Bringing your belongings, country by country

One question, 31answers, each one the country’s own record. The labels below are the ones its own instruments use rather than a vocabulary we imposed on them: where one country’s law has no equivalent of another’s test, the row is simply absent, because an empty cell would invent a comparison nobody made. Every line opens onto the law it rests on.

Countries answered

31

Exceptions by nationality

0

Oldest check

2026-09-21

Newest check

2026-10-08

Antigua and BarbudaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Bringing Your Belongings to Antigua and Barbuda

The duty-free concession here is for people coming home, not for people arriving. The Customs and Excise Division's published terms give a national who has lived abroad for ten years or more duty-free treatment on all used personal effects including tools of trade, and on one imported motor vehicle owned for at least two years; a national who has been away for less may be considered at the discretion of the Minister of Finance. A returning student who has studied abroad for three years or more gets used personal and household items, used books and a computer. Nothing in those terms reaches a foreign national moving here for the first time, and the Customs (Control and Management) Act 2013 leaves baggage reliefs to be prescribed rather than stating them. Everyone, national or not, has to present their accompanying baggage to the proper officer.

Returning national, full concession

10 years or more abroad

Returning national, vehicle

One vehicle, owned at least 2 years

Sales tax on the vehicle

Exempt if owned at least 1 year and for personal use

Sales tax on household and personal effects

Exempt if previously owned at least 1 year and not for resale

Returning student

3 or more years of study abroad

Concession for a first-time foreign resident

None found

ArgentinaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-21

Bringing Your Belongings In

Permanent residency unlocks a genuinely generous allowance: household and personal effects come in free of tax, new or used. Tools of your trade do not - they are taxable. And a used car registered in your name comes in exempt provided its customs value is no more than fifteen thousand dollars, which is the single most valuable line in Argentine customs for someone relocating.

Household and personal effects

Free of tax

Professional tools and equipment

Taxable

A used car

Exempt up to USD 15,000 customs value

Attaches to

Permanent residency

BarbadosCaribbeanVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-05

Bringing Your Belongings to Barbados

The Customs Act handles a person's own things through the definition of passengers' baggage: commercial travellers' samples, and otherwise the personal or household effects of the passenger and his family plus small articles brought as declared gifts, but nothing intended for sale or exchange. Baggage so defined is kept outside several of the Act's ordinary requirements - it need not be entered before export, it is not caught by the rules on goods not reported on arrival, and the loading of it is permitted at the proper officer's discretion. For a vehicle or other goods brought temporarily, section 111 allows importation against a deposit or security, and section 112 requires export within three months unless the proper officer is satisfied the goods are the bona fide property or in the bona fide use of a person on a temporary visit, in which case he may allow longer.

What counts as baggage

The personal or household effects of the passenger and his family, and small articles imported as declared gifts

What does not

Any articles intended for sale or exchange

Temporary importation period

3 months from the date of the permission

Extension for a temporary visitor

At the proper officer's discretion, on additional security where he requires it, where the goods are the bona fide property or in the bona fide use of a person on a temporary visit

Vehicle weight certificate fee for a short visit

Not payable by a person visiting for a period not exceeding 3 months who brought the vehicle for his own use, on producing the manufacturer's weight certificate

Duty concession for a returning national or a new immigrant

Not found in any instrument we read

BelizeCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Bringing Your Belongings to Belize

Belize's duty-free allowance for household effects is gated on status, and the gate is drawn tightly: the Customs and Excise Department asks for documentary evidence that you are a Belizean national or hold a Belize residency permit before any of it applies. Used household effects that you have owned for at least a year come in free; new ones come in free up to BZ$20,000 CIF, but only for a Belizean or Belizean family returning after at least three continuous years abroad, and general sales tax at 12.5 per cent still applies to new effects. Motor vehicles, office equipment and building materials are excluded from every head of the exemption. If you are not a national and do not hold a residency permit, you pay the tariff. The large exception is the Qualified Retired Persons programme, which carries its own statutory exemption covering personal effects and a vehicle, boat or light aircraft.

