Belgian customs asks where your things are coming from before it asks anything else. Here is what it requires from outside the EU, and what it does not ask from inside it.
A few short questions. Nothing is sent until you check and confirm.
It depends first on where your things are coming from. From another EU country, Belgium’s Federal Public Service Finance (FPS Finance), on its page on moving to Belgium (opens in a new window), says you “do not need to declare your personal goods or effects to customs”. From outside the EU you must make a declaration to customs, and if you want to bring your belongings in without paying tax or duty you must apply for an exemption.
A move from Great Britain is a move from outside the EU: FPS Finance’s page on goods from non-EU countries (opens in a new window) calls the United Kingdom a third country for travellers and says Northern Ireland remains part of the EU’s taxation and customs territory. That page is about luggage, not removals, and the moving pages we read don’t mention the UK, so if you are moving from Northern Ireland, ask customs how your move is treated.
We’re an introduction service, not a mover. One company from our partner network takes your details and checks its coverage. It will say what it needs from you, and when. Whether the exemption applies is for Belgian customs to decide, on your evidence.
Everything here concerns what happens on arrival in Belgium. The departure side, meaning who files the export declaration and which goods are checked before they leave, is in our UK customs documentation checklist. The visa, the crossing and lorry rules, and registration with your commune are in our page on moving to Belgium from the UK. The customs steps for moving back from Belgium are in our page on moving from Belgium to the UK. Rules that depend on the Belgian region or municipality you settle in are not covered here.
FPS Finance lists the conditions on its Moving to Belgium page, and a second page, on moving from a non-EU country to Belgium (opens in a new window), gives them in longer form. The tests themselves are EU-wide: Council Regulation (EC) No 1186/2009 sets them in Articles 4 to 9 (opens in a new window) (read on the legislation.gov.uk copy, because EUR-Lex could not be opened), and in places the regulation allows exceptions where the Belgian pages state a flat rule. That is why the tests alone don’t set Belgium apart. The Belgian parts are the wording of its pages, who decides, the deposit and the list of belongings, which the later sections cover.
You are moving from a non-EU country to Belgium and transferring your normal place of residence there, having kept it outside the EU for at least 12 consecutive months. Article 5(2) of the regulation allows exceptions for someone who clearly meant to live outside the Union for a continuous 12 months. The Belgian pages describe no such case, so put the question to customs before you plan around one.
The Moving to Belgium page says you must have “possessed (not owned) and used” the goods for at least six months, and the other FPS Finance page says they must have been in your possession at your former normal place of residence for that long. As Belgium words it, the test is possession, not ownership. Under Article 4(a) of the regulation, use matters only for goods that are not used up, and the six months can be waived in special cases justified by the circumstances. The Belgian pages name no special case.
The Moving to Belgium page says you have used the goods and will use them again. The other page says they must be intended for the same purpose at your new normal place of residence, and that you will keep them for twelve months after import.
You import the goods within 12 months from the date on which you transferred your normal place of residence to Belgium. You may ship in more than one load: the Belgian pages don’t mention consignments, but Article 7(2) of the regulation lets the goods be released in several separate consignments inside that period. Article 7(1) allows relief after the 12 months only “in special cases”, which the Belgian pages don’t describe.
The conditions, as the Belgian pages list them, turn on where you have lived, what you have used and when the goods arrive. Your right to live in Belgium at all is a separate, immigration question: the GOV.UK guidance Living in Belgium (opens in a new window) says to check which visa or residence permit you need (last updated 11 December 2025).
FPS Finance says the local head of customs at the customs office of import is, in principle, competent to grant the exemption for personal goods other than motor vehicles. For cars and their trailers, motorbikes with an engine over 50 cc, motor caravans, pleasure boats, tourist aircraft and some other personal property, the decision goes to the director of the regional customs and excise centre, which the Moving to Belgium page says is the director for the area where you settle.
One English page calls that centre local, where the French page and the Moving to Belgium page call it regional, so ask which office will handle your case. FPS Finance also says the customs formalities for importation have to be completed during the opening days and hours of the offices, so allow for that when your goods are due to arrive.
The two FPS Finance pages don’t name a document list. The Belgian circular on this relief, Circulaire 2019/C/20, does, and the European Commission publishes the wording Belgium sets out for it, in a French-language document of Belgium’s national special mentions for customs declarations (opens in a new window) (status at 17 November 2021). We could not open the circular itself, so what follows is that 2021 wording. Your customs office will say whether it has changed.
