UK to Vietnam
Removals to Vietnam
A growing corridor with a document-led schedule. The work permit and the temporary residence card that follows it are what allow a household shipment to clear, and both take longer than anybody plans for.
Book the shipping around the permit. Booking the permit around the shipping is how containers end up waiting.
Who moves this way
- People relocating to Ho Chi Minh City or Hanoi for work, in manufacturing, education, technology or professional services.
- Teachers and academics on fixed-term contracts, usually with modest consignments.
- Families joining a partner already in post, frequently into company-arranged housing.
How the goods travel
By sea in a container to Hai Phong, Ho Chi Minh City or Da Nang, or by air for a small urgent consignment. There is no road option and the clearance is where the planning goes.
From the port of arrival, onward delivery is well organised on good roads. City access is the constraint rather than the distance: narrow lanes, alley addresses and apartment towers with their own procedures.
Where we deliver
Customs, and who obtains what
Vietnam permits the import of used household effects by a person holding a valid work permit and temporary residence card, against a detailed inventory. The documents are the schedule. The controlled list is real, particularly for printed material and certain electronics, and a vague inventory invites inspection.
The file, split in two
| Document | Obtained by | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Detailed valued inventory | Us | Item by item with values, translated where required. Vague descriptions cause inspections. |
| Work permit | You | Heads the schedule. The temporary residence card follows from it and both take real time. |
| Temporary residence card | You | Issued after the permit. The clearance depends on it. |
| Passport and entry evidence | You | Including your own arrival, which the declaration references. |
| Proof of the Vietnamese address | You | Lease documentation for the property you are moving into. |
| Export and import entries | Us | Lodged by us or our appointed agent against the inventory. |
Rows marked You attach to you as a person and cannot be obtained on your behalf — they are the items that set the schedule. Rows marked Us are built here from the inventory taken at the survey.
The permit, the alley and the lift
Start with the permit. Everything that allows a household shipment to clear Vietnamese customs descends from the work permit and the temporary residence card that follows it, and neither is quick. A container booked to suit a start date rather than a permit date is a container that waits.
So the sequence we recommend is: begin the permit, get a realistic view of when the residence card will follow, and set the sailing against that. If the gap is long, hold the goods here — it is cheaper than holding them at a Vietnamese port and the agreement is one you can read.
Then the address. A great deal of Vietnamese city housing sits down hem — narrow alleys running back from the main road, sometimes too narrow for anything larger than a motorbike. A full-size vehicle does not enter, and the plan is a legal standing point on the main road with a shuttle in by hand or by small vehicle.
Send a photograph of the approach from the main road looking in, and a measurement of the narrowest point if you can reach it. It is two minutes and it settles the vehicle question before anybody arrives.
And the towers. Apartment blocks in both major cities run on management offices, booked service lifts and defined move-in windows, with the lift car and the lift door opening being two different numbers. Send the building name early. Nothing on this page is immigration, tax or legal advice.
the UK to Vietnam
Questions on this route
01 What sits at the head of the schedule?
The work permit, and then the temporary residence card that follows from it. The clearance depends on both and neither can be hurried by a removals firm.
02 What if the permit is delayed?
Hold the goods here rather than at a Vietnamese port. It is cheaper and the storage agreement is one you can actually read before signing.
03 Our address is down a narrow alley.
Common, and entirely workable once it is known. We stand legally on the main road and shuttle in. Send a photograph from the road looking in and the narrowest measurement if you can get it.
04 What do apartment towers require?
A booking with the management office, a service-lift window and often a deposit against damage to common areas. Measure the lift car and the lift door opening separately.
05 How detailed must the inventory be?
Item by item with values. Vague descriptions invite inspection, and inspection costs time at a port where your goods are accruing charges.
06 Should we ship appliances?
Vietnam runs the continental plug standard and a different voltage from the UK. Small items with adaptors are manageable; large appliances rarely repay their container space.
Moving to Vietnam?
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.