Who the exemption is for

A Belizean national, or the holder of a Belizean residency permit

Used household effects

Free of customs duties if used and in your possession for at least one year

New personal and household effects

Up to a C.I.F. value of BZ$20.000.00

General sales tax on new household effects

12.5%

Shipment window

Within three months before or after the arrival of a passenger

Always excluded from the exemption

Motor vehicles, office equipment and building materials

Non-resident without a residency permit

Duties charged at the rates in the Belize Customs Tariff

Qualified Retired Person's window

Within one year of first entering Belize

BoliviaSouth AmericaCorroborated by multiple sourcesStable2026-09-27

Bringing Your Belongings

Bolivia lets you bring household goods in free of import duty under a special customs destination, and the qualifying test is time abroad rather than a residence permit: the law reaches non-residents who have spent at least two years outside Bolivia before arriving. The allowance for a foreigner is USD 35,000. The shipment has to arrive in a window running from one month before you do to six months after, through a single customs administration, and the declaration is sworn online and validated by a Bolivian consulate before anything moves. Vehicles are excluded outright.

Allowance for a foreigner

USD 35,000 FOB

Allowance for a returning Bolivian

USD 35,000, or USD 50,000 if it includes used machinery, equipment and tools

Qualifying period abroad

At least 2 years

Arrival window

From 1 month before to 6 months after the owner arrives

Customs administrations

One only - the goods must arrive through a single administration

Import duty

None on qualifying goods

Vehicles

Excluded, as are parts and accessories of machines or equipment

Consular validation

Free

How often

Once

BrazilSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-09-27

Bringing Your Belongings

Someone moving to Brazil to live can bring household furniture and goods, and the tools, machines and instruments of their trade, free of import tax and the associated federal contributions. There is no value ceiling on that exemption, but there is a condition that decides everything: until the indefinite-term residence authorisation is granted, the goods can only come in under temporary admission, not under the exemption. The shipment itself has to arrive within three months before your arrival or six months after it - and where the permit comes later, the six months run from the date the permit was granted rather than from the flight.

Window for the shipment

Three months before to six months after arrival

Where the residence permit comes later

The six months run from the date the indefinite-term permit is granted

Household goods and furniture

Exempt, new or used

Tools and instruments of a trade

Exempt, with prior proof of the activity

Before the indefinite-term permit

Temporary admission only, not the exemption

Goods that miss the window

Taxed at 50% of their value under the special baggage regime

Vehicles

Not baggage

Cash to declare

More than R$ 10.000,00, or the equivalent

ChileSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-27

Bringing Your Household Goods In

Chilean customs lets a foreigner arriving with a residence visa or a work contract bring in household goods up to USD 6,750 and work tools up to USD 2,025 free of customs duty and of VAT. The shipment does not have to travel with you: 120 days either side of your arrival is allowed. The allowance is published in dollars, which means it does not silently erode with the peso, and it is substantially more generous than what a returning Chilean gets for a comparable time abroad.

Household goods allowance

USD 6,750

Work tools allowance

USD 2,025

Taxes waived

Customs duty and VAT

Shipment window

120 days before or after your arrival

Attaches to

A residence visa or a work contract

Visitors

May import goods, provided they are not commercial in nature

Returning Chileans, 6 months to a year abroad

USD 675

Returning Chileans, 1 to 5 years abroad

USD 4,050

Returning Chileans, over 5 years abroad

USD 6,750

ColombiaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-27

Bringing Your Belongings In

Colombia's household goods regime is not duty-free and, as published, is not written for foreigners. Menaje is declared under its own tariff heading and taxed at a flat fifteen per cent, and the eligibility conditions DIAN states are framed around Colombians returning after at least twenty-four months abroad. Whether and on what terms a foreign newcomer qualifies is not answered on this page.

Tax

15%, a single rate

Tariff heading

9805.00.00.00

Published conditions are for

Colombians returning from abroad

Qualifying time abroad

24 months within the previous 3 years

Arrival window

1 month before to 4 months after you

Frequency

Once per family unit every 5 years

Costa RicaCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceActively changing right nowlast checked 2026-10-04

The Household Goods Exemption Closed in July 2026

For five years Costa Rica offered new investors, rentistas and pensioners a substantial customs package: one duty-free shipment of household goods, up to two vehicles free of import duty, tariff and value added tax, duty-free professional and scientific instruments, and twenty per cent off the property transfer tax. The package came from Ley 9996, and article 12 of that law allowed it to be taken only during the law's first five years. The law was published on 14 July 2021 and took effect on publication, so the window closed on 14 July 2026. Those who claimed inside it keep the benefits for ten years and must hold the goods for that long. Remote workers have a separate and much narrower exemption, limited to the computing and telecommunications equipment they need for their work, and it lasts only as long as the status.

