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Import Household Goods


SanookMahk

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O-A, that's retiree visa, right?

 

Sorry, not sure on that one. I know you have to have a work permit for other types of visas to get the allowance. Or your spouse/children can as long as they have been out of the country at least a year. One time every ten years, I seem to recall.

 

Otherwise, they'll nick ya for duty.

 

Cheers,

SD

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I have a retirement visa and had a container sent last December 28 (it arrived on March 22, after landing at every Asian port; DON'T USE OMEGA SHIPPING OF LONG ISLAND, NY). I was charged 118,000 baht in custom's charges. I had nothing but furniture and household goods on board. No electronic goods and obviously no cars, motorcycles or anything mechanical on board. I will say that you need a shipping company that can complete a packing list that is readable by Thais (mine wasn't and I had to spend 2 hours with Thai officials translating what the Omega official wrote. Also, both an official at Thai customs and another shipping company in Thailand said that, on the Bill of Lading, even if it is household goods, you should put down something else to describe the shipment. Omega put "household goods" and probably cost me 50-60,000 baht. All in all, the shipment cost me about $12,000 to ship goods from Kansas City to Chiang Mai. Knowing what I know now about Thai customs and shipping companies, I could cut $4,000 off of that amount easliy. If you can pack your own container, that will save you the mosst money. I packed the boxes of household goods but the shipping company charged me $875 to pack the furniture with packing blankets (that I had bought). Next time, I will ship under my Thai wife's name, after we move back from the U.S. (which we will move to by next November, for better education of our children) in 5-7 years.

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Unless you really are coming to Thailand for a job, getting a work visa is very difficult to impossible and if you did, the costs associated with a work visa would be enough to make me not get it just to qualify for a duty free shipment. I did check into getting a work visa to avoid paying customs duty on my containter before giving up.

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Call me shallow but I have never had any particular urge to ship things half way around the world when they could be replaced with goods of a better quality in ones final location for less expenditure.

 

Maybe its my nomadic lifestyle in the past has made me be able to pack most things in 1 Piece of checked luggage and a carry on.

 

I have only ever dome a small shipment to Thailand, and that was here on a work permit and arranged / paid for by the company as part of the "Relocarion Package", in itself a joke I had been based here a few years before I got this job. Mainly electronics, a small PA System, 64 channel mixer, the rest of my guitars and 3 banks of keyboards etc. I also threw in my Vinyl and CD Collection to boot.

 

In 20+ years of being an expat I have only moved my personal shite once, thats enough for me.

 

 

 

 

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Thanks for the response. My Atty in BKK has a company for me who will transfer the invoice into Thai and assist in the prep to get things thru smoothly. Seems that a little bribe will be helpful. We are looking over my list to see if it is better to just off things in America and go with a few suitcases. Etc. I will keep this section posted of the progress. And, if I do deceide to land goods I will post the company's name after my shipment has cleared (sorry). :susel:

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  • 3 weeks later...

What about if arriving on an OA one year retirement vias, just bringing a bunch of not very valuable used stuff like a coffee pot, radio, some cutlery, etc. just packed in with regular clothes etc., in two regular sized checked luggage bags? Are they likely to open and inspect those bags and if so, have a problem with such items? Oh and also a camera and laptop in a carry on.

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