Shipping furniture from California

Hello
I am from Ontario Canada, recently I bought 2 apartments on the Silver Coast, my first apartment I furnished by buying in Portugal, prices I would say are comparable to Canada., for my next apartment where I intend to live I am bringing from Canada a container, we are retirement age, so older than you, the reason why we are bringing household content is because 40 years is lots of memories and I want to keep these memories, I don’t think it is necessary cheaper or hassle free, it’s just because I want memories of my life, so new stuff just does not give me those memories.  I must admit I have been thinking a lot about how easy it would be just buying everything there.
Am curious to read about other people experiences, what did they do.  Shipping is not cheap….
Judite

Sorry just one question

Why Portugal ( Lisbon)?????

We love Portugal and are looking for a plan B from the US.
In California we are dealing with a drought, fires and crazy politicians.

ggriffin,
I don't have a recommendation of moving companies.  My experience has been start fresh.  Definitely, start fresh.

We have moved several times between the US and other countries (US->Brazil->Argentina->Brazil->US).  We took the minimalist approach and started fresh.

We plan to move from Florida to Porto asap and again will take the minimalist approach, a few suitcases, a dog crate, and laptop.   Our dog has more flight miles than most Americans.

We are going to sell or donate everything, save the proceeds and buy the minimum that we need there.

No matter what, enjoy the adventure and perhaps enjoy being set free from your possessions.  Good luck!

Yes you sure have had your fair share of stuff in California and I understand cost of living is also crazy in California.

I don’t know how expensive it is to ship from USA but from Canada to Portugal a 20 foot container is just over $7,000 and a 40 foot slightly more. 

I am taking my stuff because I want memories but if that is not your thing you can buy in Portugal everything you can buy in The USA you you can buy in Portugal, I think for you because you have so many options of where to buy it might be higher price, the USA is really geared to consumers but you have to factor in the cost and hassle of shipping.  Also the thing that most worries me is furniture to scale.  I have always had fairly large homes, now I am going to an apartment and concerned about the scale of my furniture versus buying in Portugal to scale.

We haven't purchased yet but I did research shipping costs and found the to be to costly AND we weren't happy with the 6 to 8 week shipping time. We've decided to just pack what we can in several suitcases and purchase the rest there.

We recently packed up our things in 6 suitcases and a dog crate and sold, gifted, donated all our belongings and moved to Portugal. Liberated from all our things, and starting fresh in Portugal. Pretty happy about it!

I am also moving there from California. I plan to ship everything. The Furnishings cost a lot more in Portugal and do not have the variety that we have in the United States.

Don't forget to plan for the electricity differences. Our appliances, like refrigerators, are also larger, and much cheaper in the U.S. Think about it this way- if your house burned down, how much is your replacement cost to the insurance company.

More than likely  it is worth it to ship everything. Plus, like someone else mentioned, you are not just bringing furniture. You have all of your lifetime of things that do not fit in a suitcase. Plus, if you are shipping a car, and shipping it in the container, as well.

If you want your new life be like your old life, DON'T MOVE.

Otherwise, you have missed the point of moving to a new country.

It's an adventure, an opportunity to grow and experience new things.  Leave the old life behind.  Some people can do it, some can't.

"In the year 1519, Hernán Cortés arrived in the New World with six hundred men and, upon arrival, made history by destroying his ships. This sent a clear message to his men: There is no turning back."  We go forward!

@ggriffin:  Good luck with the move.  I hope it all goes well.  Shipping to Lisbon should be very easy.  It might take a month or perhaps longer especially if your household goods are LCL (Less than a Container Load) because they'll have to wait in the shipper's warehouse until they could be consolidated.  And it should be relatively cheap.  My guess is $6,000 - $7,000 and that would be for a door-to-door service, i.e. the shipper will do everything: pick up, transport, package, load, custom clearance, unload, transport, place inside your apartment.  Here is the tricky part.  The one document the shipper cannot get for you (although some shippers who specialize in shipping to Portugal can assist with this) is the so called "CERTIFICADO DE BAGAGEM" which you must have if you want to have your personal household good imported into Portugal tax-free.  Go to your local Consulate General of Portugal's website.  Under "CONSULAR SERVICES" or CONSULAR MATTERS (depending on translation) you will see a heading called "Luggage Certificate".  Click on that and follow the instructions.  It's a mail-in service and will cost you a few bucks (probably around $30), and it might take several weeks.  PLEASE NOTE:  1) that the consulate will ask you to send them copies of your "CITIZEN CARD" or Portuguese passport, or some other document that is issued to Portuguese citizens only.  If you do not have any of those, just send them a copy of your deed (title of ownership of the apartment); the idea is that if you own real estate you should qualify for "CERTIFICATE DE BAGAGEM", 2)  that you must show that you have lived in the USA for the last six months and that you have owned all those goods for more than 6 months, and 3) that you must draft an itemized list of ALL goods that you are shipping, and 4) THAT YOU MUST BE PRESENT IN PORTUGAL WHEN YOUR GOODS ARRIVE (you do not have to go pick them up at the port, anybody can do that, you just have to be in the country!) Portugal is a beautiful country, but the bureaucracy is something else. Finally, if you cannot obtain all necessary paperwork that will allow you to import personal goods tax-free, but still want to ship some personal goods to Portugal, you will be taxed.  Custom duties are not that big, probably around 5% (it depends on which category your goods fall in) and, in all cases, you will pay "Value Added Tax" which is a whooping 23% of the value of the goods that you are importing.  I must stop here because it will be two more pages if we are to go into how Customs officials determine the value of used personal goods especially if you have no receipts.  It's all doable, you just have to go through the motions.  Best of luck.