Household goods exemption for investors, rentistas and pensioners

Closed to new claims since July 2026

Vehicles

Up to two, free of import duty, tariff and value added tax - same closed window

Property transfer tax relief

20% of the transfer tax, within the law's period of validity

How long a claim made in time lasts

10 years from the date it was granted

Where a claim is made

The EXONET system of the Dirección General de Hacienda

Remote workers

Exempt from import taxes on basic personal computing, IT and telecommunications equipment

CubaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-06

Bringing Your Belongings

Household goods and personal effects of a person arriving in Cuba to reside permanently are exempt from customs duty, and so are the used personal objects any passenger carries. Everything else runs into two low ceilings that apply to everyone: a shipment may not exceed two hundred United States dollars in value and a passenger's accompanied baggage may not exceed a thousand. Exceeding either is not an excess-duty situation; the tariff makes it a ground for administrative confiscation, with an option to formalise the goods as a commercial import instead. Duty is calculated ad valorem on a value in United States dollars and paid in Cuban pesos, and for mixed consumer goods the customs service values by weight rather than by invoice.

Household goods on moving permanently

Exempt from duty

Used personal objects carried by a passenger

Exempt from duty

Value ceiling per shipment

USD 200

Value ceiling for passenger baggage

USD 1 000

Exceeding a ceiling

Administrative confiscation, or formalise as a commercial import

Duty basis

Ad valorem on the import value in USD

Duty paid in

Cuban pesos

Mixed consumer goods

Valued by weight

Foreign scholarship holders

Goods for personal use exempt while the status lasts

Repeated importing

The right to import can be temporarily limited

DominicaCaribbeanCorroborated by multiple sourcesMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Bringing Your Belongings to Dominica

There is a generous duty-free concession on household effects, tools of trade and a motor vehicle, and it is for Dominicans coming home. Eligibility turns on a Dominican passport going back at least seven years and documentary proof of more than seven years' residence abroad - not on age, not on investment, and not on a residence permit. A foreign national moving to Dominica falls back on the Customs Act 2010, which does not itself grant personal-effects relief: section 78(2) lets the Minister exempt goods by regulation "for the purposes and in the circumstances specified in the List of Conditional Duty Exemptions set out in the Common External Tariff", so the relief, if any, is in the CARICOM tariff rather than in a Dominican statute. We did not read that List, and nothing is stated about what it allows.

Returning Resident concession: household and personal effects

Free of import duty and VAT

Returning Resident concession: tools of trade

Free of import duty and VAT

Returning Resident concession: motor vehicle

One vehicle, free of import duty and VAT

Who qualifies

A Dominican national, 7 years abroad

How often

Once, and one member of a family

Shipping window

Ideally no more than 3 months before arrival, and 3 months after

Vehicle resale restriction

5 years

Relief for an incoming foreign resident

Not stated here

Container inspection at your premises

EC$25 or EC$30 per hour per officer

Dominican RepublicCaribbeanVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-06

Bringing Your Things: Baggage Is Free, Household Goods Are Not Baggage

The 2021 customs law is generous about baggage and explicit about what baggage is not. Anyone arriving at a port, airport or land crossing may bring in their baggage free of duties and taxes, baggage may follow them for up to three months after arrival, and a family may make one declaration between them. Then a single sentence closes the door: household effects are not part of a traveller's baggage. Moving a home is therefore a separate exercise, and the relief for it does not live in the customs law at all - it comes through the pensioner and rentista statute, which routes its beneficiaries into a 1993 tariff law exempting household goods and personal effects, and into a 1967 law partially exempting one motor vehicle. Both reliefs are conditional on the residence approval and neither extends to the spouse or dependants on the household-goods side.

Baggage

Free of duties and taxes

Household effects as baggage

Excluded

Unaccompanied baggage window

3 months after arrival

Family declaration

One per family group

Household-goods relief

Through the pensioner statute into the 1993 tariff law

Who the household-goods relief covers

The principal applicant only

Vehicles

One car, partially exempt

Vehicle lock-in

5 years

Vehicles bought locally by a beneficiary

Exempt from the transfer tax and the excise

Returning Dominicans' gifts

Free between 1 December and 7 January

EcuadorSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-21

Bringing Your Household Goods to Ecuador

Ecuador's household-goods exemption is open to foreigners, not only to returning Ecuadorians, but it is a different regime for each. A foreigner needs a temporary or permanent residence visa to claim it - or, if the visa is still in process, a guarantee covering the full duty on the shipment - and must use a licensed customs agent, which returning Ecuadorians may avoid. Work equipment up to 160 minimum wages comes in free of import duty, and above 80 minimum wages an investment plan has to be filed. Two things a foreigner cannot do: bring a car or a motorcycle as part of the shipment, and leave within two years without unwinding the exemption.

