Sacramento gives you a long ocean crossing and then a short, easy road leg inland, which is a friendlier combination than most inland cities offer.
We connect your enquiry with a vetted international moving company from our network covering the Central Valley, and they handle the shipping, the clearance and the delivery.
Goods clear at Oakland, roughly thirty one to thirty three days from the UK on published 2026 schedules, then travel around eighty miles north east to the Sacramento area.
Tell us about anything grown or wooden. Plants, potted items and untreated garden wood are worth raising before packing rather than at the border.
Your route gets checked. A moving company from the network confirms the Oakland sailing, the container option, the clearance and the run inland.
You deal with them directly. The written quote, the packing plan and the delivery arrangements all come from them.
Suburban houses with driveways make loading and unloading straightforward.
Older central neighbourhoods have narrower streets and mature trees limiting vehicle height.
Summer heat in the valley means crews start early.
Apartment complexes typically set loading times and require a lift booking.
Oakland handles container traffic for northern California, and Sacramento sits a straightforward drive inland from it. After a month at sea, the final stage is one of the easiest in this set.
That short road leg keeps Sacramento pricing close to the Bay Area rather than carrying the inland premium that cities further east attract.
Two sets of checks apply here rather than one. Federal customs allows household effects in free of duty where they were for your personal use, or used in a household where you were a resident, for a year, and are not intended for sale or for another person.
CBP Form 3299 supports that claim for goods arriving without you, with newer items declared separately and a ten year limit measured from your last arrival from the country where the goods were used. California then applies its own agricultural checks on plant material.
Leave plants behind, declare untreated wooden items, and confirm anything you are unsure of with CBP before the shipment is packed.
Before the inventory is finalised
The sailing to Oakland runs roughly thirty one to thirty three days on 2026 schedules, then a short road leg inland. Allow six to eight weeks door to door.
Oakland handles container traffic for northern California, and Sacramento is around eighty miles inland from there.
Barely. The sea leg is identical and the road stage inland is short, so the difference is small.
Plants are best left behind entirely, and untreated wooden garden items are worth declaring, because California applies checks beyond the federal customs process.
They qualify where they were for your own use, or used in a household where you were a resident, for one year, and are not intended for sale or for another person.
The declaration used to claim free entry for goods that arrive without you. It applies to every Sacramento shipment we connect, whatever size the move is.
For anything short of a full house, yes. You pay for the space your goods occupy rather than for the whole container.
On a month long crossing it is worth considering for the essentials, with the rest following by sea.
Nothing for the introduction. The moving company quotes you directly. It is worth confirming this at the survey stage of your Sacramento move.
Send the collection address, the Sacramento delivery address, your date, a rough inventory and a note of any garden or wooden items. A moving company from our network takes it from there.
Send your move detailsA Working Member of AGM Group. Enquiries are connected with vetted FIDI FAIM certified and BAR Overseas accredited international moving companies from the network.
We do not move anything ourselves. Your Sacramento move is handled and quoted by the moving company you are introduced to.
Written by Darren Benjamin, Founder.