shipping goods

I'm shipping from Canada, but by far the best quote I received was from EuroTransport International.

I've also been advised by my employer that I will likely need to pay customs clearance on the goods (in the realm of 60 euros).

Hopefully someone else has some more information, because I'm keen to get shipping sorted as well. Have other people paid customs clearance?

Thanks for the info. Will try them out. Like you say, would be great if someone else has additional information.

Hi,

shipping furniture to Malta from outside the EU will require a payment of 1200,- € by cheque to get the stuff through customs.You get the money back after you can prove that you have stayed in Malta for more than a year.

We sent our furniture to Malta from the US and just got our 1200,- € back a few days ago.

From EU friends I know that this counts even if you are EU citizens but move to Malta from outside the EU (in their case Turkey).

You have to provide plenty of proof as well !Just producing a rental contract is not enough. Employment counts as well as 12 months of utility bills in your name.

Hi,

This is first post here - is that 1200 for any shipment originating from outside the EU? We have 22 boxes arriving next week (hopefully!) from the US - no furniture though, just some personel belongings...clothes, old computer, photos etc.

If so, is it a flat rate or is it a percentage of the amount quoted on the shipping waybill?

Thanks in advance.
Tim

Hi Tim,

it is a flat-rate and will be refunded after one year. It is for any shipment that comes from outside the EU and the agent handling the shipment in Malta will ask for the cheque before he can get the goods through customs.You get a receipt and the customs department will contact you after one year.At least they did so with us .

Regards

Ricky

Thanks for the info. Ricky.

Any idea where I can find out more information on this? I'm looking to ship about 10 boxes. Did you line up your customs agent? Can you reccomend one? I'd be concerned about my money getting 'lost'....

Details - you provided 12 months utility bills or employment or both? Just want to make sure I cross my t's and dot my i's!

On a random note, are they going to pay me interest on my 1200 dollars?

In our case ( coming from the US ) our agent in the US set it all up . I guess they have their preferred agents in other countries or choose from a list.Our price from the US included the handling in Malta so I don't know how much the agent in Malta received.
You will have to include a list of items and fill out the customs form before shipping.The Maltese agent will present the shipment to customs in Malta and pay the fee to be able to deliver the goods to your address in Malta.The cheque is made payable to the customs department.

No, there is no interest paid.In our case employment over the period worked.We received a cheque within 6 weeks after applying for the refund.I know of another case ( without employment)our friends had trouble providing proof of their years stay and finally had to go to a lawyer to try and get the money back.So you need to collect anything that shows you really lived in Malta for one year.And we went there and talked to the customs people in person , that always helps in Malta.

Well, at least the interest rates at the banks are pretty low right now, so we won't lose too much on interest.

Do you happen to know where I can find info on that customs? I've been surfing there webpage for the last half hour and I can't locate it.

I've also contacted our mover to see what they say...

Who did you use for your mover ricky? It likely that they might service canada as well....

Well,

we wouldn't recommend our US company as they came up with a much higher weight and price than originally estimated once our container was at the weighing station but we didn't want to take our shipment back at that moment.

Here in Malta our stuff was handled by DOM and they did a good job of delivering so you could e-mail them if you want your Canadian company to work with them here in Malta.

domtransportmalta.com/index.htm

I looked at the customs website too and couldn't locate the info but it is correct !

ricky wrote:

Hi,

shipping furniture to Malta from outside the EU will require a payment of 1200,- € by cheque to get the stuff through customs.You get the money back after you can prove that you have stayed in Malta for more than a year.

We sent our furniture to Malta from the US and just got our 1200,- € back a few days ago.

From EU friends I know that this counts even if you are EU citizens but move to Malta from outside the EU (in their case Turkey).

You have to provide plenty of proof as well !Just producing a rental contract is not enough. Employment counts as well as 12 months of utility bills in your name.

Think my message disappeared into cyberspace! 

I am wondering if the 1200 charge applies if staying in Malta less than a year - do you get it back or not?  Does it apply for any shipment (furniture or just personal belongings) from outside the EU?  I am coming from the US.  I have the option of shipping from the UK rather than US, if easier/less expensive.  Does the same charge apply for UK?  BTW Can you tell me which US shipping company you would NOT recommend that you used?

Thanks,
Anna

Hi Anna,

ok, I'll name our shipping company! It was Allied but it was the local agent in NH who made trouble.

There are more conditions attached to the refund.
You have to prove that you lived in the US for more than a year before coming to Malta (letter from employer or lawyer as proof).
You have to apply for and get a residence permit or work permit in Malta.

You will get this info from your handling agent here in Malta when they get the information that your stuff is on its way to Malta.