Open to foreigners

Yes, with a temporary or permanent residence visa

Visa still in process

Allowed against a guarantee for the full duty

Vehicles

Foreigners may not import a car or motorcycle as household goods

Work equipment, duty-free ceiling

160 minimum wages - USD 77,120 in 2026^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2026-01-01

Investment plan threshold

Above 80 minimum wages - USD 38,560 in 2026^CALC (calculated by us, not published)as of 2026-01-01

Clothing and footwear

Up to 200 kilograms per person

Customs agent

Mandatory for foreigners

Residence you must keep

2 years from release, with no more than 90 days abroad each year

Work absences for foreigners

Up to 180 days a year do not break residence, if justified

Second use of the regime

After 10 years

El SalvadorCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-04

Bringing Your Things: a Household Allowance That Is Not for Immigrants

The Ley de Equipajes gives every traveller used personal effects free of duty plus a thousand dollars of new goods, rising by five hundred in December and January, and a flat thirty per cent option on anything above that. What it does not give a foreigner is a household shipment. Its household allowance - fifteen thousand dollars CIF, and never a vehicle - is defined for the retornante, and the regulation defines a retornante as a Salvadoran who lived abroad three years or more and is coming home for good. For a foreigner settling in El Salvador the only duty-free household route in the statute book is elsewhere: article 146 of the migration law, which gives the resident pensioner and the resident rentista twenty thousand dollars CIF of household effects once, and a vehicle up to twenty-five thousand dollars CIF once every five years. Anyone arriving on a work permit, a marriage, an investment or a student place is outside both.

New goods allowance

USD 1,000

December and January

USD 500 more

Alcohol and tobacco inside the allowance

2 litres, 200 cigarettes, 50 cigars

Flat rate above the allowance

30 per cent

Household allowance for a returning Salvadoran

USD 15,000 CIF

Qualifying period for that

3 years abroad

Vehicle in a household shipment

Never

Household allowance for a foreign immigrant

None under the baggage law

Household allowance for a pensioner or rentista

USD 20,000 CIF, once

Vehicle for a pensioner or rentista

USD 25,000 CIF, once every five years

Unaccompanied baggage window

30 days before, 90 days after

Temporary importation for a non-resident's equipment

60 days

GrenadaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Bringing Your Belongings to Grenada

Everything you bring must be declared, and the penalty for not declaring is the greater of EC$10,000 and three times the value. For small quantities there is a flat rate: non-commercial goods falling within three or more tariff headings and worth no more than EC$270 are charged thirty per cent instead of the tariff, with alcohol and tobacco carved out. Above that the Common External Tariff applies - and that is where the record stops, because Grenada's tariff is not published. The Customs Duties Act incorporates the Common External Tariff of the Caribbean Common Market, including its conditional duty exemptions, by reference and prints none of it. We could not reach the document, so we state no rate and no settler's concession.

Flat rate threshold

EC$270

Flat rate

30 per cent

Goods outside the flat rate

Wine, vermouth and spirits, and crew members' goods

Penalty for not declaring

EC$10,000 or three times the value, whichever is greater

Passengers' accompanied baggage and the entry requirement

Exempt

Settler's or returning national's concession

Not found

GuatemalaCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-04

Bringing Your Things to Guatemala

Everything turns on one distinction the customs administration makes over and over: traveller's baggage, which is personal effects you could reasonably need for your own use or your trade during the trip, and goods other than baggage, which is everything else and pays tax. The administration's own examples are blunt - one laptop is baggage, the second and third are not; one phone is baggage, the four you are carrying for relatives are not. Every traveller arriving or leaving by air or sea, national or foreign, files the regional traveller's declaration, now electronic and fillable up to three days ahead. Baggage can travel separately within three months either side of the trip. What we did not find anywhere is a household-goods concession for someone moving to Guatemala: exemptions exist, but only where a specific law grants one.

