Moving to Australia

Australia is a country that has some of the best universities to impart the right education and it is a place that many have a dream to live in. But, as other countries, it too have some restrictions and some formalities that one has to go through while moving to Australia. Movage International  holds years of experience in helping people move to Australia. Here we mention some documents that are required to move certain items.

Documents required for the shipment of Household Goods:

• Copy of passport is a must with the photo and the signature page
• Copy of Visa
• Detailed list of packaged items to be moved
• Original air waybill or bill of lading
• Completed Australian Customs form B534

Note: The Original Bill of Lading must be received one week prior to the arrival of the shipment and the air waybill must be received 48 hours well in advance to the arrival of the shipment. The signature should be the same in both the passport page and Australian Customs Form B534.

Documents required for the shipment of Motor Vehicles:

• Registration papers of the vehicle from the country of origin
• Purchase receipt and also the papers proving the ownership of the vehicle
• Vehicle Import Approval

Note: The Vehicle Import Approval takes almost 3-6 weeks for the processing and it must be obtained before the vehicle is finally imported. One has to also contact the Taxation Office for the luxury cars to determine when the tax must be paid for the same.

For the import of pets, an import application must be submitted and one should also have an import permit for the same. The import permit normally takes around 10 business days from the receipt by Department of Agriculture. The pets to be imported should meet the requirements of Australian Department of Agriculture and Water Resources.

Restricted/ Dutiable Items:

There is a very long list of restricted or the items that attract customs duty in Australia. Some of the items from the list that attract import duty in Australia are mentioned below:

• Antibiotics
• Chemical Weapons
• Whales and dolphins
• Items made with dog and cat fur
• Alcohol attracts custom duties and also 10% GST which is added to the duty calculated.
• Chewing tobacco more than 1.5 kgs is subjected to custom duty.
• Firearms, or even parts like magazine, ammunition and replica.
• Novelty erasers
• Only rough diamonds in tamper proof container
• Knives
• Laser Printers
• Radioactive materials
• Weapons
• Unmanufactured Tobacco
• Pornographic material
• Incandescent lamps.

These are only a few items, but one should check for other things as well that are restricted from importing into Australia.

Prohibited Items:

This list is quite small in comparison to the restricted items to Australia. Here is what is prohibited in Australia from entering.

• Dogs from dangerous breeds like Japanese Tosa, American Pitbull and others are prohibited
• Suicide devices are also not permitted in Australia
• Rough Diamonds are also among the items that are prohibited in Australia

Note: Customs regulations can change at any time with or without notice. This document is provided as a guide and for information only. While Movage has exercised reasonable care in publishing this document, Movage makes no representation, either expressed or implied, as to its accuracy or applicability.