Each item is described under its usual name, with its value, and the total value is given. The items are numbered in an unbroken series, and the blank space after each item is struck through so that anything added later would show.
attached to the request for the exemption.
It says the list is complete and that you possessed the goods at your last normal residence for at least six months and, for goods that are not used up, used them there. It says you will use them in the same way, gives the date you left that residence, says that residence was outside the EU for at least twelve consecutive months, and gives the date you establish your new residence in Belgium.
the goods must be imported and declared within twelve months of establishing your residence, and for twelve months after customs accepts the declaration they can’t be lent, pledged, hired out or transferred without telling customs first.
You certify that the list is accurate and give the number of items, and you acknowledge that relief can’t be granted for personal objects, motor vehicles included, that are not on the list. It also says whether the import will take place in one go or in several.
The same wording has a route for a general rule you can’t meet because of special circumstances. You replace the statement with a note of the condition that is not met and say you will present a written, signed declaration to customs, citing Articles 4(a), 5 and 7 of what it calls the FD regulation, which match Regulation 1186/2009’s numbering, for those rules.
If you are a Belgian national returning from the UK, there is one more document to know about. The Belgian consulate’s page Returning to Belgium (opens in a new window) (last updated 22 December 2025) is addressed to Belgians in the UK. It says that if you need proof of residence, for example to avoid paying “border tax” on your personal belongings, you can ask the Consulate for an attestation of residence before registering at your new town hall in Belgium. It adds that the Consulate does not provide an attestation of deregistration.
FPS Finance says the relief can be granted before you establish your normal place of residence in Belgium. In that case you “must undertake to establish your normal place of residence here within a period of six months”, and the page adds that this commitment “requires the payment of a security deposit”. It gives no amount. Article 9(1) of the regulation leaves the form and amount of the security to the competent authorities, so ask the customs office what it will set before the goods ship. Article 9(2) adds that, on this route, the six-month possession period is calculated from the date the goods are brought into the EU customs territory.
The twelve months to import still run from the date you establish your residence, so anything left behind, in storage for example, is on the same clock. If the move will be split into loads, tell your removal company early.
For twelve months after import you may not lend, pledge, rent out or transfer the goods without notifying customs in advance, FPS Finance says. If you do so without being able to justify it, “the customs administration will revoke the relief” and you will still have to pay the import duties. Article 8(2) of the regulation, in the copy we could read, says any loan, giving as security, hiring out or transfer inside the period entails payment of the relevant import duties, and the Belgian page doesn’t say what would count as being able to justify it. A sale, a loan or a hire arrangement in your first year is something to raise with customs beforehand.
The sources word the start of that year in three ways. One FPS Finance page counts it from the customs declaration of duty-free importation, the Moving to Belgium page from the import date, and Article 8 from the date the entry for free circulation was accepted. Ask customs which date it will apply to your goods. In the 2021 wording the advance notice goes to the customs control service for the area of your normal residence.
The two FPS Finance pages also word the restriction itself differently. The Moving to Belgium page says the goods “must not be lent, pledged, hired out or sold” within 12 months of the import date, with no mention of telling customs first. The page on moving from a non-EU country bars lending, pledging, renting out or transfer without notifying customs in advance.
The exemption does not apply to alcoholic drinks, tobacco and tobacco products, company vehicles or equipment used for professional purposes, FPS Finance says. Article 6 of the regulation words the last as articles for use in a trade or profession “other than portable instruments of the applied or liberal arts”, an exception the Belgian page doesn’t mention, so ask about the tools of your trade if they are portable.
These are among the goods the regional director decides on, as above. The exemption is one step and registering a vehicle in Belgium is a separate procedure, which this page leaves out. For how cars travel, see our guide to shipping a car when moving abroad.
Pets have rules of their own. The food chain safety agency, FASFC (opens in a new window), says on its page for travelling to Belgium with a pet (shown as last updated 10/09/2026) that for a pet coming from a non-EU country the animal health certificate must be issued no more than ten days before the date of arrival. The page is divided by where the pet is coming from and why it is travelling, and it doesn’t name the United Kingdom, so read the section that fits your pet. Our pet relocation to Belgium page reads the section for a pet from Great Britain. The general picture of taking a pet abroad is in our guide to moving abroad with a pet.
