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There's no going back now

There's no going back now

Old Jan 4th 2009, 4:02 pm
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Default There's no going back now

Its done
Tickets are booked, on 16 April I will be saying goodbye to England and looking forward to making St Lucia my home.
The next few weeks will be spent sorting, throwing, giving away/selling all my household things ready to ship them over. We are DIY shipping so there is alot more stress involved!
Dog is ready to go too just got to book him up, I am a bit worried how he will take to the flight as he will be just over a year think I will be more concerned than him!

Family will be hard to say goodbye to but all have promised to come over at some point (think its more about sun,sand & sea!!)

Is it ok to have lists for lists for lists?
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Old Jan 5th 2009, 12:08 am
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Default Re: There's no going back now

Originally Posted by glitterycloud
Its done
Tickets are booked, on 16 April I will be saying goodbye to England and looking forward to making St Lucia my home.
The next few weeks will be spent sorting, throwing, giving away/selling all my household things ready to ship them over. We are DIY shipping so there is alot more stress involved!
Dog is ready to go too just got to book him up, I am a bit worried how he will take to the flight as he will be just over a year think I will be more concerned than him!

Family will be hard to say goodbye to but all have promised to come over at some point (think its more about sun,sand & sea!!)

Is it ok to have lists for lists for lists?
Lists of lists of lists sounds so very familiar... had the same affliction when I was moving to Barbados just 6 months ago.

It can be a stressful time, but so worth it in the end to take the adventure. Good for you. Enjoy yourself, try to find little comforts that remind you of home, but mostly embrace your new surroundings and new life!

Foxy
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Old Jan 5th 2009, 9:25 am
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Default Re: There's no going back now

Well done !!!

I hope you have a great life in St Lucia.
I also hope your labrador adapts to. I also have a labrador and she will be making the move with us when we finally set a date. She is 11 months old now so much bigger than she was when these pics were taken.
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Old Jan 5th 2009, 11:55 am
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Default Re: There's no going back now

glitterycloud
Good luck with your shipping. Can you advise the procedure involved in getting your belongings imported free of customs duty? I believe that household effects which you have owned for at least a year do not incur duty but do you need receipts for every item or will a detailed customs declaration suffice? I ask because we hope to ship our household effects there in about a year and the customs broker I asked has not responded.
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Old Jan 5th 2009, 4:11 pm
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Default Re: There's no going back now

Originally Posted by Scottylad
glitterycloud
Good luck with your shipping. Can you advise the procedure involved in getting your belongings imported free of customs duty? I believe that household effects which you have owned for at least a year do not incur duty but do you need receipts for every item or will a detailed customs declaration suffice? I ask because we hope to ship our household effects there in about a year and the customs broker I asked has not responded.
Hi, my husband is St Lucian and a family member is employed with St Lucia Customs and Excise, dh met up with him last month and advised us that as items are household things then no customs duty is paid, however a percentage is payable for import duty. I'm not sure what percentage this is but (i think) we are looking at around $2000 ec for 20ft container (don't quote me)
Im not sure about the receipts - we dont have reciepts for all items?
Contacting St Lucia Customs and Excise is on our list of jobs for this week, when I have asked I will come back and let you know. At the moment I am not fully knowledgeable on shipping yet! lol
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Old Jan 6th 2009, 8:31 am
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Default Re: There's no going back now

Hi
Thanks for your reply and I look forward to hearing more from you later. I had noticed that some form of duty would be paid but the details aren't very clear. We have bought some items specifically to ship (particularly garden furniture) and so have receipts for these, but some of our furniture is 5 years old so there is no chance we will still have receipts. We did look at some furniture shops when we were last there in October but prices seem terribly high and the style and quality seem a bit old fashioned. When you have more details can you also let me know how you get your container from port to house as I think you have to move the container from the docks to unload and it would be helpful to know what transport is available over there? Hoping we can learn from your endeavours.
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Old Jan 6th 2009, 2:30 pm
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Default Re: There's no going back now

We are in a lucky position by having dh family over there, they are full of local knowledge and of people which has been invaluable in our research.
I will be more than happy to assist you in any way I can. We are still not sure on transporting the container but have a St Lucian yellow pages at home which will come in handy. We will probably hire transport and hope our accomodation is not to far away (something else not quite sorted!)
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Old Jan 7th 2009, 2:41 pm
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Default Re: There's no going back now

Hello.

I, too, am very interested in any info you can provide regarding shipping to St Lucia.

Some of you may remember I was on this forum some time back talking about buying a house in Black Bay. We, that fell through but after 3 more trips over, we've managed to buy a property in Morne Fortune & will be shipping some of our 'stuff' over. Although the property we have has been left furnished, there are still personal items that we'd like to have there.

I have several conflicting pieces of info. Please don't shoot me down in flames, I'm just telling you what I have heard:~

1. Goods have to be more than 1 year old & used. You must have the receipt.
2. Anything that's new, you will pay 100% duty on.
3. Customs may not bother to check or they will empty the whole barrel/LCL/FCL & examine every item.