Just to add to Kyril's valuable input:

Importing Personal Goods:

https://www.expat.com/forum/viewtopic.p … 16#5064099
(Post #3 & 4)

We arrived in Tavira, Portugal two weeks ago. And yes, we are very pleased.   We elected to bring some household goods and I expect our shipment will arrive in 6-8 weeks.
I am afraid I misunderstood the many explanations I read about the
Baggage Certificate.  I thought we applied for it once we were here.  Everything I read now indicates we should have done it before leaving California. 
Does anyone know if it can be done somehow in Tavira or if I can contact the Portuguese Consulate in San Francisco despite already having arrived here?

Hi,

I guess it all depends upon how much stuff you have that you like. We have been expats since 2001 and collected lots of things travelling via Austria, Australia, New Zealand, North Africa and the Middle East. We always moved with a 20ft container. Some people might want to move without furniture (but with the personal and household things and paintings and you name it). Others again only with personal things.

There are good international relocation companies around and they all have a partner in Portugal. We had Galamas, which did a very good job. They also did all the customs processes, which was excellent.

Cheers

Thank you for taking the time to send this valuable information.  This is extremely helpful and I’m sure it will save us a lot of time and headaches.

It's probably cheaper to get rid of everything and buy new since it can get expensive shipping internationally. Having said that, we had a few things shipped over from the states and had a good experience with Three Men & A Truck. It wasn't cheap, but it was worth it to keep a few items that were important to us.

Hello I would first say that some of the information below is not correct.  We just shipped our belongings from Nevada using RSS LLC which I would never use again due to the fact that they didn’t help with the details of the baggage and residence certificate needed as well as refused to be honest in the quote etc etc. We just got our items  here in a 20 ft container which we went and viewed before selecting that size. We did all of the paperwork ourselves and it’s very doable.  If you decide to do this you do not have to be present in the US in order to obtain the baggage certificate per our attorney  and you don’t have to have a deed in order to obtain one.  We had our lease and our temporary visas and that was fine. I will say that there can be only one person’s name on these certificates  so make sure you get all of them in one name, either you or your spouse because they won’t except it even though your married. A huge detail that we were never told of and cost us about two and half more weeks was the fact that if you use a broker to get your NIF, you better make sure that you register your lease and your number with the tax office and in our case we had to pay an attorney here €125 to help with it because the tax office wouldn’t work with us so once that was done our items were released.  That company hired an outside vendor who then hired another outside vendor and we paid $1500 to have our items unloaded and delivered into our home but that never happened. Our stuff was put onto the sidewalk and we ended up helping and paying an additional €500 to the father and son who helped us bring the heavy stuff up the stairs. That’s been the worse experience for us but I think if you get a moving company who knows what they are doing and the timeline then you’ll be okay. Also one more important tip, take photos of your electronics and any other items that have serial numbers because you have yo have this listed.  Our shipping company didn’t provide us with any forms to fill out so I had to look up the volume  for everything and try to remember the models of our TVs and computer etc so just make sure to get the models and serial numbers and make sure to keep a compete inventory list so it will be easier for you.  They didn’t charge us for our things including the wine we brought but did ask what the alcohol percentage was- sure was nice to sleep in our CA king bed!!!  We ended up paying about $8000 total including the additional charges here but I’ve asked for the $1500 back but I am not holding my breath.  Hope this helps

We shipped a container load of furniture from Oakland to Lisbon last year.  It took about 1 month to arrive.  We had a international carrier handle the transaction.   The shipment will be on hold until your get papers from the S.F. Portugal Embassy which is a list of items shipped.  The item list will be presented to you by the freight forwarder.   We believe it is cheaper to ship than to buy here - better selections and less cost.  There is a rule that states your should own the items for at least 1 year before shipping here.   BTW,  the tax rate for most household items is 23 %.