Who files the traveller's declaration

Every traveller by air or sea, national or foreign

When

Up to 3 days before the flight, free of charge

Validity

The day entered as the date of travel

Unaccompanied baggage

3 months before or after the trip

Baggage definition

Article 578 RECAUCA

Goods other than baggage

Admitted, but taxed and declared

A family declaration

Spouses file one; adult children file their own

Household-goods concession for new residents

None found in the pages read

False or incomplete declaration

Fines, seizure and prosecution

GuyanaSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-06

Bringing Your Belongings: the Settler Concession, and the 183-Day String Attached

The Customs Act defines a settler as a person who is not resident in Guyana and who satisfies the Commissioner-General, within three months of entry, that they intend to take up residence for a minimum of three years. The word is defined and then used nowhere else in the published Chapter, because the exemption it unlocks sits in the First Schedule, which the Chapter does not print. The Revenue Authority supplies what is missing: Part III B(ii) Item 5(3) exempts import duty on a settler's household effects and Item 5(4) does the same for a qualifying re-migrant's baggage and household effects, covering a reasonable quantity of tools of trade and personal and household goods, but not arms, ammunition, communication equipment or anything needing an import licence. A vehicle gets a reduced excise rate rather than an exemption. The conditions are real: apply to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs within six months of resettling, import the vehicle within six months, do not sell or lease it for three years if used or five if new, and be in Guyana at least 183 days a year throughout.

Settler, as the Act defines it

A person not resident in Guyana who satisfies the Commissioner-General, within three months of entry, that they intend to take up residence for a minimum of three years

Window to claim the status

Three months from entry under the Act; six months from resettlement for the application, per the Revenue Authorityas of 2026-10-06

Household effects

Import duty exempt, in a reasonable quantity, including tools of tradeas of 2026-10-06

Excluded from the exemption

Arms and ammunition, communication equipment, and anything needing an import licence or special approvalas of 2026-10-06

Motor vehicle

Excise tax at 5% under 1800cc, 10% for 1801-2000cc, 20% for 2001-3000cc and 30% above 3000cc, with customs duty and value added tax exemptas of 2026-10-06

Time to import the vehicle

Within six months of arrival or of re-assuming residenceas of 2026-10-06

Holding period

Three years for a used vehicle, five for a new oneas of 2026-10-06

Presence condition

At least 183 days in each year until the holding period expiresas of 2026-10-06

Consequence of breaking either condition

The foregone taxes become due and payable pro rataas of 2026-10-06

HondurasCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-04

Bringing Your Things to Honduras

Honduras puts its household-goods concession inside the migration law rather than the customs law, and it attaches it to two residence categories only. A rentista or a pensioner brings in a household's effects - furniture, clothes, jewellery, sporting goods and other personal or family articles - once, free of all import taxes, and may import one motor vehicle free of import, customs and sales tax. Both concessions come with a leash. Pass the household goods on within three years and the exonerated taxes fall due; pass the car on within five and the same, and even after five years the exoneration only travels to a buyer on proof that the holder has paid into the Honduran banking system, over those five years, at least the minimum income the law requires of them. Renounce the status and everything exonerated is repayable.

Who gets it

Rentista and pensioner residents

Household goods

One shipment, free of all import taxes

Vehicles

1

Household goods clawback

3 years

Vehicle lock

5 years

Vehicle release condition

Proof of having paid in at least the minimum income over those five years

Household goods dispensation fee

USD 200

Vehicle dispensation fee

USD 300

On giving up the status

The exonerated taxes become payable

JamaicaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-06

Bringing your belongings to Jamaica

Jamaica's generous import concession is for Jamaicans coming home, not for people moving there. It rests on Item 6A of the Second Schedule to the Customs Act, and Jamaica Customs says so on the front page of its own policy. A returning resident is a Jamaican national of eighteen or over who has been resident overseas for not less than three consecutive years and is returning to live permanently; the exemption covers household effects and tools of trade in the quantities the Schedule lists, is a one-time benefit, and runs to goods imported within six months before or after arrival. The list is specific to the point of comedy - one refrigerator, two television sets, four rugs, six bedside tables - and is published as a form you fill in. The thing most people believe about the regime is not true: there is no duty concession on a motor vehicle, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs says it in those words. An expatriate moving to Jamaica is not a returning resident at all and gets the ordinary passenger allowance.

