Your household goods to Dubai: free of import duty, but only once your residence permit is there

Your used household goods enter the Emirates free of import duty, if it is your first settlement. That is the good news, and it is set out in black and white in the Dubai Customs customer guide. The trap is in one of the conditions: as a foreigner you must be able to show your work and residence permit. You do not have it on the day you land. Whoever lets the container leave too early leaves it waiting in the port for papers that do not exist yet.

Are my household goods exempt from import duty?

Yes, under conditions. Dubai Customs lists them in the customer guide without beating about the bush:

• as a foreigner you are coming to the Emirates for the first time to live there;
• the goods are used;
• the quantity fits furnishing a house;
• the owner of the goods and the person in whose name the declaration is made are the same person.

In addition you hand in a list of everything that is coming, proof that you lived abroad, and your work and residence permit. New goods fall outside the exemption, and on those you simply pay import duty. On the page about personal effects customs gives the rate: if the inspector finds goods that are new and in commercial quantities, it is 5%.

Note the words for the first time. Whoever lived in the Emirates before, left and comes back does not, as a foreigner, fall under this exemption; on return it only applies to Emirati nationals.

Which papers does customs want to see?

Document	Why
Copy of your passport or Emirates ID	identification of the owner
Copy of your residence visa	proof of settlement
List of all imported goods	basis for the inspection
Proof of your residential address abroad	condition for the exemption
Proof of work and residence permit	condition for the exemption

The proof of your Dutch address is easiest to arrange when you deregister: ask the municipality for an international proof of deregistration. You only get it if the date of deregistration is also your emigration date. Make the list as precise as you can, room by room, with a description per box. It is the basis on which the inspector decides what is used and what is new.

Do not let the container leave before your visa is there. You travel in on an entry permit and then have sixty days to complete the medical test, Emirates ID and residence visa. Only with that visa can you apply for the exemption. Sea freight that arrives after just three weeks may therefore sit in the port for weeks. Plan the shipment around the date your residence visa is expected to be ready, not around your flight date.

What may not go in the container?

The customer guide says certain goods may not be imported, or only with a permit from the competent authority, according to the Gulf tariff codes. For a move from the Netherlands three categories stand out.

Alcohol. The alcohol allowance is a passenger allowance: four litres per person aged eighteen or over, in your luggage. It does not belong in the household goods.

Medicines. NederlandWereldwijd advises checking whether you need a medicines certificate and taking medicines in their original packaging. Take them in your hand luggage, with your prescription, and not in a container that is weeks on the way.

Visual material. The travel advice lists bringing, possessing and selling pornographic material as prohibited and punishable. Go through books, films and storage media before they go into a box.

If you are in doubt about anything else, such as a drone or radio equipment, ask the removal company or Dubai Customs before shipping which permit is needed. One refused item holds up the whole shipment.

What may go in your suitcase?

What you carry as a passenger falls under the passenger rules, separate from the container.

What	Exempt up to
Gifts	AED 3,000 in value
Cigarettes	400
Cigars	50
Alcoholic beverages	4 litres
Beer	2 cartons of 24 cans of at most 355 ml

For tobacco and alcohol you must be eighteen, and the goods must be your own and not a commercial quantity. Electronics and household appliances may come along in a reasonable quantity.

Bring it or buy locally?

The exemption saves import duty, not the shipping. Put the removal company's quote next to what it costs to buy the same locally, and bring what you do not want to lose or what wins that sum. A car you bring along does not fall under this exemption: customs charges 5% on its value, as you can read in driving licence and car in Dubai.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey, step 4.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Dubai or go straight to step 4.1 in the open plan.