An international move is three separate things happening in sequence: a domestic move to the port, an ocean or air shipment, and a customs clearance and delivery at the other end. Each is governed by different rules, and the paperwork between them is where most delays occur.
None of it is especially complicated. It is simply unfamiliar, and the lead times are long enough that mistakes are expensive to correct.
Check your shipping agent is licensed
Start here, because it is quick and it eliminates the worst outcomes.
Companies arranging ocean shipments for the public — freight forwarders and NVOCCs, collectively ocean transportation intermediaries — must be licensed by the Federal Maritime Commission under 46 CFR Part 515. The FMC publishes the list, and you can search any company by name:
- FMC licensed OTI list — confirms the company is authorised to arrange ocean transport
- FMCSA registered mover database — for the domestic leg to the port
Ask directly who holds the FMC licence for your shipment. If the mover is working with a licensed partner rather than holding the licence itself, that is normal — but you should be told who it is.
Choose how your shipment travels
Four options, and the right one depends on volume and urgency far more than on destination.
| Method | Best for | Typical transit |
|---|---|---|
| FCL (full container) | A house of furniture; 20ft or 40ft exclusive to you | Fastest sea option; no consolidation wait |
| LCL (shared container) | A flat or part household | Slower — waits for consolidation at both ends |
| Air freight | Essentials and urgent items | Days rather than weeks; several times the cost |
| Air + sea combined | Most moves, in practice | Essentials fly, the rest follows by sea |
The combined approach is what most people end up doing, and it is worth planning deliberately rather than by accident. Decide early what you genuinely need in the first month and send it by air; everything else goes on the water.
A 20ft container holds roughly the contents of a two to three bedroom home; a 40ft container roughly a four to five bedroom home. If you are close to filling a 20ft, FCL often costs little more than LCL and moves considerably faster, because LCL waits for other shipments to fill the box at both ends.
Understand the real timeline
Transit time is the number people focus on and the smallest part of the total.
A realistic sequence: survey and quotation, then packing and collection, then a wait for the sailing, then the ocean transit itself, then customs clearance at destination, then final delivery. Door to door, most sea shipments run somewhere between six and twelve weeks depending on route and whether the container is shared.
Two stages routinely take longer than expected and neither is the voyage: consolidation on LCL shipments, and customs clearance at destination. Build slack around both, and never plan to arrive at an empty home on the assumption the container lands on schedule.
The paperwork
Requirements vary by destination, but a common core applies almost everywhere.
A detailed inventory. Every carton listed with its contents and value. Customs authorities use it to assess duty, and vague descriptions invite inspection. "Household goods" as a line item is how shipments get opened.
Passport and visa or residence documentation. Most countries grant duty relief on household effects only to people establishing residence, and they want proof.
Proof of residence at both ends. Evidence you lived abroad and are now settling at the destination.
Destination customs declaration. Each country has its own. For anyone shipping household goods into the United States — including US citizens returning from abroad — that is CBP Form 3299, the Declaration for Free Entry of Unaccompanied Articles.
Duty relief on personal effects usually depends on having owned and used the items for a qualifying period before the move, and on importing them within a set window of your arrival. Both vary by country, and both are worth confirming before you ship rather than after.
What not to ship
Beyond the obvious prohibitions, several categories cause disproportionate trouble:
- Food. Most countries restrict or prohibit it outright. Not worth the inspection.
- Plants, seeds and soil. Near-universally prohibited without phytosanitary certification.
- Wooden items with bark, and untreated timber. Quarantine risk; Australia and New Zealand are particularly strict.
- Alcohol. Dutiable almost everywhere and often excluded from household goods relief.
- Firearms and ammunition. Separate licensing regimes; never in a household shipment.
- Hazardous materials. Aerosols, paint, solvents, fuel, batteries — the same list as any domestic move.
- Medication. Carry it, with prescriptions. Several countries control substances that are routine in the US.
Clean garden tools, outdoor furniture and bicycles thoroughly before packing. Soil residue is one of the most common causes of quarantine inspection, and inspection costs time and money.
Electrical items are often not worth shipping
Much of the world runs on 220–240V at 50Hz; the US runs on 120V at 60Hz. Transformers handle voltage but not frequency, so motors and timers run at the wrong speed.
Washing machines, dryers, refrigerators and most kitchen appliances are generally not worth shipping. Televisions may not receive local broadcast standards. Computers, phones and most modern chargers are dual-voltage and travel fine — check the label, which states the input range.
Given that sea freight is priced by volume, leaving large appliances behind frequently pays for a meaningful share of the shipment.
Insurance, not valuation
This is the most important difference from a domestic move.
Domestic moves are covered by carrier valuation — on US interstate moves, either Full Value Protection or Released Value at 60 cents per pound. International shipments are covered by marine cargo insurance, which is a separate product and is purchased on a declared-value basis.
That means you prepare a valued inventory: each item listed with a replacement value, totalling the sum insured. It takes an afternoon and it is the document that determines what you recover. Understand whether the cover is all-risk or restricted to named perils, what the deductible is, and whether it covers the full door-to-door journey including the domestic legs at both ends.
Photograph everything of value before packing.
Before the container is sealed
- Confirm the destination address, and a destination contact who will answer the phone.
- Keep passports, certificates, medical records and the shipment paperwork with you — never in the container.
- Keep a copy of the inventory separately from the shipment.
- Confirm who pays destination charges, port fees and any customs duty, and get it in writing. Unexpected destination charges are the most common complaint in international moving.
- Check whether your destination property can physically take a container — many urban addresses cannot, requiring a shuttle transfer that should be priced in advance, not discovered on the day.
Sources: Federal Maritime Commission, licensed OTI list · 46 CFR Part 515, OTI licensing · US Customs and Border Protection, Form 3299