We also have relatives in St Lucia who frequently get barrels sent to them without any hassle. My husbands parents are from St. Lucia but live in the UK & they send barrels with no problem.

We have been shopping around different shippers & have found quite a difference in the prices quoted so would be interested if you have found the same.

Thanks
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Old Jan 7th 2009, 3:10 pm
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Default Re: There's no going back now

I have several conflicting pieces of info. Please don't shoot me down in flames, I'm just telling you what I have heard:~

1. Goods have to be more than 1 year old & used. You must have the receipt.
2. Anything that's new, you will pay 100% duty on.
3. Customs may not bother to check or they will empty the whole barrel/LCL/FCL & examine every item.


I hope to have answers for this soon as it has made me a little concerned as i do not have receipts for many items.
We are entering St Lucia under my husbands returning national status which may grant us a little flexibility where importing household items are concerned, but until confirmation is given who knows?

I am shipping direct with Geestline they bring container to my house, I fill it and on it goes to Portsmouth for direct shipping to Castries. As i am not using a removal company the quotes i recieved from shipping lines have been roughly the same.

Can I ask where you got your information from regarding importing household items?
Congrats on your house at Morne Fortune it has beautiful views of Castries and the harbour
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Old Jan 7th 2009, 3:46 pm
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Default Re: There's no going back now

Thanks for your reply.

To be honest, I have been on so many websites, I can't remember where I got some of the info.

I'm am at work right now so when I get home tonight I'll have another look at the websites & let you know. I know one of them was SLASPA. BUT, interestingly, I found one earlier that said if you are moving to SLU, you can take personal effects without any duty payable provided they are over 1 year old. There are so many conflicting details.

We have to speak to our shipper within a few days so will try to get some more info.

My husbands parents are always sending barrels (of course, these are only small) & they have never had a problem.

We are going over on 23 Jan to sort out a few things so will try to get some more info whilst we're there. It will be our first time in our new house & I can't wait. I'm so excited.

Whereabouts are you going to be living?
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Old Jan 7th 2009, 8:10 pm
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Default Re: There's no going back now

Question:
"I am a foreign national who is thinking of moving to St. Lucia with all my personal effects. What am I entitled to?"

Answer:
"A person taking up residence in St. Lucia is entitled to a waiver of import duty in accordance with the List of Conditional Duty Exemptions as contained in the Common External tariff (CET). Generally this applies only to personal and household effects that have been in the possession and use of the individual for over one year."

I just copied this from the St Lucia Customs & Excise website but it does not give any indication that you have to provide receipts for such items.

This truly is a minefield. As we are not going to be living there yet, this won't apply to us. However, we are quite lucky as we are only shipping a few items so the duty will not be that much (hopefully). Only our garden furniture is new & we still have the receipt. All the other stuff is used & we don't have any receipts.

We will try to get more info whilst we're there & will certainly report back our findings.

In the meantime, try these websites:~

st.lucia.shipping-international.com
RAM shipping

They have a few bits of info on them.
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Old Jan 8th 2009, 5:35 am
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Default Re: There's no going back now

Thanks for those links they have been very interesting.
my husband was over there just before christmas, customs was on the list I sent him with but he came back with partial information, should have gone myself they say if you want a job done do it yourself!!!

Lets hope your visit will enlighten us all!
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Old Jan 8th 2009, 2:16 pm
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Default Re: There's no going back now

The information Chris had was more or less what I had found but Caribbean web information is not as up to date as we are used to in the UK so I think personal visits to Customs are essential and I look forward to seeing how you get on. Receipts concern me as much of our furniture will be 5 years old so there's no way we'll have receipts. As far as shipping goes - I work for a removal company which arranges shipping, but we do add on our profit margin so it's definitely much cheaper to arrange yourself if possible.
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Old Jan 9th 2009, 3:07 pm
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Default Re: There's no going back now

Originally Posted by glitterycloud
Its done
Dog is ready to go too just got to book him up, I am a bit worried how he will take to the flight as he will be just over a year think I will be more concerned than him!
Have you sourced a company to do this for you. We found a VERY good one, extremely helpful and competetively priced.

Animal Airlines - they are a small, family run unit but don't be put off. They were excellent when we took our two Westies to Cayman. They organise everything including paperwork and crating etc.

http://www.animalairlines.co.uk/

cheers & good luck, you won't regret it!!

Andy
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Old Jan 16th 2009, 2:58 pm
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Default Re: There's no going back now

I spoke with SLU Customs today, here is what I was told:

Items need to have a receipt/if no receipt then you need to prove you have had them and used them for over a year. - visual checking by customs officer - could prove to be a mine field especially if they disagree with you

An inventory is needed with what items you are taking

If you cannot prove items have been in use for over a year then duty will be paid

If items are new then duty will be paid

I hope this helps, I am now checking all my items without receipts to make sure they look like I have used them for over a year - I look after my furniture so some are very new looking
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