the customs test is about how long you used the goods and where you were resident, not about which visa you hold. Your status still matters at import, and the honest answer is that published guidance disagrees on the detail.
You have the job, you have the visa, and the removals quote arrived quickly. The question nobody answers until later is whether your belongings enter free of duty, and the industry does not speak with one voice on it.
We connect your enquiry with a vetted international moving company from our network that handles work visa relocations, including employer arranged ones.
What US Customs and Border Protection publishes is a use test: household effects enter free of duty where they were for your personal use, or used in a household where you were a resident, for one year, and are not for sale or for another person.
Some operators state that only long term visa holders qualify. Others say otherwise. We are not going to pick the answer that suits us, so put your own circumstances to CBP and keep the reply in writing before the container is booked.
The published test is about the goods and your residence rather than your visa class. Effects used by you, or in a household where you lived, for a year, and not intended for sale or for someone else, enter free of duty on a Form 3299 declaration.
Your status at the time of import sits alongside that, and this is where guidance across the moving trade becomes inconsistent. Some operators say a long term visa is required and others say otherwise, which is not a disagreement we can resolve for you.
The practical answer is unglamorous. Ask CBP about your own position, get it in writing, and keep it with the shipping documents. It costs an email and removes the only genuinely uncertain part of the move.
| ❗ | Duty on items owned for less than twelve months, which follows the goods rather than the payer. |
| ❗ | Storage at either end where the start date and the housing date do not line up. |
| ❗ | The insurance excess, and whether it rises on cartons packed by the employee. |
| ❗ | Customs examination fees, which fall to the owner of the goods. |
| ❗ | Shipping a vehicle, which is almost always outside a household goods allowance. |
| ❗ | Pets, which travel separately and are rarely covered at all. |
Not to a forum, not to a mover, and not to us. Your status and your circumstances, answered by the authority that decides it.
Storage, insurance excess and duty on recent purchases are the three things employer policies most often leave out.
New furniture bought in anticipation of the move is the most common source of an unexpected duty bill on a work visa relocation.
The published test is about use and residence: effects used by you, or in a household where you were a resident, for a year, and not for sale or for another person. Your status at import sits alongside that.
Because published guidance across the industry is inconsistent. Some state a long term visa is required, others do not. We would rather tell you that than pick the version that suits us.
Put your own circumstances to US Customs and Border Protection, get the answer in writing, and keep it with the shipping documents.
No. Duty follows the goods and their owner, not whoever is paying the freight bill.
Duty on recent purchases, storage, insurance excess, examination fees, vehicles and pets. Check all six before the survey rather than after the quote.
It is dutiable, because it will not have been used in your household for a year. List it separately rather than hoping it passes unnoticed.
That is a question for CBP and your employer's advisers rather than for us. What we can say is that goods arriving before you complicate the declaration.
The moving company and its customs broker. You supply the documents, confirm the inventory and sign the declaration.
They can advise on the policy. Whether your circumstances qualify for the duty relief is a question for CBP.
Send your collection address, your US destination, the start date and a rough inventory, plus the relocation policy limits if an employer is paying. 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 are an enquiry service and neither immigration advisers nor customs agents. Nothing here is advice about your status, which should be confirmed with the relevant US authorities.
Written by Darren Benjamin, Founder.