Your household goods to Morocco: the papers, and the car that usually doesn't come

Two items decide what the move to Morocco costs. The first turns out fine if you have the papers in order. The second almost always disappoints.

A word on the sources of this article

Moroccan customs publishes its rules on douane.gov.ma, but that site refuses automated traffic: every request is rejected before a page appears. What is below about customs has therefore been compiled consistently from several independent sources and not read at customs itself.

We'd rather mention that than conceal it. Have your mover confirm the current conditions before you book — on this route that is no superfluous courtesy.

The household goods: two papers and a clock

Used personal belongings and furniture that belong to a normal move enter Morocco exempt from duties and taxes. That exemption hangs on two documents.

A detailed inventory, dated and signed, of everything that comes along. Not "two boxes kitchen" but a list a customs officer can check.

A certificat de changement de résidence, to be issued by the municipality of departure or by the Moroccan consulate. This is the paper that says you're not going on holiday but moving.

In addition a period of six months applies. That is also why you have to plan a move in two parts in advance: everything must be on the inventory of the first shipment, and both shipments must pass the same customs office within those six months. Whoever thinks of the second half later pays duties on it.

By road or by container

To Morocco you have a choice most far destinations don't offer. By road through France and Spain, with the ferry across, is usually the cheapest and fastest for a part load. A full household goes by sea container from Rotterdam or Antwerp.

Also count what you don't take. Morocco rents a lot furnished, and the price of furniture on the spot sits below that of the transport.

The car: the item everyone miscalculates

Your Dutch car may enter Morocco under the scheme for temporary import. No duties, no VAT — but no solution either for someone who lives there. That scheme gives a limited number of months of driving per calendar year on a foreign plate. So whoever lives there permanently doesn't drive their Dutch car all year round.

The other road is definitive import. That has an age limit, plus import duty and VAT on the appraised value of the car. For older diesels that road is in practice closed.

The sum therefore usually comes out at selling in the Netherlands and buying again in Morocco. Do that deliberately and not by accident: set the proceeds of your Dutch car against the price of a comparable car there, and put the difference in your budget.

If you want to try anyway, have it confirmed before you leave that your car makes definitive import. Not afterwards, because then it's already there.

The driving licence: count on an exam

This belongs to the same decision, and it is often forgotten.

Morocco only exchanges a foreign driving licence if a reciprocity agreement exists with the issuing country. Moreover the application has to be lodged within twelve months of settling; after that the Moroccan exams apply, theory and practical.

Whether the Netherlands is on that list we haven't been able to hang on an official source. What is certain is the other side: a Moroccan driving licence cannot be exchanged in the Netherlands and requires a full exam at the CBR. With a scheme that rests on reciprocity, that is no good sign.

So count on an exam track and let the opposite show. And arrange it in your first months, because the twelve-month clock runs from your settling and not from the moment you think of it.

The pet has the longest clock

Whoever brings a dog or cat starts earlier than with all other steps. The order matters more there than the lead time: the chip must be placed before the vaccination, and after a first rabies vaccination at least twenty-one days must pass. The separate article on that is under the moving phase.