Good Luck.

Hi Dan,
I like to ship a boat (28feet) from FL to Lisbon.
Can you sad how much about you pay for the 40 feet container.
Reg,
Chris

@Edwinholder Where on the Silver Coast are you going to be living?  My wife and I have purchased an apartment in Caldas da Rainha on the Silver Coast.  We will actually be moving nextd March after we have sold our home in Tampa. 

We have not picked out place yet but in will be in Caldas or surrounding area. We have children so are interested in the schools in the area both private and public. Will be going in March and hopefully visiting schools. We are from Houston and cannot wait to get out of Texas.

@KYRIL D. From Hans Faulstich: Dear Kyril D. it’s already a while ago that you made these comments but anyway it’s interesting for me because we are preparing our move from Florida to Portugal, Ericeira/Mafra area. Month of March we spend our time researching the area from Nazare till Ericeira/Mafra. I got already my NIF and opened a Bank-Account.

When we move, first we will rent an Apartment for several month before we buy an Apartment.

I am really interested in your experience because that’s exactly what we will do. We will move without big furniture. We will take something from the kitchen/personal service (Porzellan). From the office, our laptops with 4 bigger monitors (work for 220V/50Hz) and a desk. Also, clothes, shoes etc.. I don’t take my car. I would appreciate it if you could share with me more of your experience.

Kind regards, Hans

@Edwinholder

what was the route? Truck,  train, ship? how long did it take? how much was quote accurate? would you recommend the company you used? what would you do different? We want 20 foot container  we are in Wisconsin  how much was it? our end point is Madeira so an extra blip in the plan  to canical port 

@Edwinholder oh little iver $7,000 to ehere? lisbon or? where from in canada? thank you  7,000 is better than 27,000+ i was quited 😡

@nz7521137

how much was it? 20 foot container? where to where? how long was route? any issues?

@Hans43

Hello and welcome on board !

I would suggest that you open a new thread on the Portugal forum for each question you have so that members can properly guide you.

In regards to professionals you are looking for, feel free to have a look at our partners registered in the Services section : https://www.expat.com/en/services/europe/portugal/

All the best

Bhavna

@mikecaseyreno dang thats a nightmare 

Also the thing that most worries me is furniture to scale.  I have always had fairly large homes, now I am going to an apartment and concerned about the scale of my furniture versus buying in Portugal to scale.
   

That is definitely an issue. We always moved with a 20 ft container and we took what we liked and fit into the container. If you already know your new home in Portugal then you can just analyze the floor plan and only take stuff that will fit.

@elizabethkunstler  Elizabeth, did you move from the USA? 

hello all...just came across this thread and thought I'd add our experience, having moved about three years ago from the US. 

When we moved to Lisbon, we ended up buying most of our furniture and electronics when we arrived.  We also decided to ship most of our more important personal items. This included a few pieces of furniture, art, and items which had more experiential memories tied to them.  The stuff we shipped took up about half a 20 foot container.

FYI....while this is aged a bit, I'm not sure how much prices would have increased (if at all). When we shipped out stuff, this was the latter part of covid and international shipping had sky-rocketed.  Below were our quotes we received:

20' Container - ~$10,000 total (included destination fees, port fees, full replacement liability insurance)

40' Container - ~$12,000 total (included destination fee, port fees, full replacement liability insurance)

The above quotes were "full service" from pick-up to drop-off, furniture disassembly/re-assembly, packing, boxes and supplies, the move, unpacking, material removal, and all international moving logistics.

We initially were going to book the 40' container as we originally intended to ship our car.  The price above for the 40' contain included the cost of shipping the automobile (to go into the container).

The shipping company was a US-based company that handled all the logistics, including working with a Lisbon-based company to coordinate and handle all import documentation.  The PT company advised us about a potential import tax for our car and was very open about the determination of the tax not being known until it was cleared by the PT import authorities at the time is was imported. They said the decision was 100% up to the person interpreting the date we "acquired" the car. 

NOTE: Our car issue was that since we owned the car for about three years, we had a car loan which was paid off about three months before we moved. The state we moved from issued us the clean title to the car once the loan was repaid early but the date of the title was only three months before we arrived.  While we had a bill of sale and purchase agreement from three years prior, the risk was that the import authority may focus on the date on the title and not the date of the purchase.  Out PT importer told us our issue was not uncommon in their experience and said there was no consistency on that tax decision.  We REALLY appreciated the importer's attention to detail and honestly and made the decision NOT to risk that added cost (the tax exposure was estimated at over 35K EURO) so we pivoted to the 20' container.