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If you're a St Lucian coming home to live after years abroad, you can bring your used household effects, and one vehicle, in free of customs duty. We connect you with one vetted partner who ships your home and works with a local broker on the concession. It's free to ask.
✅ The quick answer — We connect you with one vetted partner who ships your home and helps with the concession. Free.
🏠 What's duty-free — Household and personal effects, new or used, enough to furnish your home.
🚚 One vehicle — Free of duty up to a CIF value of US$30,000 (about EC$81,507).
📅 Who qualifies — A St Lucian home to settle after ten years or more abroad.
📍 Where it clears — Port Castries, with a broker filing in ASYCUDA World.
The returning-nationals concession is for St Lucians, citizens by birth or descent, who have lived abroad continuously for at least ten years and are coming home to settle for good. An alien spouse of a St Lucian, coming to settle after ten years or more abroad, can qualify too. There's one catch worth knowing: if you stayed in St Lucia for more than six months on more than two occasions during those ten years, you lose eligibility. The concession is granted once only, per person, and the Customs and Excise Department makes the final decision after an interview. Your vetted partner and a local broker guide you through it.
You can bring in household and personal effects, new or used, enough to furnish your family home, free of customs duty. For used items the rule of thumb is that you've owned and used them for more than a year, they aren't for sale or exchange, and they arrive within about three months of you taking up residence. Tools of your trade are included on the same basis. You can also bring in one motor vehicle free of duty, as long as its CIF value is no more than US$30,000 (about EC$81,507); anything above that is charged duty on the excess, and you can't sell the vehicle for three years.
A few things still cost. A customs service charge, currently around 6%, applies even on goods that come in duty-free. Brand-new furniture and household goods bought to bring over, and anything outside the concession, can attract duty and VAT at 12.5%. Firearms need a police permit. Your broker works out exactly what, if anything, is due.
You claim the concession after you arrive in St Lucia, and before your goods are cleared. It's done in person: you attend an interview at the Returning Residents Unit of the Customs and Excise Department on Jeremie Street in Castries, bringing your valid St Lucian passport, documentary evidence that you've lived abroad for ten years or more, proof that you mean to settle, and a detailed inventory in English, with serial numbers for electrical items. A licensed broker files the customs entry in ASYCUDA World. Customs may hold a security deposit pending examination of your goods, refundable once cleared, and false declarations carry real penalties, so honesty pays. Your vetted partner times the shipping so your belongings aren't sitting at the port waiting on a form.
Most returning nationals ship a shared or full container, depending on how much they're bringing. Your partner packs and protects everything in the UK and clears it on arrival at Port Castries.
Shared or full 20ft and 40ft for part loads or a whole home.
A complete, door-to-door home move with packing and delivery.
Bring one vehicle in under the concession, up to a set value.
What a move costs, and how the concession saves you money.
Every area and service for moves to the island.
Moving home usually means moving money too, from settling a UK home to setting up on the island. The local currency is the East Caribbean dollar. For years we've connected customers with trusted partners who handle any currency, so you get a fair rate without the hassle. It's offered through our partners, with no hidden fees.
Coming home is a big move, and the concession paperwork matters. We connect you with one partner experienced in returning-national shipments to St Lucia, working with a local broker who knows the Customs and Excise process. For a full household move, partners hold FIDI FAIM accreditation, the global benchmark for international movers, with BAR Overseas the UK marker.
International Removals Companies isn't a shipper itself; we pass your enquiry to one vetted partner who does the work, free since November 2010, with more than 850,000 enquiries connected since. DATACONTEXT (UK) LTD, company 07425576, ICO ZB022743, Norman House, Saint Saviours Estate, Abbey Street, London, SE1 3DH. Working Member of AGM Group since 2010.
Tell us what you're bringing and roughly when, and one vetted partner comes back with a price, a sailing schedule and how the concession applies to you. No cost, no obligation.
Get my free quoteYour partner confirms every price, transit time, insurance and customs point before you book.
International Removals Companies is the official enquiry service for three FIDI FAIM and BAR Overseas certified international moving companies in AGM Group, members of IAM, EUROMOVERS and FEDEMAC. It's a free route-matching service, not a removal company, a man with a van or a house clearance service.
Use this page to send your St Lucia removal enquiry, then speak directly with the partner mover we connect you with before booking.