Like Tree4Likes
  • 3 Post By bdw
  • 1 Post By shri

Moving out of HK remotely - practical advice please

Closed Thread
  1. #1

    Question Moving out of HK remotely - practical advice please

    To cut a long story short, we are no longer in HK and our visas have expired. I have a new job starting in Australia in the coming months and we will be relocating there, we are currently in Europe. The problem is that most of our belongings are in a storage unit in HK and it is impossible for us to be there physically to itemise what is there, what needs to be put in the bin, put together an inventory for shipping etc. I have an approximate idea of what is in the storage unit, but this is very rough and nowhere near what is required for inventory/shipping purposes. I have a few questions relating to this and if anyone can shed light on any of them that would be greatly appreciated!



    1. Has anyone else been in this situation? What is the best way of moving this stuff from HK to Australia when we are not able to be in HK in person? Maybe a company offers some kind of service here? I have a reasonable but not amazing relocation package so want to keep costs down if possible. In an ideal world I would have sorted through this stuff before shipping it, as some of it is doubtless for the bin, but this can't really be done in this situation can it, and so I might have to ship it all to Australia?


    2. What about shipping items to Australia that could be restricted, for example wooden furniture / antique items / wicker basket etc? I have read that Australia is quite strict about these kinds of items, and accepts certification of certain kinds of fumigation, extensive cleaning etc. How would we deal with that, or determining wood type or whatever, considering that we can't be there physically? The items I have in mind are definitely not for throwing away.


    3. Does anyone have any experience of import taxes when shipping from HK to Australia, and how to quantify these?


    4. We will probably ship these items before we know our Australian address, and before we arrive in Australia. What should be the destination address? Perhaps a storage unit?


    Thanks in advance for any ideas!


  2. #2

    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Location
    θ–„ζ‰Άζž—
    Posts
    47,971

    Saw this in an article on Reuters:

    Those prospects are so unappealing, that another relocation company, Regal World Transport System Ltd., said some clients had unusually reached out from overseas to move their belongings out of the city. They refused to return to Hong Kong after taking trips initially meant to be for family visits.
    https://www.reuters.com/world/china/...es-2021-11-30/
    newcomerhk likes this.

  3. #3

    Join Date
    Feb 2009
    Posts
    8,280

    Australia does not charge import taxes on personal belongings, provided you have used them for the previous 12 months (cannot be new items). But I still had some new stuff in my 50 box shipment from HK to Aus and they didnt care about it.

    But the bastards did detect my Dyson vacuum cleaner, said it had a bit of dust in the dustbin, sent me a photo of the dust and an invoice for $50 "cleaning fees" before they released the shipment to me.

    Sorry can't help with most of your other questions, I sold most of my stuff on Carousel and Geo in HK before leaving. My shipment was just 50 boxes of smallish sized stuff, no large furnture, nothing bigger than my vacuum cleaner, air purifier, kids skateboards, that size type of stuff and smaller.

    shri, Rob2020 and newcomerhk like this.

  4. #4
    Quote Originally Posted by shri:
    It’s a slight relief to hear of others in the same boat! Might check out this removals company actually.

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by bdw:
    Australia does not charge import taxes on personal belongings, provided you have used them for the previous 12 months (cannot be new items). But I still had some new stuff in my 50 box shipment from HK to Aus and they didnt care about it.

    But the bastards did detect my Dyson vacuum cleaner, said it had a bit of dust in the dustbin, sent me a photo of the dust and an invoice for $50 "cleaning fees" before they released the shipment to me.

    Sorry can't help with most of your other questions, I sold most of my stuff on Carousel and Geo in HK before leaving. My shipment was just 50 boxes of smallish sized stuff, no large furnture, nothing bigger than my vacuum cleaner, air purifier, kids skateboards, that size type of stuff and smaller.
    Thanks for this. It seems from https://www.abf.gov.au/entering-and-...-australia/upe that to get import duties exemption we need to meet permanent residency requirements. It’s not clear if we have to actually be PR or just meet requirements for PR to qualify. We are being nominated on PR visas by my employer but it could take 6 months or so before we get the visas, and I was hoping to ship this stuff to Australia sooner rather than later as it’s costing me a fortune to store it in HK.