Qualifying period abroad

Not less than three consecutive years

Minimum age

Eighteen

How often

Once - the exemption is a one-time benefit

Window for importing

Six months before or after arrival, or longer if the Commissioner approves

Returning students

More than one year and less than three years abroad, for study

Motor vehicle concession

Noneas of 2026-10-06

Age limit on an imported used car

Not more than five yearsas of 2026-10-06

Age limit on an imported light commercial vehicle

Not more than six yearsas of 2026-10-06

Spouses

Counted as one passenger if they arrive together or within three years of each other

Expatriates

Not returning residents; the ordinary passenger allowance applies

MexicoNorth AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-04

Bringing Your Household Goods to Mexico

Mexico draws a line that most guidance misses: a permanent resident imports household goods duty free and permanently, while a temporary resident imports them only temporarily and is obliged to take them out again. The customs law exempts household goods belonging to permanent residents and to repatriated or deported nationals; temporary residents and student residents appear in a different article, under the temporary import regime, for as long as their status lasts. Vehicles are excluded from the exemption outright, and a permanent resident cannot temporarily import a car at all.

Permanent residents

Duty-free import of household goods, permanently

Temporary residents and student residents

Temporary import only, for the duration of the status, with an undertaking to re-export

Minimum residence abroad

6 months

Consular certification

Required - the list is certified by the Mexican consulate where you lived

Timing window

With you, or up to 3 months before and 6 months after your arrival

Vehicles

Excluded from the exemption

Temporary import of a car

Available to a visitor or temporary resident, one vehicle; not to a permanent resident

Consular fee for the household goods list

MXN 3,475.29

Second and later shipments

Need separate customs authorisation if made within a year of the first

NicaraguaCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Bringing Your Belongings to Nicaragua

What a person may bring is governed by the Central American customs code and its regulation, both of which Nicaragua published in La Gaceta in July 2008, rather than by a Nicaraguan statute of its own. Baggage comes in free of duty. Goods other than baggage come in free up to five hundred Central American pesos, provided they are not for sale, the traveller has been out of the customs territory at least seventy-two hours, and each member state may limit the concession to once every six months. Household goods are declared by a simplified procedure against a detailed list, with no commercial invoice needed for used items, and a vehicle is never part of them. Nicaragua's own value-added-tax and excise laws exempt household goods in accordance with customs legislation, a limb that survives independently of the retirement law repealed in 2024.

Baggage

Free of duty

Goods other than baggage

Up to five hundred Central American pesos

Time outside the customs territory required

Seventy-two hours

How often the concession may be used

Once every six months, if the member state so decides

Unaccompanied baggage window

Three months before or after the traveller arrives

Household goods

Simplified declaration against a detailed list

Commercial invoice for used household goods

Not required

Vehicles as household goods

Never

Value-added tax on household goods

Exempt, in accordance with customs legislation

The household-goods franchise the retirement law gave

USD 20,000.00 - repealed in 2024

The vehicle tax exemption the retirement law gave

USD 13,000.00 CIF - repealed in 2024

PanamaCentral AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-04

Bringing Your Things to Panama

Panama's household-goods concession is not a general one for new residents: it belongs to the retirement categories. Ley 9 de 1987 gives the pensioner and the retired annuitant total tariff exemption on household and personal articles, once, up to B/.10,000, and total tariff exemption on one motor vehicle every two years. The goods cannot be sold for three years without paying the duty that was waived. And the agency that issues the exemption certificate publishes a condition the statute does not contain: its own requirement sheet says applicants will pay import duties and are relieved only of the 5% excise and the 7% transfer tax. The statute says 'franquicia arancelaria total'. The two do not say the same thing.

Household goods allowance

B/.10,000, once

Vehicle

One every 2 years

What the statute grants on the vehicle

Total tariff exemption

What the agency's sheet says is charged

Import duties, but not the 5% excise or 7% transfer tax

Resale restriction on household goods

3 years

Who else qualifies

Panamanians retired abroad

A general new-resident allowance

None found

ParaguaySouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-21

Bringing Your Belongings into Paraguay

Two separate regimes, and only one of them is fully published. The traveller's baggage regime exempts clothing and personal objects outright and gives a further allowance of US$ 500 arriving by air or river and US$ 300 at a land border; motor vehicles of every kind are excluded from it and can enter only under temporary admission, which requires proving residence in another country. The migration law separately gives admitted residents the right to bring in personal effects, family household goods and one family means of transport, with the import duties to be set by the customs authority - and we did not find those duties published.

