It is the mirror image of Form 3299 and it behaves differently in one important way: the American declaration travels with the shipment, and the British application has to happen before it.
We connect your enquiry with a vetted international moving company from our network for the shipping. The relief application is yours to make, and this page explains where it sits in the sequence.
The relief covers belongings you are bringing when you transfer your normal place of residence to the United Kingdom. There are conditions attached, including how long you have lived abroad and how long you have had the goods.
Transfer of Residence relief lets people moving their normal home to the UK bring personal belongings without paying charges. It is applied for in advance, it produces a reference the shipping agent needs, and it is not granted automatically at the border.
Apply before the goods arrive. A shipment landing without a reference number can face charges and delays, and unpicking that afterwards is considerably harder than applying in the first place.
Most of a return move follows the outbound pattern: survey, packing, collection, sailing, clearance, delivery. The relief application sits before all of that rather than alongside it.
That is the single most useful thing to understand about it. On the American side, the declaration is prepared by the mover and submitted with the shipment. On the British side, the application is yours and it comes first.
Once granted it produces a reference number, and that number is what the shipping agent quotes when the goods arrive. Without it the shipment is treated as an ordinary import.
The conditions are specific and they are revised from time to time. The official page is the one that counts.
Processing takes time, and a container arriving ahead of the paperwork is the situation to avoid.
The number is what connects your application to your shipment at the border.
It allows people transferring their normal place of residence to the United Kingdom to bring personal belongings without paying the charges that would otherwise apply.
Before the goods arrive. It is not granted automatically at the border and a late application creates charges and delays.
A reference number, which your shipping agent quotes when the shipment reaches the UK.
They cover how long you have lived abroad, how long you have had the goods, and what you intend to do with them afterwards. Check the current wording on GOV.UK.
The application is yours. Your mover handles the shipping and needs the reference from you, which is why the two have to be sequenced properly.
The shipment can be treated as an ordinary import, with charges applied. Sorting it out afterwards is harder than applying beforehand.
Not necessarily. Some items fall outside it and are charged separately, which is worth establishing before packing.
Long enough that it should start well before the shipping date. Treat it as the first task of the move rather than a formality near the end.
That is the situation to avoid, because it is far harder to resolve at the border than to prevent by applying earlier.
Send your US collection address, your UK delivery area, the move date and a rough inventory. A moving company from our network quotes the shipping around your relief application.
A Working Member of AGM Group. Enquiries are connected with vetted FIDI FAIM certified and BAR Overseas accredited international moving companies from the network.
We are an enquiry service and not customs agents or advisers. Transfer of Residence relief is administered by HMRC and its conditions must be confirmed on GOV.UK.
Written by Darren Benjamin, Founder.