Moving back to the UK after living in the States for over 20 years. Do I have to declare what I'm bringing with me?

Posted by toottootmcgroot@reddit | AskABrit | View on Reddit | 12 comments

I was doing some research and came across the form Application for transfer of residence relief and was wondering if this is all necessary? I'm just going to be bringing two suitcases of clothes and toiletries since I'll be selling everything else in the States.

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Think-Committee-4394@reddit

OP - so yes … which is counter to most people here with a but

if you are talking filling a shipping container with a house worth of goods
your exporter & HMRC will want a manifest, a bill of lading which is the transfer document from there to here
you will want to accurately value the pile & possibly make special arrangements for things of great value
HOWEVER there will be little charge for import as goods are your personal effects & not for sale
doing this by the book will also help you avoid any items if you have any ILLEGAL here but perfectly LEGAL there, which will cause you issues at the port

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ExpectedDickbuttGotD@reddit

yep. I did the form for what I shipped.

not for my luggage- that was just a normal flight

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Think-Committee-4394@reddit

Nice

it makes it much easier for HMRC to tick off no charge when things are easy to identify

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dereks63@reddit

Assuming you already did the mountains of paperwork for the stuff you're shipping, then your luggage is fine, my American wife and I returned to the UK with no problems.

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txe4@reddit

No of course not. There's no manned customs at UK airports most of the time anyway - it's a "trawl credit card data for people buying loads of fags in Portugal then nick them at the border" type of setup.

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IntrepidMaybe8579@reddit

Tell me your story? Same boat as you been thinking of coming back for a long time