Duty-free allowance, air or river arrival

US$ 500 beyond personal effects

Duty-free allowance, land border

US$ 300 beyond personal effects

Personal effects

Exempt outright

Gifts

Up to US$ 500 in total

Cash declaration threshold

US$ 10,000

Vehicles in the baggage regime

Excluded

Duties on a resident's household goods and family vehicle

Set by the customs authority; not found published

PeruSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-09-21

Bringing Your Belongings In

Peru does not let household goods in free. Menaje de casa carries a single flat tax of 12 per cent of the customs value, and the benefit is conditional on a fact about you rather than about the goods: thirteen consecutive months abroad before you arrive. Short trips back do not break that period, up to thirty days a year. The shipment has to land in a window running from one month before your arrival to six months after, and the benefit cannot be used twice in two years.

Tax rate

12 per cent of the customs value

Time abroad required

13 consecutive months before arrival

Tolerated return visits

Up to 30 calendar days per year

Shipment window

From 1 month before to 6 months after your arrival

Repeat use

Not within 2 years

Family unit

Head of household, parents, spouse or partner, and children under 18

Border residents

Excluded from this regime

Saint Kitts and NevisCaribbeanVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-05

Bringing Your Belongings to Saint Kitts and Nevis

The Customs Act sets out the duty and the penalty and delegates the allowance. Every person disembarking must present their accompanying baggage for examination, comply with customs directions and answer the officer's questions, and the Act opens that duty with the words "subject to any exemptions as may be prescribed" - so what you may bring free of duty is in subsidiary legislation, not in the Act. The penalty for knowingly failing to comply is severe and formula-driven: twenty-five thousand dollars, or three times the value of what was not declared or produced, whichever is greater. We did not find a published allowance schedule and this record states none.

Duty-free allowance in the Act

Delegated, not stated

Penalty for knowingly failing to present or declare

$25,000 or three times the value, whichever is greater

Currency in baggage

Within the definition of baggage

Goods for sale or exchange

Outside the definition

Returning-national or settler concession

Not found

Saint LuciaCaribbeanVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-10-05

Bringing your things to Saint Lucia

There is no removal-goods concession for a person settling in Saint Lucia in anything we were able to read. What the Customs Duties Act has instead is a flat-rate convenience for travellers: where goods of a non-commercial character in a passenger's accompanied baggage fall under three or more different tariff headings and are worth no more than EC$270 in total, a single rate of 30 per cent is charged instead of working through the tariff, and alcohol, tobacco and jewellery are excluded from it. Everything else - exemption, reduction, relief - is in the Customs Tariff and in the Common External Tariff rather than in the Act, and the Act says so: goods may be imported free or at a reduced rate if the conditions specified in the Customs Tariff are complied with. The Customs Tariff is not in the revised edition.

Settler's or removal-goods concession

None found

Flat-rate baggage threshold

EC$270

Flat rate

30 per cent

Goods excluded from the flat rate

Alcohol, tobacco and jewellery

Where the exemptions actually are

The Customs Tariff

Power to relieve a person entering Saint Lucia

Exists, unused as far as we read

Saint Vincent and the GrenadinesCaribbeanVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-05

Bringing Your Belongings to Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

For an ordinary arrival the allowance is small and old-fashioned: a quart of wine or spirits, half a pound of tobacco or fifty cigars or two hundred cigarettes, and a declaration for currency over EC$10,000. Beyond that, duty is payable. Two groups do better. A Vincentian coming home after ten continuous years abroad can import household and personal effects and tools of trade free of import duty, excise tax and VAT, plus one vehicle per family at a 75% waiver - but has to apply, be interviewed, finish within a year, and keep the vehicle four years. And since October 2025 a national of Barbados, Belize or Dominica exercising full free movement may import tools of trade, within six months of being granted indefinite stay.

Duty-free alcohol allowance

One quart of wine or spirits in all

Duty-free tobacco allowance

Half a pound of tobacco, or 50 cigars, or 200 cigarettes

Maximum personal importation before goods become cargo

5 lb of tobacco, 4 gallons of spirits, 10 gallons of wine

Currency declaration threshold

EC$10,000 or the equivalent

Returning national: years abroad

10 continuous years

Returning national: vehicle waiver

75% of import duty, excise tax and VAT, one per family

Returning national: deadline

One year from the date of return

Tools of trade under full free movement

Within 6 months of the grant of indefinite stay

A general settler's effects relief for foreigners

Not published

SurinameSouth AmericaVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-06

Moving Your Things In: Trade in Goods Is Free by Statute, and the Relief for a Mover's Effects Is Not Published

The Wet Goederenverkeer of 2003 states the starting position in one sentence: trade in goods with abroad is free, subject to measures that may be taken by State decree on grounds such as public order, security, health and the environment, and to a negative list of goods whose import or export is prohibited, requires a licence or gets special treatment. That is the rule about whether goods may come in at all. What it does not touch is duty, and the relief a person moving to Suriname would look for - exemption for household effects, for a vehicle, for the tools of a trade - sits in the Wet Tarief van Invoerrechten 1996, which the National Assembly's collection does not publish. The collection carries amendments to the tariff list and an Act amending the 1996 Act, not the 1996 Act itself. The only duty relief we could read is the investment one: a facility granted under the Investeringswet 2001 brings with it a permit for import and export of goods and services, policed by the import, export and foreign exchange control service.

