No official source publishes what it costs to ship a family’s household abroad, so this site publishes no figure. Price moves with volume, route, access at both ends, declared value and season. What can be verified is the shape of the transaction. Know it and you can make three quotes comparable, and spot the one that is low because it leaves things out.
What you are actually buying
A full container load means the box is yours. A 20ft dry container holds 33.2 cubic metres (1,172 cubic feet) and a 40ft holds 67.7 cubic metres (2,389 cubic feet), with payload capacities of 25,000 kg and 27,600 kg (DSV container specifications, checked 2026-08-26). Matson publishes 1,170 and 2,390 cubic feet for the same boxes (checked 2026-08-26).
Less than container load, sold as groupage or consolidated service, means your goods are packed at a container freight station alongside other households and you pay only for the space you occupy (DSV, LCL services, checked 2026-08-26). Cheaper and slower, because the container waits to fill.
Air freight is charged on a different basis again. Schumacher Cargo Logistics publishes its own comparison: air is charged by weight and ocean by volume, and air arrives in one to two weeks against eight to ten weeks door to door for ocean (checked 2026-08-26). Those transit times are that company’s claim, not a regulated figure. The pricing basis is what matters: light bulky things, bedding, a sofa, plastic toys, are the worst air cargo and the best use of a shared container. No mover’s room-count rule of thumb is authoritative, which is why the survey exists.
Check the licence before you check the price
A company arranging your shipment from the United States should be an ocean transportation intermediary: the Federal Maritime Commission’s term for an ocean freight forwarder or a non-vessel-operating common carrier. A US-based company in either role must hold an FMC licence (46 CFR 515.3) and file proof of financial responsibility for claims (46 CFR Part 515 Subpart C), and every NVOCC must publish a tariff open to public inspection (46 CFR 520.3) (FMC, checked 2026-08-26).
Check any company yourself in the FMC’s own list at https://www2.fmc.gov/oti/, searchable by organisation name, trade name, licence number, city, state or country. Each record shows the licence number, renewal date and registered address. Looked up there on 2026-08-26, all listed as NVOCCs: Schumacher Cargo Logistics, Inc. of Gardena, California, licence 020417, renewal 07/31/2029; Allied International N.A., Inc. of Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois, licence 002447, renewal 07/31/2027; SIRVA Move Management, Inc., licence 022455, renewal 05/31/2027. Foreign-based NVOCCs may be registered rather than licensed, so a blank licence number is not a red flag.
If the shipment goes wrong, the FMC’s Consumer Affairs and Dispute Resolution Services handles household goods disputes at no fee (complaints@fmc.gov, checked 2026-08-26).
The survey and the inventory
For the US leg the rules are written down. A household goods motor carrier moving your things in interstate commerce must give you a written estimate based on a physical survey, and you can waive that survey only in writing (49 CFR 375.401(a)). A physical survey is on-site or virtual, and a virtual one requires live or pre-recorded video clear enough for the carrier to identify the goods (49 CFR 375.103). A verbal quote is not an estimate. Those rules cover the interstate road leg, not the ocean leg (49 CFR 375.101). Use them as your standard anyway: a company that prices your move off a room count and a phone call has not seen your basement.
The survey produces the inventory, the only thing that makes quotes comparable. Send every mover the same list, in the same units, with the same exclusions written down. Then ask whether each estimate is binding or non-binding. A binding estimate guarantees the total for the goods and services listed; on a non-binding one the mover cannot require more than 110 percent at delivery before releasing your shipment (49 CFR 375.403, 375.405, 375.407).
What makes two quotes non-comparable
Most low bids are not lies. They are narrower scopes. Ask each of these and get the answer in the quote document:
- Origin access. Stairs, no elevator, a long carry, a street too narrow for the trailer. The carrier must price elevators and long carries before preparing the bill of lading, and if it fails to ask, it must deliver and bill you later (49 CFR 375.401(f)). “Flight charge” is the term for stairs (Appendix A).
- Delivery above the ground floor at destination. The same problem, in a building you have not seen. Price it as a named line.
