the last year+.

 

Good luck!

 

Thank you for that info. It seems straightforward. The Movecube is a sealed wooden crate, enough to hold about 20 boxes. I boxed the bicycles. I hope our luck is as good as yours regarding customs.

[Yellowtail]

Contact a freight forwarder in Bangkok and provide them with a packing list and invoice and they should be able to give you a quote.

 

The crate is strong, yes? A box that size with nonperishables you want to ship LTL sea freight.

 

Your invoice should be clear and accurate.

 

Duty on cloths is very high.

[OJAS]

On 2/17/2021 at 10:02 PM, leytonorient said:

a 65 inch tv

 

You'll be wasting your time (and money) if it has a built-in tuner since it won't then work in Thailand.

 

[stuandjulie]

21 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

Contact a freight forwarder in Bangkok and provide them with a packing list and invoice and they should be able to give you a quote.

 

The crate is strong, yes? A box that size with nonperishables you want to ship LTL sea freight.

 

Your invoice should be clear and accurate.

 

Duty on cloths is very high.

For what it's worth, when we went from the UK to Thailand we had about 10 large packing boxes (maybe  each being half the size of yours) full of all sorts, no bike or tv though. We used 7 seas international who were very good, parcels arrived to the doorstep some 8 weeks later with no duty. I would suggest if the TV is ok just sell it in the UK and get another here. Customs can be a pain over that sort of thing.

 

[OneMoreFarang]

On 2/19/2021 at 1:53 AM, leytonorient said:

Movecube

I have to admit I never heard of that thing. I just looked it up, interesting.

MoveCube® | Personal Shipping Container | Seven Seas Worldwide

 

Does anybody of you know if there is another company/offer similar to that? I am interested in Europe to Thailand.

Before that I found courier services and containers. Too expensive or too big for me. Movecube sounds perfect.

 

 

[Lomsakboy]

On 2/19/2021 at 9:15 PM, Yellowtail said:

Contact a freight forwarder in Bangkok and provide them with a packing list and invoice and they should be able to give you a quote.

 

The crate is strong, yes? A box that size with nonperishables you want to ship LTL sea freight.

 

Your invoice should be clear and accurate.

 

Duty on cloths is very high.

Who told that there are duty on clothes? There isn't. 

[Yellowtail]

6 hours ago, Lomsakboy said:

Who told that there are duty on clothes? There isn't. 

 

Who told you there isn't any duty on clothes? There is. 

[Lomsakboy]

14 hours ago, Yellowtail said:

 

Who told you there isn't any duty on clothes? There is. 

I am dealing with shipping FCL and LCL every day and I know that there is no duty what so ever on clothes. If you import new for business then there is. If part of personal items/ moving goods, there is not.

Edited February 23, 2021 by Lomsakboy

[gamb00ler]

3 hours ago, Lomsakboy said:

I am dealing with shipping FCL and LCL every day and I know that there is no duty what so ever on clothes. If you import new for business then there is. If part of personal items/ moving goods, there is not.

I know that if you qualify for the household goods exemption there is no duty.  It is unclear if the OP or his Thai gf will qualify.  The Thai customs web site is quite clear about the circumstances required to qualify for that exemption.

 

In my case, Boonma seemed inclined to be even more strict than the specifications on the website.  When I quoted the web site to them, they said it was out of date.  When I asked for a clarification they bobbed and weaved away from answering.  I'm guessing they preferred to maintain some mystique about the process of clearing customs to show that they're needed.

[Lomsakboy]

4 hours ago, gamb00ler said:

I know that if you qualify for the household goods exemption there is no duty.  It is unclear if the OP or his Thai gf will qualify.  The Thai customs web site is quite clear about the circumstances required to qualify for that exemption.

 

In my case, Boonma seemed inclined to be even more strict than the specifications on the website.  When I quoted the web site to them, they said it was out of date.  When I asked for a clarification they bobbed and weaved away from answering.  I'm guessing they preferred to maintain some mystique about the process of clearing customs to show that they're needed.

The Thai Customs website is not out of date. What the website says and what they do are 2 completely different things. They (Thai customs) do as it suits them.

There are a number of things that must be complied with before you can get it in without paying any duties. Most of this is stated on their website. Rest they will tell you. They have their own rules ???? 

If Thai wife/ GF and she has been outside Thailand for 1 year or more and if nothing special is on the packing list, then she should get it in without paying anything. But to obtain this Thai Customs would need original passport and Thai ID card and Tabien Baan. (Thai house book) Even then there is no guarantee. 

Also, what they see as luxury goods is a joke. 100% that you will pay duties on luxury goods. Used clothes are not one of them. Normally bicycles are. ????