Shipping Household items to the DR

Once you have residency you can bring that in duty free. You still absorb shipping costs.  Get a quote from where you are to determine if it's worth it. Vehicle must be under 5 years old and you must own it at least 1 year.

Pretty much everything is available here. You need to come and look around at what's available.

Hey Planner,

I was just there last month for a whole week and tour around every part of Dominican republic landed in Punta Cuna, stayed 3 days drove from punta cuna to beautiful Sosua visited the CMC hospital tour a few properties in Ocean Village and with a local agent found a possible home in Sosua to rent the first year just trying to see if I need to by furniture and a small vehicle. I have a vehicle paid off that is less than five years old but if it will cost me more to ship my household items and car. I will leave my car here for when i come home and buy a small vehicle over there if it will cost me more or if it doesn't make since financially to ship stuff rather save and buy from the DR like a car and furniture.Personally from my point of view I would like to just use the furniture in the home until we look around and buy in the DR but the wife and I was discussing this and she feels she would like to have her bed that we paid a lot for and her vehicle. I tour the whole North and South side of the island and felt that Sosua is the place for my family for at least the first year.

So in your opinion move and see what all is there already and put all my stuff that I possibly may want to ship over in the future in storage util we have settled in and see if we need the things we have accumulated in  at home in storage?

I really don't like to give advice as it is very subjective and may or may not help you in your particular situation.  Firstly, it depends on where you are coming from and where you are going to in the DR.  What are your intentions for coming to DR. etc.  So, from my experience this is what I did:  I found a door to door shipper from Canada to the DR.  I didn't have to worry about duty or taxes or anything else, it was all included.  I put a value on each item and added a shipping cost to it (all my shipping was based on volume by the cubic foot, weight was irrelevant).  If I thought that first, I needed it, second,  I wanted it and third, I was saving money by shipping it rather than buying it in the DR, then off it went.  I sent almost my entire 3 bedroom home filling pretty much a container.  2 years later I can say it was well worth it.  For me, it was not worth shipping my car.  Even though I had a car that was in immaculate condition with low Km's and the shipping cost was below $2000 CDN dollars, there would have been about $4-5000 in duties, taxes, licensing etc. not to mention the hassle of it being shipped and arriving less a few very difficult to replace parts and probably some damage.  I chose to buy almost the same car here and I believe I made the best decision.  Residency in this country is quite controversial.  It may or may not be an issue in your case.  It will depend upon your intentions and circumstances.  I also think its well worth mentioning that moving here was a process that started some time before the actual move.  It involved many visits, sometimes as long as 2 months, the eventual purchase of a small apartment which we moved to to get us started with the eventual purchase of a house.  Finally, plan, plan, plan...but that's just me.

Good luck.

Good post.  It's difficult to know what someone else wants or needs.

Great post Mike and very good advice.

For us we shipped everything but when we did (over 10 years ago) you could not find much of what we needed here.

Bob K

Hello. So I could not bring a motorcycle that is older than five years?

If I got it right, it would be better to come with just the most important things to Dom. Rep. until you received the Residencia and then bring over the valuable items if you have some, right?

Is it really the case that you wont pay import duty's and custom fees in this case? I can hardly believe that.

I am anxious to see the answer to the motorcycle question as well. I have 2 mint condition bikes that are 10 years old...

With residencia you can ship a container of household goods and one vehicle. There are specific rules to follow and yes you save significant tax and duty.

As far as I have ever heard bikes are not allowed as.part of.this!  Check with Wilson Rood at [email protected] and he will confirm.

Hi Planner

So, if my wife is dominican, i assume i'll not have to wait for the residencia in order to ship my household tax free.

That is correct. And think hard about what to bring. Most things are readily available here. Shipping is not cheap!

Looking for some info....I am planning on renting for 6-8 months before buying a condo I will use about 6-8 months a year...Can i ship my Harley, plus limited household items (Computer, couple of tv's, some clothes, not much else) and what is the process?...I realize because i am not going for temporary residency there is duties involved,,,HELP fellow Canucks!

I'm watching too...Have a 2007 Dyna Low Rider with Samsons...Is My Baby !!!

For your computer, clothes, and anything else that will fit, pack your suitcases to maximum weight!

Anything shipped in with over $200 US in cumulative value is subject to import duty. On electronics, this can be as high as 40%.

I don't know the rules for importing motorcycles, but cars cannot be more than 5 years old.

Where are you in Canada?

I am going to retain Lishali Báez and she's going to handle my residency Visa. I am shipping a few things overseas in household goods. Will I still have to worry about import taxes on items over $200?

Yes you can ship your motorcycles. I am told the 5 year rule does not apply.

RutledgeParker wrote:

I am going to retain Lishali Báez and she's going to handle my residency Visa. I am shipping a few things overseas in household goods. Will I still have to worry about import taxes on items over $200?

Not if you import with residency! Just make sure you don't have a bunch of brand new items or duplicates of items that might be seen as being for resell.