The chances are you will be using a specialist international moving company to move your possessions to Canada. Depending upon where you are moving from, you may have a long wait for your things to arrive at their final destination. You may also decide to store the property in your home country while you find the home of your dreams so make sure you allow for storage charges and extra insurance. These charges soon mount up and can give you a nasty surprise.

One thing I’ll say about the moving companies is that you are paying them for a service, if they are a good company they will be able to advise on the correct paperwork etc and formalities that will ensure a smooth arrival and customs clearance in Canada. You don’t need your shipment to be turned away from the port of entry (very expensive when they order its return to the original port of departure) or you end up liable for extra taxes etc. because of incorrect paperwork. You may well be able to have it repaid once you prove it is legitimate but you will still be out of pocket in the short term.

Most shipping agencies charge by the cubic foot and have several schemes offering different rates - "share a container" or "Full container". The Full container service will have the container packed and sealed at your residence. The shared container service will see your possessions packed at your residence and then transported to the companies’ depot. Once there it is packed with other items to complete a container.

It all depends on how much you intend to ship on which service is the best for you. All the companies we contacted offered to send an estimator to the house to size up the load, go through your options and give a rough estimate to cost. Whatever you decide, ensure you give yourselves plenty of time to contact the shippers as we almost left it too late - 6 to 8 weeks would be reasonable. There will be plenty of advice on offer from qualified professionals - moving continents is a huge undertaking so any advice or extra information may help you out or save you money!

Upon the arrival in Canada, the agent contacted us with all the information and forms required. Once Customs had released it, the shipment arrived at our house 2 days later and was unpacked for us. A true door to door service! We suffered one breakage - a glass - so we were happy.

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