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Seafreighting household and personal items to Lima, when immigrating

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Peter D L

G'day all,
Could forum members, who have immigrated to Peru and brought household & personal items in by seafreight (LCL), please share their experience with me/us ?
For example, how difficult, or demanding, is the process through Customs in Lima or Callao ?
What is the Customs procedure of checking legitimate items and do they tend to be tricky at all ?
Is there any additional costs at that end of the shipment....e.g clearance fees etc etc ?
We are intending to seafreight a minimum of items ( approx'1m3)  that can't fly with us...thus the queries.
Hope someone can offer sound advice/information.
Cheers,
Peter

Peter D L

G'day all,
I must say that it is a bit disappointing no-one can share some experience(s). ...I felt sure someone must have gone through this routine. :-(

wypeck

I was going to post on the forum a post similar to yours.... about shipping household goods by sea to Lima, or possibly a port closer to Arequipa (our final destination) if cost effective. But I see you didn't get any replies. What did you find out? I am probably running into the same thing you did, difficulty in obtaining information.

OsageArcher

For most people it's just not cost effective to ship your household goods - not only do you have shipping costs and port fees, but you will also be taxed heavily on the value of the goods, the value determined by the autoridades de la Aduana Peruana, the Peruvian Customs authorities.

https://comerciointernacional7.wordpres … es-a-peru/

You can do an internet search for
peru importar menaje de casa
...and you will find a lot of information.

Perú like many other South American countries erects barriers against the easy importation of consumer goods and household effects by individuals.

wypeck

Thanks Osage Archer. That is what I was afraid of, but I just have not been able to get a firm idea of how much it would cost. I got an estimate of around $1500 to $2000 for our fairly small amount for shipping, but it is not clear to me if that includes all the duties and other fees at the Peruvian port, and I am pretty sure it does not include the cost of the 20-foot container rental, much less anything on the logistics of making it happen. I had hoped I could take a U-Haul truck loaded with our stuff on pallets and then have it transferred into a container with a forklift. I am sure a lot of the costs the moving companies charge is packing and transport to the port of departure and transport from the port of arrival to the final destination. I thought if I handled those two items it might be cost effective. But it is proving to be difficult to get information from shipping and/or moving companies regarding these specific logistics questions. I'll keep looking for now, but I am leaning towards just taking what we can on the plane, maybe a couple of trips. I hoped to find an expat who had done it recently for guidance, but I am thinking most expats come to the same conclusion I am starting to come to.... it probably just is not worth it and even if it would barely be worth it financially, the huge headache of making it happen makes any money you would save by moving your goods small in comparison to the headache.

Fred

Laptops are so on are never going to be a problem, and you can take them with you on the plane, but a sofa and all the trimmings are generally a pain, then ask if your fridge and other electrical items will work.
110v in the US against 220v In Peru.
Headaches a plenty, then the cost, then clearing customs, then messing about with possible shipping damage, then the fridge will go bang as soon as you plug it in.
It's rarely worth the problems involved in shipping - Oh, think about the weather before you decide what clothes to pack.

cottonmk

Did Peter DL or Wypeck sort out anything for importing personal effects?

We want to ship a 20 ft container from UK, final destination Arequipa.
Anyone done it recently (2019)?
Interested in problems, Costs, customs tariffs, and a recommendation for agent at Callao/freight forwarder to Arequipa.

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