Abroad
Where a document sets the date
An international move does not add decisions. It moves the existing ones much earlier and hands several deadlines to people no removals firm can telephone: a permit office, a registration desk, a consulate.
Build the schedule backwards from the document that heads it. Booking a sailing first is how containers end up waiting.
Four routes, four different documents at the head
Bahrain, where a residence card gates the clearance. Vietnam, where a work permit and the residence card behind it come first. Kenya, where the import declaration is filed before the container sails. Chile, where consular certification of the inventory decides when it goes at all.
Removals from the UK to Bahrain
On this route the first date in the diary is not a sailing. It is a card being issued.
- Manama and the capital
- Compounds
- Muharraq
- The Northern Governorate
Removals from the UK to Vietnam
Book the shipping around the permit. Booking the permit around the shipping is how containers end up waiting.
- Ho Chi Minh City
- Hanoi
- Da Nang and the coast
- Binh Duong and the industrial belt
Removals from the UK to Kenya
Almost every other route lets you fix paperwork while the goods travel. This one does not.
- Nairobi
- Karen and Lavington
- Mombasa and the coast
- Nakuru and the Rift Valley
Removals from the UK to Chile
A consular process cannot be accelerated by a removals firm, an employer or a shipping line.
- Santiago
- Las Condes and Vitacura
- Valparaíso and Viña del Mar
- The Lake District
The schedule simply starts earlier
A domestic move has one hard external deadline — a council notice period, usually. An international move has several, and they belong to permit offices, registration desks and consulates rather than to anybody you can telephone and persuade.
So the survey happens earlier, the inventory is finalised earlier, and the shipping is booked once the file is complete rather than in hope. Nothing about the decisions changes; only when they fall due.
The inventory carries more weight
On a domestic move the inventory is a record. On several of these routes it is the document a filing or a certification attaches to, which means it has to be complete and specific before it is submitted rather than approximately right.
That is why the loft, the garage and the shed are surveyed with more care on an international job, and why adding things afterwards is genuinely awkward rather than merely inconvenient.
Who obtains what
We prepare everything derived from the inventory: the described list, the export declaration, the import entry and the relief claim. That half is ours and it is finished before departure.
The other half is attached to you as a person — a residence card, a work permit, a tax number, a consular certification. Each country page names them specifically and says which one heads the schedule.
UK origins
We collect from anywhere on the mainland, including London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Bristol. Where a consignment is consolidated before departure we say so, because it is another party with another lead time.
Moving abroad
Questions about international schedules
01 Why plan backwards from a document?
Because on these routes the paperwork gates the clearance rather than following it. Work out when the governing document is realistically likely to exist and let that set the sailing, instead of booking a sailing and hoping the document keeps up.
02 What happens if the container arrives first?
It waits at the receiving end accruing storage and demurrage, and those charges are yours rather than the shipping line's or ours. On several of these corridors that is the largest avoidable cost in the whole move.
03 What if the dates genuinely cannot be aligned?
Hold the goods here. It is nearly always cheaper than holding them at the far end and the storage agreement is one you can read before signing. We will recommend it rather than let a container sail into a wait.
04 Can you speed the paperwork up?
The half that comes from the inventory, yes — we prepare that and it is finished before departure. The half attached to you as a person cannot be accelerated by a removals firm, an employer or a shipping line, and anybody saying otherwise is describing something they do not control.
05 Which countries do you cover?
France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Poland and Czechia by road; Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Kenya, South Africa, Chile, the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand by sea and air.
06 Do you advise on visas or tax?
No. Nothing on this site is immigration, tax or legal advice. Those questions belong with your employer's advisers or your own, and the country pages simply name which documents gate the shipping.
Where is it going?
Both addresses, roughly what is going, and where you are in the paperwork. We will build the schedule backwards from the document that heads it.