The FPS Finance page on liquid assets (opens in a new window) says that cash, bearer-negotiable instruments and certain types of gold worth 10,000 euros or more that you carry with you must be declared to customs. It also covers unaccompanied cash of that size sent in postal packages or courier shipments, and it doesn’t mention removals, so ask before packing any cash in a shipment.
For moves from within the EU, FPS Finance lists excise goods, vehicles, pets, cultural goods and prohibited goods as subjects with rules of their own. This page doesn’t set out Belgium’s rules for excise goods, cultural goods or prohibited goods. If any of those might be in your load, say so in your first enquiry.
Registering your address with the Belgian municipality is a separate step from customs, and the official pages don’t agree on the time limit. The Federal Public Service Mobility and Transport says, on its page on moving to Belgium with your own vehicle from an EU country (opens in a new window) (changed 4 December 2025), that you register in the population registers of a Belgian municipality “within 8 days of moving to Belgium”. FPS Home Affairs, on its page about the registration and reporting obligation (opens in a new window), says for longer stays that you must register with the municipality “within three months of arriving in Belgium”. The page is written for EU citizens and their family members.
Neither the Mobility and Transport page nor the FPS Home Affairs page mentions the United Kingdom, and neither is about the customs relief for household goods. The consulate page for returning Belgians, mentioned above, also says you “will need to register with a Belgian commune within 8 days of your arrival”. The GOV.UK guidance says that once you arrive you need to register your residency in Belgium.
For a UK citizen who holds a D visa, the Immigration Office says you must report to the municipal administration within 8 days of arriving; our page on moving to Belgium from the UK sets that out. The three-month limit is the one written for EU citizens. If your status is different, ask the municipality which limit applies to you.
The customs pages we read count from the date on which you “transferred your normal place of residence in Belgium” without saying which document proves that date, so ask the customs office what it will accept.
will tell you what it needs from you and when. Ask it who deals with the customs office, and get that, and any charge for customs work, in writing with the quotation.
supply the dates and the list. The statement at the head of the list is made in your name, so the dates you lived outside the EU and the date you establish your residence in Belgium have to be right.
decides whether the exemption applies, through the local head of customs at the customs office of import or, for vehicles and some other goods, the regional director, and can revoke it if the restrictions are broken.
Our international moving checklist puts the customs tasks in order, and our guide to what international removals cost shows where a charge for customs work might appear in a quotation.
Not for personal goods or effects.
FPS Finance’s page says the free movement of goods applies within the EU, so you do not need to declare them to customs. Rules still apply to excise goods, vehicles, pets, cultural goods and prohibited goods, so ask about those.
It can, but you have to apply for the exemption.
FPS Finance lists a year of residence outside the EU, six months of possession and use, import within 12 months of transferring your residence, and no lending, pledging, hiring out or transfer for 12 months after import. Customs decides; EU law allows some exceptions.
FPS Finance says possession, not ownership.
The Moving to Belgium page says you must have possessed (not owned) and used the goods for at least six months. If you are unsure about an item, ask customs before it ships.
It can.
FPS Finance says the relief can be granted before you establish your residence in Belgium if you undertake to do so within six months, and that the commitment requires a security deposit. The pages give no amount, so ask the customs office.
For 12 months after import you may not lend, pledge, rent out or transfer the goods without notifying customs in advance.
FPS Finance says that if you do so without being able to justify it, the customs administration will revoke the relief and you will still have to pay the import duties.
No.
FPS Finance lists alcoholic drinks, and tobacco and tobacco products, among the goods the exemption does not apply to. The pages we read don’t say how Belgium treats them when they arrive in a removal, so ask customs before you pack them and mention them in your enquiry.
Whether it does is decided by the director of the regional customs and excise centre (one English FPS Finance page calls it local) for the area where you settle, not the local customs office.
Company vehicles are excluded. Ask that centre whether your car qualifies. Registering the car in Belgium is a separate procedure.
Start with your UK postcode and the Belgian town you are moving to. Add the date Belgium becomes your main home and whether some of your things will travel before you or after. If a car, a pet or any alcohol is coming too, say so, so the customs side can be planned alongside the transport.
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