General rule

Trade in goods with abroad is free, subject to the exceptions the Act allows

Household effects relief

Not established

Vehicle relief

Not established

Investment facility

Carries a permit for import and export of goods and services

The BahamasCaribbeanVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-08

Bringing Your Belongings: an Exemption in the Act, an Allowance Somewhere Else

Part IX of the Customs Management Act is headed Goods for Personal Use and is two sections long. Section 140(1) exempts goods from duties and taxes where they are in the personal baggage of a passenger or crew member arriving from outside the customs territory, are of a non-commercial nature within the limits of the duty-free allowance, and show no material indication of being part of commercial traffic. Section 140(2) goes further and exempts goods that are the bona fide belongings of such a passenger, without reference to the allowance. Both are subject to any regulations, and neither states a figure: the duty-free allowance is referred to and not defined in the Act. The Act's own definition of personal effects is narrow - all new or used articles which a traveller may reasonably require for personal use during the journey, excluding anything imported for commercial purposes - which is a definition about travelling rather than about moving house. The Tariff Act, 2023, where the allowance and the rates of duty live, has now been downloaded and still cannot be read: its font drops whole letters, taking the tariff codes and the rates with them, so no figure is published here.

Exemption for accompanied baggage (Customs Management Act s. 140(1))

Yes

Duty-free allowance figure

Not stated in the Customs Management Act

Definition of personal effects

Articles a traveller may reasonably require for personal use during the journey

Household removals

Not addressed in Part IX of the Act

Trinidad and TobagoCaribbeanVerified with official sourceStable2026-10-06

Bringing Your Belongings to Trinidad and Tobago

The Customs Act's list of goods exempt from customs duty has a general heading for baggage and household effects, and the useful item in it is not the one for returning nationals. Item 6(b) exempts household effects admitted as such by the Comptroller which accompany a passenger, are for his personal use and not for sale or exchange, and are declared to have been in the use and possession of the passenger for at least one year. It does not ask about nationality, residence or how long you have been abroad: a year of ownership and personal use is the whole test. Item 6(d) extends the same treatment to effects shipped within two months before or after arrival, or such longer period as the Comptroller thinks reasonable, and item 6(e) covers used tools of a profession, trade or occupation. The returning-national concession at item 6(c) is separate and richer - up to TT$250,000 c.i.f. - but requires citizenship, a permanent return and five continuous years abroad. Alongside all of that, a passenger of seventeen or over gets 1.5 litres of wine or spirits, 250 grams of tobacco, and TT$3,000 of other goods, once a year.

Household effects accompanying any passenger

Duty free if in use and possession for at least one year

Nationality condition on that

None

Unaccompanied effects

Within two months before or after arrival

Returning national concession

Up to TT$250,000 c.i.f.

Conditions on it

Returning to reside permanently, and five continuous years abroad

Above TT$250,000

Normal duty and value added tax on the excess

Personal allowance for a passenger

TT$3,000 of goods, once a year

Alcohol and tobacco

1.5 litres of wine or spirits; 250g of tobacco, or 50 cigars, or 200 cigarettes

Flat rate duty on small consignments

30 per cent, where the total value is not over TT$425 and the goods fall under at least three Tariff Headings

UruguaySouth AmericaVerified with official sourceMonitor - can change2026-09-27

Bringing Your Belongings In

Uruguay lets an incoming permanent resident bring clothes, personal effects, books, furniture, household goods and the tools of their trade in free of duty - including the professional equipment Argentina taxes. The timing window is the part to plan around: unaccompanied baggage must arrive within three months before or six months after you do, from the same place you came from.

Household goods and personal effects

Free of duty

Professional tools

Free of duty

Arrival window

3 months before to 6 months after you

Before residency is granted

Temporary admission against a guarantee

Storage

At your own cost until the procedure completes

Page last updated by the publisher

2026-06-26