- Port and terminal charges at both ends, itemised separately from ocean freight.
- Customs clearance at destination, and whether the fee covers the agent’s filing only or an inspection too. Examination costs fall on you and vary by terminal.
- Storage. Ask the tariff’s maximum storage-in-transit period. A carrier must tell you in writing, at least 10 days before it expires, when your goods convert to permanent storage and its liability ends (49 CFR 375.609).
- Demurrage and detention, charges for using terminal space or the container itself, separate from freight. Any such invoice must show the free time allowed in days, its start and end dates, the container availability date and the rate; missing required information removes your obligation to pay, and the invoice must be issued within 30 days of the charge (46 CFR 541.3 to 541.8).
Expat Family Living can pass your details to moving companies so they can quote you, and we get paid when we do. That does not change a line of this guide, which is why the guide teaches you to read a quote rather than telling you what one should cost.
Duty relief at the other end
Most countries let an arriving resident bring used household goods in without import duty. The conditions are the part families miss.
Across the EU the basis is Council Regulation (EC) No 1186/2009, Articles 3 to 11: you must have owned and used the goods for at least six months before leaving the third country, have lived outside the EU for a continuous 12 months, enter the goods for free circulation within 12 months of establishing residence, and not lend, hire out or transfer them for a further 12 months without telling customs.
Ireland’s Revenue adds the mechanics: duty and tax must already have been paid where you bought the goods, importation may run from six months before to 12 months after the move, and you or your agent email declaration form C&E 1076 (Rev 2) with supporting documents to the port or airport of arrival two weeks before the goods land. No relief for alcohol, tobacco, tools of a trade, or commercial vehicles (Revenue, published 01 April 2026, checked 2026-08-26).
HM Revenue & Customs runs the same three tests for Great Britain, with one difference that costs people money: you must get prior approval on a ToR1 form before you claim (HMRC, updated 12 November 2025, checked 2026-08-26).
We could not open the Mexican or Costa Rican authorities’ own household goods pages on 2026-08-26, so this guide does not state their conditions. Do not assume they match Ireland’s. Some countries require the inventory in the local language, certified at a consulate before the goods ship, which is not a step you can take after the container sails.
Insurance is priced on the value you declare
The default is very low. On the ocean leg, US law caps the carrier at 500 dollars per package unless the nature and value of the goods were declared by the shipper before shipment and written into the bill of lading (46 U.S.C. 30701 note, section 4(5)).
On the US road leg the same logic has a name. Released value protection is free and limits the mover to 60 cents per pound per article, so a 10-pound item worth 1,000 dollars pays out 6 dollars. Full value protection costs extra, is priced from a minimum valuation of 6.00 dollars per pound of shipment weight, and makes you list separately any article worth more than 100 dollars per pound (49 CFR Part 375, Appendix A, current 2026-08-24).
So ask each mover what value is insured, on what basis, with what deductible, and whether the cover runs through the ocean leg, a customs hold and final delivery or stops at the port. Under-declaring to save premium turns a damaged container into a loss you absorb.
Pets and vehicles are separate shipments
Your cat does not travel in the container and neither does the car, even where both qualify for the same duty relief. HMRC’s transfer of residence guidance grants relief on pets and vehicles, then routes each elsewhere: pets through the Pet Travel Scheme and the Animal and Plant Health Agency, a permanently imported vehicle through its own NOVA declaration (checked 2026-08-26). Ireland handles vehicles under a separate Vehicle Registration Tax application (Revenue, checked 2026-08-26). Price and book both separately.
Who should not
Families whose shipment is small. If you are moving clothes, books, kitchen basics and a few sentimental items, the freight, port charges, customs clearance and destination delivery on even a shared container can exceed what replacing those items costs at the other end. Get one groupage quote, price the same list in your destination city, and be ready to fly with suitcases.
Families on a corporate package with a mover already contracted. If your employer’s provider is paid for, your own quote process buys you nothing you can act on. Spend that time on the inventory and the destination customs paperwork, which is where corporate moves go wrong.