NotDave

Hi,

My family and I are looking forward to arriving in Dubai next month.

We will stay in a hotel initially until we can get a tenancy in a 3 bed apartment. The apartment would be unfurnished and we want to ship over a part container load of furniture and related items.

The items are currently in storage in UK so we had hoped it could be taken now in order to reach us in Dubai around late august, allowing us to escape hotel living and move into a home asap.

however, as we were ready to book the collection, the removal company have insisted that we need a UAE resident visa before they can allow the items to sail.

my resident visa wouldn’t be available until late august and so the items would therefore reach Dubai early Oct!

does anyone have a work around for this?

a future colleague in Dubai thought it was normal practice to ship off items in advance of getting the visa, but I am not sure if this can be done.

any advice appreciated!

NotDave

DXBtoDOH

Ask your employer's HR. They would know. I vaguely remember in years past pocketing the shipping allowance and arriving in Dubai with my worldly possessions in two suitcases (looks wistfully around a fully furnished house). But nothing was ever said about visas needed before organising the shipping. But I can see a logic in it.

NotDave

Thanks D2D!

I moved to Malaysia with only a couple of suitcases so I can relate to your experience. Now with a family it is considerably more involved, and expat allowances aren’t looking profitable this time around and in fact it seems we are likely to be out of pocket, another reason we want to reduce the time in a hotel.

I understand the principle and that non residents may not be able to have personal items clear through customs.

I will ask the HR team but not confident of a quick or decisive response. I wonder if an employer can sponsor this kind if shipment, but again I would not want additional reliance on HR.

hoping there’s another ‘route’

UKMS

This maybe a policy of your shipping company or there maybe some confusion.

As far as I am aware you can ship items ahead of time (many families do this) but the items won’t be released and cleared by customs until you have a residence visa and also you need to be present in country to do this. The shipment will be held until you fulfil the requirements of a duty free shipment.

NotDave

Thanks UKMS!

Could you find out the company names that may have done these shipments?

That would really help as at the moment I have filled in a couple of online RFQs which has led to a lot of cold calling and spam emails.

NotDave

UKMS

The 2 most recent I know of from friends moving here used Crown relocations and Bishops from the UK … both had visas in process when everything was packed up but didn’t have full residency.

NotDave

I have now booked the removal with crown. I wouldn’t have found them otherwise so a big thank you.

They told me that UK to Dubai is their main route so they have a lot of knowledge in the best ways to facilitate the move. I only needed shipping, but they offer a full relocation service. So far I would recommend.

NotDave

UKMS

great to hear ….. good luck with the move !