A Zurich flat, a village in Valais, or the trip home again. All of it by road.
Switzerland is in Schengen, so you drive in without a passport check. Your furniture does not get the same treatment. Every household move clears Swiss customs at the frontier, even one that set off in France. Here is how the whole job works, from your door to your canton.
A move to Switzerland can be a few boxes into a Zurich flat, a full house into a village in Valais, or a return trip back to the UK after a contract ends. Here is how each of those works, what changes the price, and the one thing that catches most people out.
That one thing is the border. Switzerland is in Schengen, so you drive in without a passport check, and people assume the goods travel just as freely. They do not. Switzerland is not in the European Union and not in the EU customs union, so your household goods are cleared at the Swiss frontier even when the lorry set off in France or Germany. Plan for a clearance step whatever your starting country.
Send your move details once and we connect you with one vetted moving company from our network. That mover checks the route, the access at both addresses, your inventory and the paperwork before quoting. You then deal with the mover directly.
Give us the collection address, the Swiss delivery address, a rough volume, your move date and the access at both ends. Say if you need packing, temporary holding, furniture only or the whole house.
A mover checks the road leg, the vehicle size the street will take, which border crossing suits, what the Swiss clearance needs, insurance, and whether a shared lorry can meet your dates.
They confirm the quote, the timetable, wrapping and packing, collection, the paperwork and the delivery plan. Nothing is booked until you say so.
This is the busiest route we handle for Switzerland. It runs overland: down through France or through Belgium and Germany, across the Swiss border, then inland by road. The length of that final inland leg matters more than people expect. Basel and Geneva sit close to the frontier. Chur, Sion and the Ticino towns are a long way further in, and Ticino is usually reached from the Italian side rather than from the north.
Since Brexit a UK move into Switzerland is a move from a non EU, non EFTA country, so the customs step is fuller than it is for a French or German departure. You will need a proper inventory with values. Check what relief you may be entitled to and what your permit situation requires before the date is fixed.
Return moves are a real part of this route, not an afterthought. They are used by people finishing a fixed term contract, families going home after a school year, retirees leaving a lakeside flat, and executors clearing a property. The move can be a full house, a part load, stored goods or a handful of boxes.
The paperwork is different in this direction. Goods arriving into Great Britain face UK import requirements, and Transfer of Residence relief may apply when somebody is genuinely moving their home back. Ask the mover what the shipment needs before collection, and check the residence side against official UK guidance.
The UK is our main route, but Switzerland borders five countries and plenty of moves start somewhere other than Britain. A departure from France, Germany, Austria or Italy is a short road leg, sometimes a single day of driving. What it is not is a domestic move. The Swiss clearance step still applies, because Switzerland sits outside the EU customs union.
Spain is the other origin we see regularly for this route, and it has its own page rather than being repeated here. If your goods are leaving Spain for Switzerland, start there.
Use these when the goods are leaving that country for Switzerland.
Not listed? Send the collection town and the Swiss delivery town and we will check whether a mover in the network covers it.
Quotes are built from cubic metres and the route, not from weight. Two moves of the same size can price very differently depending on where in Switzerland they end up and what the street is like when the lorry arrives. These are the things that move the number most:
A Switzerland move can involve pounds and Swiss francs. Currency exchange is included through our partners, with competitive rates, no hidden fees and five star consumer ratings. Mention it on the quote form. We do not give exchange rate advice, and you should confirm the payment currency and terms before booking.
If a pet or a car is moving too, say so early. Both are handled separately from household goods and both have their own documents and deadlines.
Moving goods into Switzerland is not only a transport job. The paperwork decides whether the lorry clears the frontier on the day or waits. Use official Swiss sources for customs and permit rules, and use the mover for the shipment documents attached to the removal itself.
Zurich, Basel, Bern, Lucerne, Winterthur, St Gallen, Zug, Schaffhausen and Chur. The largest share of the country by population, and where most corporate moves land. Paperwork and building managers will deal with you in German.
Geneva, Lausanne, Neuchâtel, Fribourg, Sion, Montreux, Nyon, Vevey and Delémont. Geneva has a large international community around the United Nations bodies, so short term and repeat moves are common here.
Lugano, Locarno and Bellinzona. Worth flagging on any enquiry, because Ticino sits south of the Alps and is normally served from Italy rather than driven over the mountains from Zurich or Basel.
Romansh is the fourth national language, spoken in parts of Grisons. More practically, Switzerland runs on twenty six cantons and each sets its own rules on permits, registration and local administration. Two towns an hour apart can ask you for different things, which is why we ask for the exact delivery address rather than just the region.
International Removals Companies is operated by DATACONTEXT (UK) LTD and has been running since 2010. We are not a removal company and we do not own lorries. We connect your enquiry with one vetted moving company from our network, and you deal with that mover directly.
