The Gulf is our shortest long-haul route and one of the fastest to clear, provided the paperwork matches your residence visa and nothing in the container is on the prohibited list. We pack, ship, clear and deliver into your home in Dubai, Abu Dhabi or any of the emirates.
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A container reaches Jebel Ali in about three weeks, and clearance is efficient by the standards of anywhere we ship. The two things that go wrong are timing and contents. Timing, because your goods cannot be released as personal effects until your residence visa is issued and your Emirates ID is in process. Contents, because the UAE screens household shipments closely and the prohibited list is longer than most British movers expect.
The other factor is heat. Between May and September a steel container sitting on a quay in the Gulf will reach temperatures that melt candles, warp vinyl, split wooden furniture and ruin anything with a battery in it. We plan around that rather than discovering it on delivery.
Dubai · Abu Dhabi · The Gulf
Volume decides it first, urgency second. We recommend one after your survey and show you the alternative price rather than quietly choosing the bigger box.
Under roughly 300 cu ft · groupage or LCL
You pay for the space you occupy in a container shared with others heading for the same Gulf port. Popular with single professionals and couples on their first posting, where a flat is often let furnished and only personal effects need to travel.
Roughly 1,000 cu ft · one to two bedrooms
Yours alone, sailing as soon as it is loaded and clearing on its own entry. Worth the difference if your visa timing is uncertain, because a sole-use container is easier to hold in bond than a consolidated load.
Roughly 2,200 cu ft · three to five bedrooms
The standard for a family villa. Bear in mind that villa and apartment storage in the Emirates is generous compared with a British house, but built-in wardrobes are common, so freestanding bedroom furniture is often the first thing worth leaving behind.
Priced by weight · 3–6 days
The quickest air route we run, and genuinely useful here. Many people fly out ahead of their family and need work equipment, documents and a fortnight of clothes long before the container arrives.
Most movers make you fill in a form before they will discuss money. Here is the shape of it up front — and, unlike most published prices in this trade, an honest account of what these figures do and do not cover.
| Size of move | Shipping, port to port | Packing and UK collection |
|---|---|---|
| Small move, shared containerA flat, a student move, part of a house | £605–£2,140 | Quoted per move |
| 20ft containerTypically a three-bedroom house | £4,775–£5,865 | About £2,010 |
| 40ft containerFour bedrooms and upwards | £5,885–£6,917 | About £2,510 |
The middle column is the shipping, and only the shipping. It is the cost of moving the container from a UK port to the destination port. The third column adds packing to export standard and collection from your home. Still to come on top of both: customs clearance at each end, quarantine or biosecurity inspection where the destination requires it, insurance, destination charges and delivery into your new home. Those are quoted per shipment, and every one of them is explained with published figures on what your quote doesn’t include.
We split it out this way because a shipping figure presented as the price of a move is how an advertised number ends up a couple of thousand pounds below what anybody actually pays. Ranges are indicative, move with sailing rates and the season, and depend on your actual packed volume — which is why we survey before we quote. The same figures for every destination, with a worked example, are on what an international move costs.
Door to door, from UK collection to delivery at your address in the Emirates. Planning figures rather than guarantees — visa timing moves them more than shipping does.
| Destination | Shared container | Sole-use container |
|---|---|---|
| DubaiJebel Ali · Marina, Downtown, Jumeirah, Arabian Ranches | 5–7 weeks | 4–6 weeks |
| Abu DhabiKhalifa Port · Al Reem, Saadiyat, Khalifa City | 5–8 weeks | 4–6 weeks |
| Sharjah and the northSharjah · Ajman, Umm Al Quwain, Ras Al Khaimah | 6–8 weeks | 5–7 weeks |
| Al Ain and the interiorInland by road from either coast | 6–8 weeks | 5–7 weeks |
| Air freightAll emirates | 3 | & |
The sea leg is roughly three weeks through Suez. Everything after that is clearance and delivery, and clearance cannot begin in earnest until your residence visa is issued. If your employer is slow with the paperwork, the container waits in bond and storage charges start. We will tell you honestly whether to delay the sailing rather than pay demurrage.
