Customs for Moving to France: Relief, Inventory and Cerfa 10070

French customs sets four tests for household goods. You have stayed in a third country for at least 12 months. The goods were in private use for at least six months before the transfer of residence. You import them within 12 months of that transfer. You then don’t sell, lend or hire them out for 12 months after they enter France. The sources word each test a little differently, as set out below.

The tests are written in Articles 3 to 11 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1186/2009. The consolidated text of 1 July 2026 (opens in a new window) marks the regulation’s only amendment, Regulation (EU) 2026/382, in a later chapter, not in those articles. French customs applies the regulation and adds detail in a customs bulletin, DA 22-009 (opens in a new window), dated 31 March 2022, which its page links. We found no later version, so ask customs which wording it applies.

The bulletin lists, as the normal contents of a home, furniture, crockery, household appliances, electronic equipment, tools, linen, jewellery, and works of art, collectables and antiques within existing prohibitions and restrictions. It also covers packing materials imported full and, if they meet the health and plant-health checks, houseplants and pets. Those checks are not set out here.

The customs page excludes alcoholic products, tobacco and tobacco products, commercial and mixed-use vehicles, transportable dwellings, professional equipment other than portable instruments of the mechanical or liberal arts, and stocks of raw materials and of worked or semi-worked products. Service-Public gives mobile homes, caravans and tiny houses as examples of transportable dwellings, and a stethoscope or musical instruments as small professional equipment that stays in.

Goods meant to furnish a second home no longer qualify, the customs page says. You must pay duty, VAT and any further tax on the whole move to that home, give customs the exact list of goods with their value, shown by invoices or an estimate agreed with the service, and customs invites you to produce the transport and insurance invoice for the move.

Service-Public warns that some goods need prior authorisation: works of art and cultural property, weapons and ammunition, animals, plants and medicines. The bulletin adds that duty relief doesn’t remove other import rules, such as those protecting health, the environment or cultural heritage. If you are moving antiques, our guide to fine art and antiques removals abroad covers the UK side and what to ask.

The customs page asks for a detailed, estimated, dated and signed inventory in two copies (inventaire détaillé, estimatif, daté et signé (en 2 exemplaires)). The bulletin says what it expects on it: a statement on honour that the items are in use and have belonged to you for at least six months, and for each item its kind, main features and an estimate, especially for valuables such as antique furniture, collectables, rugs, jewellery, paintings and audiovisual equipment. Customs may ask for purchase, repair or delivery invoices or insurance certificates. Our packing services guide explains how a mover’s inventory relates to your own.

The bulletin’s statement says the items belong to you. The same bulletin, citing a 2005 EU court ruling, says goods over which you had real and effective control can qualify whether or not you owned them. Ask customs how it wants an item you possess but don’t own to be listed.

Cerfa 10070 (opens in a new window) is the declaration of entry into France free of duty of personal property from third countries (edition *03, verified on Service-Public on 28 June 2022). Service-Public says you give it to customs officers when you enter France, with a document showing that you live in France and a full inventory. The bulletin says the form carries your commitment to pay the duties and taxes due if you give away, sell, hire out or pledge the goods within 12 months of their entering France.

You show two kinds of proof. For your residence in a third country, the bulletin accepts any official document from the place you left or any other convincing document, and names a certificate of change of residence showing your arrival abroad, a departure notice from the foreign police and an employment contract abroad. Service-Public says that before you leave you can ask the French consulate you come under for a certificate of change of residence, and doesn’t say who may ask, so check with the consulate.

For settling in France, the customs page accepts any document that shows the change of residence, such as a residence card. The bulletin lists a title deed, a lease or invoices in your name, plus a copy of an identity document for each family member who is moving and a signed statement on plain paper that customs will be told of any sale, loan, pledge or hire within 12 months. The customs page doesn’t list those two extras, so ask what your office wants. In return, customs gives you an endorsed copy of the inventory (un exemplaire visé).

The bulletin says the relief must be requested from customs before the goods are cleared, and that a customs declaration is compulsory even when no duty is due. For goods with no commercial character it can be made orally, but it must be made electronically if any of your goods are subject to prohibitions or restrictions. The head of the customs clearance office normally grants the relief, and you must be able to show at any time that the conditions are, and remain, met.

Service-Public describes two cases. If you bring the goods with you, by car or plane, you go to a customs office, where officers guide you through the declaration and tell you any duty due, which you can pay by cheque, bank card or cash. If the goods travel by container, customs officers make the declaration, electronically. It doesn’t describe goods arriving on a removal lorry, so ask your removal company and customs which route applies to you.

French customs runs an information service for individuals, Infos Douane Service. The customs page gives the number as 0 800 94 40 40 from France and +33 1 72 40 78 50 from abroad, with advisers available Monday to Friday, except public holidays, from 8.30am to 6pm. Service-Public (verified 19 November 2025) gives the same numbers.

French customs gives you 12 months from the transfer of your residence to bring the goods in (dans les 12 mois qui suivent la date du transfert de votre résidence). Service-Public counts from your settling in France, and the bulletin and Article 7 from the day you establish normal residence in the customs territory. The pages don’t say which document fixes that day. Ask customs which document it will take.

A move split across several shipments is allowed. The customs page and Service-Public both say the inventory handed over at the first import must list all the goods for which relief is claimed. The bulletin adds that you state, at the first import, your reservations about the rest arriving later, and that customs annotates and endorses the inventory (annoté et visé) at each import. Article 7(2) allows separate consignments inside the 12 months.

Goods you leave in a UK storage unit are imported later, so the 12-month window in Article 7(1) and on the customs page applies to them too. A split move therefore needs a complete first inventory and later loads that arrive in time, so tell your removal company early and keep your own copy of the inventory customs endorsed.

The customs page says you may not part with goods admitted duty-free (sale, hire, loan, pledge and so on) before 12 months from their date of entry into France. Service-Public words it as a commitment not to sell or rent them for one year after their entry. The bulletin counts the 12 months from the date customs accepts the declaration for free circulation, as Article 8 does, and says a loan, pledge, hire or transfer needs the customs service’s prior agreement. Article 8 says prior notification.

If you break the rule, Article 8(2) says the import duties become payable at the rate on the date of the loan, pledge, hire or transfer, on the customs value at that date. The bulletin says customs recovers duties and taxes if you stop meeting the conditions or if such an operation calls the relief into question. With several loads the three starting dates can differ, so ask customs which it will use for each, and raise any sale, loan or hire in your first year with customs beforehand.

This page covers household goods arriving in mainland France. A separate customs page, written for people coming from an EU country, covers settling in an overseas department (opens in a new window). For people who lived in Saint-Martin or Saint-Barthélemy, the customs page has its own note: neither duties, VAT nor dock dues are payable on those islands, so goods sent from them to another part of the EU customs territory are subject to the duties and taxes due.

The sources treat a private car as personal property under the same relief (Article 2(1)(c) of the regulation lists private motor vehicles, and Service-Public lists a personal vehicle among the goods concerned), with registration papers of its own that this page doesn’t set out. The UK departure side is in our UK customs documentation checklist: who files the export declaration and which goods need a check before they leave. The return move, from France to the UK, is a different task.

If you are leaving France for Great Britain and want the relief there, HMRC’s transfer of residence relief (opens in a new window) guidance puts the ToR1 application before shipping and the approval before any claim, so set your notice date and your shipping date with that order in mind.