That matters more on this route than on most. A move into a Geneva flat and a move into a village above Sion are barely the same job. Sending the enquiry to a mover who already runs the road leg, knows which crossing suits and has cleared Swiss customs before saves you finding out the hard way. If the first mover cannot cover the route, another in the network picks it up.
Accreditations across the network: FIDI FAIM Certified, BAR Overseas, IAM, EUROMOVERS and FEDEMAC, where confirmed. FIDI FAIM involves around 200 independent quality checks and an audit by Ernst and Young every three years.
Switzerland has four national languages and plenty of towns carry a name in more than one of them. Your employer writes Geneva, the lease says Genève, the removal paperwork coming from Zurich says Genf, and an Italian haulier says Ginevra. Same city, same street, same delivery.
It matters practically, not just linguistically. A delivery address written in the wrong language for the canton slows the last stage down, and a customs document naming a town the local office does not recognise creates a question nobody needed. Give the mover the address exactly as it appears on your Swiss lease, in the language it appears in.
We keep one page per town rather than one per spelling, so whichever version you searched for brings you to the same place. The common ones:
Accents and umlauts drop out of web addresses, so you will see Zurich for Zürich, Neuchatel for Neuchâtel and Koniz for Köniz in the link. The page is the same either way.
Grouped by region, because that is what decides the road leg, the language of your commune and what the access is like when the lorry arrives. Each place has its own detail.
Switzerland's biggest employer base, and the region where the delivery day is decided by the building rather than the road. Lifts in older blocks are sized for people, not wardrobes, and a removal vehicle usually needs a reserved bay arranged with the commune in advance. The two shores of the lake are narrow and busy. Kloten is the airport town.
Zurich (Zürich, Zurigo) · Winterthur · Uster · Dübendorf (Dubendorf) · Dietikon · Adliswil · Kloten · Wetzikon · Horgen · Thalwil · Küsnacht (Kusnacht, Küsnacht ZH) · Meilen · Spreitenbach
French speaking, and the shortest inland leg in the west because Geneva sits on the frontier itself. The shore from Nyon round to Montreux runs on one motorway with steep side roads climbing to the villages above it. Geneva has a large international community around the United Nations bodies, so short term and repeat moves are common here.
Geneva (Genève, Genf, Ginevra) · Lancy · Meyrin · Carouge · Onex · Lausanne (Losanna) · Renens · Pully · Morges · Nyon · Vevey · Montreux · Yverdon-les-Bains
The shortest inland leg in the country. Once a vehicle is through the frontier it is very nearly there, which is why Basel prices differently from anywhere further in. Basel is also Switzerland's cargo port, on the Rhine rather than the sea. Riehen and Rheinfelden sit right on the German border.
Basel (Bâle, Basilea) · Riehen · Allschwil · Muttenz · Pratteln · Rheinfelden
The federal capital and the towns around it. Bern's arcaded old town restricts large vehicles, so deliveries into the centre are planned around where a lorry can legally stop. South of the city, Thun and Spiez are where the road starts to climb towards the Bernese Oberland and the winter route becomes a real consideration.
Bern (Berne, Berna) · Köniz (Koniz) · Ostermundigen · Muri bei Bern (Muri BE) · Thun (Thoune) · Steffisburg · Spiez
Zug has the lowest corporate tax in the country and draws company relocations because of it, so moves here are more often employer funded than elsewhere. Lucerne's old town is tight and busy. Lachen sits on the upper end of Lake Zurich in Schwyz.
Lucerne (Luzern, Lucerna) · Kriens · Zug (Zoug, Zugo) · Baar · Cham (Cham ZG) · Lachen
The furthest corner from the western frontiers, so the inland leg is the longest in the country and the quoted window should reflect that. Chur is the gateway to Davos and St Moritz. Schaffhausen is a northern enclave almost surrounded by Germany and usually reached through it.
St Gallen (Sankt Gallen, Saint-Gall, San Gallo) · Rapperswil-Jona (Rapperswil, Jona) · Wil (Wil SG) · Herisau · Frauenfeld · Chur (Coire, Coira, Cuira) · Schaffhausen (Schaffhouse, Sciaffusa)
The middle of the country, on good motorway from every direction, which makes these among the more straightforward Swiss deliveries. Solothurn's baroque old town is the exception and needs the same access planning as Bern. Baden here is the Aargau town, not the German spa.
Aarau · Baden (Baden AG) · Wohlen (Wohlen AG) · Olten · Solothurn (Soleure, Soletta)
The language border runs through this region rather than around it. Biel/Bienne is officially bilingual in German and French, and Fribourg sits on the same divide, so the language your commune deals with you in is worth checking rather than assuming. Val-de-Ruz is fifteen villages merged into one rural commune. Delémont is the Jura cantonal capital.
