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I am relocating to the UK from the US, the moving company is telling me that certain items are not allowed through customs in a shipped container, but I cannot find any official information backing this up.

In particular they mentioned that you cannot bring food of any sorts, including dry spices. I have tried to check online, and it seems that spices are in fact allowed but I am not sure if that is only in the personal luggage so the question is:

Is there a different set of restrictions for goods that are shipped than for goods that are carried in the personal luggage? In this particular case, I am traveling from a non-EU country to the UK.

Dirty-flow
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David Rodríguez - dribeas
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1 Answers1

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You can Bring certain foodstuffs into the UK

The main information page for this is at https://www.gov.uk/moving-to-uk - which has a specific link indicating certain foodstuff is allowed. The page linked to is exactly the same page as for personal imports, and uses the same pamphlet.

In short, I your shipping company is just trying to avoid things being held up at customs and are playing it safe. They may have a good reason to do so; they have more experience than you at this, after all!

oskarpearson
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  • A few additional notes that I wish I'd known about this process: When you get here, you will need to fill out form C3 or form C88 if you are moving temporarily. – oskarpearson Jul 21 '15 at 22:09
  • You will probably need an "agent" (This may have changed in the last 6 years). They charge you in the region of £50-£75 to handle passing that form to the Border Force staff members. The shipping agent recommends one, in a no-doubt cosy deal. – oskarpearson Jul 21 '15 at 22:09
  • Also note that if your goods arrive before you do, they will sit in a storage area. You will be charged rent by the day for that storage area - which probably wasn't quoted to you up front. It's very expensive. So you need to have a place to stay and a place for your goods to be delivered to immediately. This might be a problem if you're planning to stay in a hotel for a few weeks while you find a place to rent. – oskarpearson Jul 21 '15 at 22:09
  • If you use a shipping company rather than a moving company, note that shipping is often not door-to-door and doesn't include delivery into the house. Our stuff was literally dumped on the pavement, and I had to nailed-together-wooden-boxes in the wind and rain. And it had polystyrene packing material in it. – oskarpearson Jul 21 '15 at 22:10
  • Also, if you use a shipping company rather than a moving company, shipping dates are non flexible, so you need to be able to take time off work to accept the shipment. These aren't your normal DHL-type groups - your goods may arrive on a huge truck at the time that suits them! – oskarpearson Jul 21 '15 at 22:10