Household effects

What the border does with it

• Norway operates a relief for goods accompanying a person taking up residence, generally known as removal goods or flyttegods. Broadly it exists so that somebody moving their life does not pay import duty on possessions they already owned and used before they came.

• The conditions attach to you as much as to the goods. In general terms they concern your residence status, how long you lived abroad before moving, and the fact that the items were owned and used by you rather than newly bought for the move. The precise requirements are set by the Norwegian customs authority and they do change.

• Newly purchased items are the usual problem. Something bought shortly before departure and still in its packaging does not look like a used personal possession, and it is the single most common reason a declaration gets questioned.

• The inventory is the document the whole thing runs on. A vague list is a slow clearance; a specific, numbered, valued list is usually an uneventful one. This is where most of the work actually is.

What we do

• Prepare a numbered inventory to the standard a customs declaration needs, rather than a removals packing list

• Pack to export standard so that packages match the inventory and can be inspected without repacking the load

• Flag anything on your list that we think will attract a question, before it is loaded

• Work directly with your customs agent or freight forwarder on the documentation rather than leaving you in the middle