Quoted as one price, delivered as one service. Anything not on this list is named in your quotation rather than discovered later.
Household shipments are screened, and a significant proportion are opened. The rules are not complicated but they are enforced, and a single prohibited item can hold the whole container.
Almost everything on this list is fine to own and simply cannot travel in a sea container. Tell us at survey and we will either leave it, ship it separately under the right permit, or explain why it is not worth the trouble.
UAE import rules differ between emirates and change without much notice. We confirm the current position for your destination at survey and give it to you in writing.
Regular sailings to all three main Gulf gateways, with road delivery across the Emirates. Access is usually straightforward, but tower blocks mean lift bookings and building permissions that we arrange in advance.
Jebel Ali, DXB
Our busiest Gulf destination by a distance. Frequent sailings and consolidated groupage space. Deliveries into Marina and Downtown towers need service lift bookings and building approval, which we arrange with your management company before the day.
Khalifa Port, AUH
Serves the capital including Al Reem, Saadiyat and Khalifa City. Government and energy relocations dominate here, and employers often set the timetable, so we work to their visa schedule.
Port Khalid, SHJ
A common choice for families priced out of Dubai, with its own port and its own customs rules. Worth noting that Sharjah is a dry emirate, and its screening of household goods reflects that.
Saqr Port, RAK
The northern emirates are served by road from Jebel Ali or through RAK directly. Popular with people wanting space and mountains within reach of the coast.
Inland by road, AL
The garden city, inland on the Omani border. Delivered by road from either coast, adding a day rather than a week, though summer heat makes an early delivery slot worth having.
Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia
We ship across the Gulf, and rules differ sharply between countries. Saudi Arabia in particular has its own documentation and inspection regime. Tell us the country and we will confirm what applies.
Working backwards from your flight.
Book the survey and confirm the quotation. Ask your employer for a realistic date for your residence visa, because that date sets everything else.
Decide what travels. Be ruthless about anything heat-sensitive and anything on the prohibited list.
Complete your valued inventory. Separate medicines, documents and air freight items to carry or fly rather than ship.
We pack, inventory and load over one to three days, with the inventory written for a customs officer.
We lodge the entry once your visa is issued, manage scanning and inspection, and book delivery with your building.
Volume first, then which emirate, then access. A one-bedroom flat in shared container space and a four-bedroom villa in a sole-use 40ft are very different figures. Use the volume estimator on our home page for a sense of scale, then let us survey and quote in writing.
You can ship, but you cannot clear. Goods arriving before your residence visa is issued sit in bond and accrue storage. Sometimes that is still the right call, if you have a firm date. Often it is cheaper to hold the container in the UK for a fortnight, and we will say so.
Most will. Candles, cosmetics, vinyl, some electronics and anything with a lithium battery may not, and solid wood furniture can move in the dryness. We flag the specific risks in your home at survey rather than issuing a generic warning.
Usually not. The UAE drives on the right and right-hand-drive vehicles cannot generally be registered. If you are shipping a left-hand-drive car or a classic for a collection, that is straightforward and we do it regularly.
It cannot go in your household shipment. Residents can apply for a personal licence to buy locally in most emirates, and Sharjah is dry. Packing a few bottles is a genuinely bad idea: it puts the whole container at risk, not just the bottles.
Most buildings require a booked service lift, a delivery window, proof of insurance and sometimes a deposit. Some restrict moves to weekdays or to particular hours. We handle the booking with your management company, but we need your building details early.
Yes. If you have lived outside the UK for at least twelve consecutive months and are resuming residence here, you may qualify for Transfer of Residence relief, applied for before your goods arrive. We handle the application alongside the move.
Tell us where you're heading and roughly when. A consultant will come back within one working day to arrange a survey.