I think the customs problem will be similar sending your things from the US to the UK.It is European procedure to make sure that goods intended for sale in the EU cannot be channelled in tax-free by declaring them as personal goods.
There are also other tax regulations that might apply to some of your goods(if you bring a TV you will have to pay for a TV license before they release your stuff)
I'm not sure about the procedure if you don't stay the whole year.You certainly will have to pay the 1200,-€ upfront.The customs office contacts you after exactly one year !If you leave earlier you might  just have to contact them!

Regards

Ricky

Hi Ricky,

WOW I am now thinking it might not be worthwhile my shipping anything back!!!  I really will have to consider how important my personal belongings are to me.......maybe I can fit them into two suitcases......

Thanks for the info, I will do more research!!

Anna

I heard back from the Maltese customs, and they corroborated the 1200 euros per container. I asked what would happen if it was less than a container, and the 'standard practice' is to charge 1200 euros no matter how small the shipment (FYI).

Oh well, not like my money is making any interest at the bank right now either.

Thanks for information.

I'm sorry to hear there seems to be no way around the fee but I would think the money might be safer at the customs office than in a bank at the moment anyway-)))

I wish you luck with your shipment.

OK - here's an update we literally went through this whole process last Friday (Feb 5th 2010). Sorry for the length, but I want to get it all out while it's fresh in the memory.

We had 22 boxes shipped from the US (I'm British but been living in the us for a few years and my wife is American). Our Handling Agent here - Palm - were not very helpful and did not tell us everything we needed to know!

It was a long day -
1. Find and pay the Handling Agent: 1 hour;
2. Find Customs (parking tip: don't go in the big Valetta car park, it's a long way to walk through the tunnel, there's s car park right on the water's edge for €2 a 2 minute walk away) - then Customs itself took an hour in total, but we had to go back to our apartment to get more proof,so that took another hour;
3. Find Hal Far port, clear customs and take possession of goods in 2 trips (3 hours)

Here are my replies to a couple of comments in this thread, based on my very recent experience, but YMMV:

> You have to prove that you lived in the US for more than a year before coming to Malta (letter from employer or lawyer as proof).
- This is what Palm neglected to tell us! It is true that you do, but they are quite flexible on what they accept - they would have accepted bank account or credit card statements, doctors vists etc, anything really showing a pattern of living in the US....we had to drive back to our apartment to get my termination letter form my US employer which showed hire date and termination date...perfectly acceptable to Customs. They also said they would accept an email from my US employer...so it doesn't have to be too formal or be delivered by airmail etc. I also had to show residency permit aplication receipt and my work permit (and Tax Id).

> I heard back from the Maltese customs, and they corroborated the 1200 euros per container. I asked what would happen if it was less than a container, and the 'standard practice' is to charge 1200 euros no matter how small the shipment (FYI).
- again YMMV but they were VERY flexible with us. We had 22 boxes but only took up a fraction of a container. At first they were going to charge us a percentage of the Insurace Amount on the waybill - but that would have been over €2,400 and they themselves said that was too much for the amout of stuff we shipped, so they said they would pro-rate it on the amount of a container our boxes took up - that turned out to be €383 - so that is all they charged us. This was Joanne at Customs, that might not be too helpful as there are 2 Joannes there...but she was very helpful and flexible for us, as you can see.

We collected our boxes ourselves from Hal Far - if you do the same, allow plenty of time, esp if you have to do multiple trips like we did. They close for about an hour at lunch (repoen at 1PM) and then close for the day around 5 MP, but our dock were closing at 3:45 so we had to be done by then. You can't drive into the Dock, you have to park outside and walk in - the front gate will direct you to your dock, they will stamp your papers and send you to get a Customs Officer who will go back with you to your dock. When cleared by the Customs Officer, they will bring your boxes etc out to you on a forklift...if you have more than one trips worth, make sure they only bring out enough for each trip at a time as they won't take it back in.
The Customs officer wanted to check our contents, but he only asked for 4 of the 22 boxes to be opened, he let us pick the first 3 and then he chose 1. It didn't matter as we had nothing to hide ;-) but it was interesting.

Feel free to ask any questions while the expereince is still fresh in my memory.

Tim

Fantastic! Thanks tim.

We will be shipping from Canada, but have been living in Norway so it would never have occured that we would have to prove residency in Canada (Conveniently I continued to be employed in Canada). I will make sure I get that stuff together before hand.

Also great news on the customs :-)

Hi Tim ,

this was a really good report of your experience with the customs.

We can confirm our good experience with Joanne (probably the same Joanne) at the Customs Couse.It certainly pays to go there in person and discuss details with her.

So you were able to negotiate the deposit from 1200 € down to 383 € , refundable after the usual one year period? That is interesting.So it seems that your boxes took up little more than 1/4 of a standard container!

Our shipment was handled and delivered to our house in Sliema by D.O.M. They told us what papers they need ( all the things you list) to get the stuff and did all the paperwork for us. They were very good!

Cheers
Ricky

Hi Ricky,

Yep - actually 2400 down to 383...Joanne based the price on 2 cubic metres, refundable after 1 year.

Tim