The Atlantic crossing is the shortest of our long routes, which makes people relax about it. The shipping is straightforward. The paperwork is not. We file the filings, clear the customs and deliver into your home, whether that's a walk-up in Brooklyn or a house outside Austin.
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Sailing to the US east coast takes around a fortnight. Getting your shipment released at the other end is where the time and the money actually go, because US Customs and Border Protection runs one of the most documentation-heavy import regimes we deal with, and it starts before your container leaves.
An Importer Security Filing has to be lodged a full day before the vessel is loaded in the UK. Miss it or get it wrong and the penalty is measured in thousands of dollars, not hundreds. That deadline drives our whole timetable, which is why we want your details early and why we don't take last-minute bookings on this route as readily as on others.
New York Harbour · The Golden Gate · The Southwest
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 · also called groupage or LCL
You pay for the space you occupy in a container shared with others heading for the same US port. The cheapest route for part loads and small flats. The trade-off is time, and on this route it is compounded: shared loads clear as a group, and a single unrelated consignment being examined holds up everyone's goods.
Roughly 1,000 cu ft · one to two bedrooms
Yours alone, sailing when it is loaded and clearing on its own entry. On the US route that independence is worth more than it sounds, because your timeline stops depending on strangers' paperwork.
Roughly 2,200 cu ft · three to five bedrooms
The standard for a family home, with room for white goods and a car alongside the furniture. American houses tend to be larger than British ones, so think about what you will actually want in the space you are moving into.
Priced by weight · 5–8 days
The fastest of our long-haul air routes. Useful for work equipment, a child's bed, or a professional's tools that need to be there for a start date. Expensive per kilo, so it works as a small shipment ahead of the container.
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 | £680–£2,500 | Quoted per move |
| 20ft containerTypically a three-bedroom house | £3,000–£4,500 | About £2,010 |
| 40ft containerFour bedrooms and upwards | £7,500–£9,000 | 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 American address. Planning figures, not guarantees — a customs examination adds one to three weeks on its own.
| Destination | Shared container | Sole-use container |
|---|---|---|
| East coastNew York, Boston, Washington, Philadelphia | 6–9 weeks | 5–7 weeks |
| Southeast and GulfMiami, Atlanta, Houston, New Orleans | 7–10 weeks | 5–8 weeks |
| West coastLos Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, San Diego | 8–11 weeks | 7–9 weeks |
| InlandChicago, Denver, Austin, Nashville | Add 1–2 weeks of road or rail from the port of entry | |
| Air freightAll major cities | 5–8 days | |
The Atlantic crossing itself is about two weeks; the Pacific coast is reached either through the Panama Canal or overland from an east coast port, which is why the west takes so much longer. America is also very large: a container landing at Long Beach still has a two-day drive ahead of it to reach Denver.
Quoted as one price, delivered as one service. Anything not on this list is named in your quotation rather than discovered later.
There is no biosecurity regime here on the scale of Australia's, but there is a filing regime, and Customs and Border Protection can pull any container for examination without giving a reason. The costs of that examination fall to you.
Nearly every delay we see on this route comes from paperwork rather than from the goods themselves. An inventory that says "box of kitchen items" invites a look inside; one that lists what is in the box does not. We write yours to be read by an officer who has never met you.
US import requirements change and vary by port. We confirm the current position for your shipment at survey and tell you in writing what to expect.
Consolidated sailings to the main coastal gateways, with road and rail onward. Your goods clear at the port that serves your address, which for inland cities is a commercial decision as much as a geographic one.
New York / Newark, NJ
Our busiest US route and the shortest crossing. Serves the whole Northeast including Boston, Connecticut, Philadelphia and upstate New York. Access surveys matter here: walk-ups, permit parking and lift bookings all affect the price.
Port of Miami / Port Everglades, FL
Serves South Florida and the Gulf coast, with onward links to the Caribbean. Frequent sailings and a straightforward clearance, though summer hurricane season can move schedules.
Port of Houston, TX
The gateway for Texas and much of the south-central US, including Austin, Dallas and San Antonio. Popular with energy-sector relocations, and a good deal quicker than routing Texas moves overland from the east coast.
Los Angeles / Long Beach, CA
The main Pacific gateway, serving Southern California, Nevada and Arizona. Sailings route via the Panama Canal, so allow noticeably longer than for an east coast address.
Port of Oakland, CA
Serves the Bay Area, Silicon Valley and Northern California. A common destination for tech relocations, and one where narrow streets and steep hills make an access survey worth the fifteen minutes.
Chicago, Denver, Nashville, Austin
Inland addresses clear at a coastal port and travel on by road or rail. Distances are considerable, so allow the extra weeks and tell us early if your street is hard to reach with a full-size trailer.
Working backwards from your flight.
Book the survey and confirm your quotation. If a car is going, check its conformity now rather than after you have paid for the freight.
Decide what travels and what goes. Confirm your US delivery address; we need it for the security filing, not just for the delivery.
Complete your valued inventory for insurance and customs. Separate air freight items, documents and hand luggage.
We pack, inventory and load over one to three days. Descriptions are written for a customs officer, not for a storage unit.
We lodge the entry, respond to any examination order, and book delivery once the shipment is released.
Volume first, then which coast, then how far inland you are going. An east coast address in a sole-use 20ft container and a Denver address in shared space are very different propositions. Any figure quoted before a survey is guesswork; use the volume estimator on our home page for a sense of scale and let us quote properly after that.
It is a set of details about your shipment that must reach US Customs a full day before your container is loaded in the UK. It requires your US delivery address, so we cannot make it while you are still deciding where you will live. If the filing is late or wrong, the penalties are substantial and they attach to the shipment. It is the single most common reason we push customers to firm up their plans early.
Generally not, for used household goods and personal effects you have owned and used abroad for a year or more and are bringing for your own use. New items, goods for resale, alcohol and tobacco are treated differently. Your entitlement also depends on your visa or residency status, which we confirm before shipping.
Usually the honest answer is don't. A vehicle must comply with federal motor vehicle safety standards and EPA emissions rules, or be at least 25 years old to qualify for the classic exemption. Most modern UK-market cars satisfy neither, and conforming one is expensive where it is possible at all. Classic and collector vehicles are a different story and we ship them regularly.
Customs can select any shipment, without cause and without notice. Depending on what they order, the container is X-rayed, partially opened or fully unloaded and repacked. It adds one to three weeks, and the port and handling charges are billed to the importer. A precise inventory materially reduces the chance of being selected, which is why we spend time on it.
Mostly no. The US runs on 110 volts at 60 hertz, so British appliances need a transformer and motors run at the wrong speed regardless. Lamps, kettles, vacuum cleaners and washing machines are cheaper to replace than to ship. Audio equipment, tools and anything of genuine value can be worth transforming.
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, which has to be applied for before your goods arrive. We handle the application alongside the move and collect from any US address.
Tell us which city and roughly when. A consultant will come back within one working day to arrange a survey.