Biel/Bienne (Biel, Bienne) · Neuchâtel (Neuenburg, Neuchatel) · La Chaux-de-Fonds · Val-de-Ruz · Delémont (Delsberg, Delemont) · Fribourg (Freiburg, Friburgo) · Bulle
Italian speaking, and reached from Italy rather than driven down from Zurich. That is not a longer version of the same journey, it is a different one, and a shared lorry heading here is joining a different flow of traffic. Say Ticino at enquiry stage.
Lugano · Locarno · Bellinzona (Bellenz)
Sion is the Valais capital and the gateway to the side valleys that climb towards Verbier, Crans-Montana and Zermatt. Deliveries up those valleys are slower, weather dependent in winter, and the car free villages need a separate final stage arranged in advance.
Sion (Sitten)
Somewhere not listed? We cover towns and villages across all twenty six cantons. Send the delivery address and we will check the route.
London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, Liverpool, Bristol, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Cardiff, Southampton, Portsmouth, Reading, Oxford, Cambridge, Kent, Sussex, Essex, Surrey, Hampshire, Devon, Cornwall and the surrounding areas can all be checked for a Switzerland route.
Zurich, Geneva, Basel, Bern, Lausanne, Lucerne, Winterthur, St Gallen, Lugano, Zug, Biel Bienne, Fribourg, Neuchâtel, Chur, Sion, Montreux, Vevey, Nyon, Locarno and Bellinzona, plus the smaller towns and villages around them.
Moves into Switzerland from Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Ireland and the Nordic countries can be checked. Coverage depends on which movers in the network run that road leg, so send the collection town.
An in home survey and a pre move survey are the same visit under two names. Ask a Switzerland Removals mover whether the estimate is binding, whatever the term used. One trade, two dialects, no difference on the day.
If you arrived here looking for an international moving company for Switzerland, movers to Switzerland, a Swiss relocation company, or international moving services, you are in the right place. Removals to Switzerland, international removals and a removal company are the British ways of saying it. A removal quote and a moving estimate are also the same document.
One difference that is not just wording: the vehicle. A British lorry is an American moving truck, and on this route it is a lorry, because the whole journey is overland through Europe.
Answers are shown openly so you can scan the page without opening anything.
Yes. Switzerland is in Schengen but it is not in the European Union and not in the EU customs union, so household goods clear Swiss customs at the border even when they come from France, Germany, Italy or Austria. Confirm the current requirements with the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security before your move date.
There is no Swiss seaport. A container arriving by sea is discharged at a European port such as Rotterdam, Antwerp, Hamburg or Genoa, then travels to the Swiss address by road or rail. Basel is Switzerland's cargo port, but on the Rhine rather than the sea. Ask which port your goods will clear at, because it changes both the timing and the road leg.
A shared load puts your goods on a lorry alongside other households heading the same way, which usually costs less but needs flexible dates. A dedicated vehicle carries only your move, which suits larger homes and fixed dates. On a Switzerland route the road leg is long, so the gap between the two is often wider than on a short crossing.
There is no single figure. The main things that change it are how many cubic metres you are moving, where the collection address is, whether you can share a lorry or need one to yourself, how far inland the Swiss delivery is, and how easy the access is at both ends. Alpine and car free villages are quoted differently again.
It depends where you are moving to. Switzerland has German, French, Italian and Romansh speaking regions, and the local commune deals with you in its own language. Zurich, Basel and Bern are German speaking, Geneva and Lausanne French, Lugano and Locarno Italian, and Biel Bienne and Fribourg sit on the language border.
Registration is done at the commune of your new address rather than nationally, and permit and registration rules differ between the twenty six cantons. Check what your commune and canton require, and what deadline applies, before you fix the delivery date.
Yes. Return moves run the same route in reverse and are used by people finishing a contract, retiring, selling a Swiss property or clearing an estate. The import side is different from the export side, so tell us early which direction you are going.
Some Swiss mountain villages do not allow ordinary road vehicles, so the lorry stops short and the last stage is handled locally. That final stage needs planning and pricing separately, so raise it at enquiry stage rather than on moving day.
Send your collection address, the Swiss delivery address, your move date, a rough inventory and the service you need. One vetted moving company from our network checks the route, the access and the paperwork, then comes back to you with the quote. Planning the other direction? See removals to the UK from Switzerland.
Get your free quoteInternational Removals Companies is operated by DATACONTEXT (UK) LTD, company number 07425576, and has been running since 2010. We work with vetted moving companies in the AGM Group network.
Get your Switzerland enquiry together using the checklists above, then speak directly with the moving company before booking anything.
Page reviewed and Swiss information checked on 5 August 2026 against the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security. General information, not advice on your own position.
Written by Darren Benjamin, founder of International Removals Companies, who has run the business since 2010. Last checked 5 August 2026.