Moving to Iligan City (Mindanao) Philippines

[lovemaeparker]

Hi All,

Great to stumble upon this forum while I was searching for a removal companies that can ship our stuff from England to Philippines. My husband and I have decided to move to Philippines and are planning to take some of our belongings with us. We are living in a five bedroom house and most stuff should be sent over to Phils apart from wardrobes, dining table & sofas. Also would love to ship over one 2 jaguar, 2 motorbikes & maybe a smart car.

I have read a thread here about somebody moving to Phils and some advices but that was 2 yrs ago. Is there anyone here who just moved recently? Any advice about a reliable removal company to use would be a great help. Also would like to know how much roughly does it cost for a container and how much tax to pay when it reached to Philippines.

Many thanks!

Kind regards,

Love Mae Parker

[Terpe]

lovemaeparker,
Hi, and welcome to the forum.

Eventually we plan to move to Phils. I already have quite a lot of info (though not yet sorted into any logical order)

I will take a deeper look later and try to help more.
In the meantime I can give some info from memory.
Firstly, I would suggest that you think very carefully about just which things you really want to ship. Consider it may be cheaper to buy new when you get to Phils. Even as an excercise this is well worth the effort.

My Guess is you will need to use a 20ft container. The cost will vary a little depending on which company you use. Shipping a 20ft container is going to cost around £4000 (including around £500 for insurance)
The shipping company will deal with all the paperwork for you (customs, documents, transportation,'other')

I think you will easily fill a 20ft container, thats why I mentioned really thinking about sending everything (send or buy new) You may need to space in the container.
Some electrical items may not work correctly (I'll provide more details when I look through my info)

The shipping company will roll up to your house, load all your stuff (takes maybe 3-5 hours if prepacked by you ) and about 6 weeks later will deliver to your new house in Phils. Be aware that you will need to be sure your things are very well packed (do it yourself!!) I suggest you are present when they load up the container.
When the container is unloaded in Phil you MUST MUST be present to ensure that carelessness does not cause too many damages.

Regarding the cars, don't even think about it!!
Seriously.
You will not be allowed to import any RH drive car.Period
Maybe some people will tell you there are 'ways' BUT eventually there are not.
Even if the cars were LH drive, you would be taxed up to the hilt. Eventually it would cost you at least twice the value of the car.
Sorry to say, but you need to put that idea right out of your mind.
Concerning the motorbikes, very very difficult but not out of the question. What bikes are they? Engine size? etc.
It's going to be expensive if allowed. Also you will need to find a "way" to get them registered correctly in Phils. Again, I do have some info and will look up for you.

Hope this helps for now.

[Terpe]

lovemaeparker,

Just found the following in my files. It looks like I may have got this from official sources
but can't remember for sure. Anyway probably answers any questions.
If you still have questions on cars please post.

[Terpe]

Whoops!! forgot to paste the info sorry.
The importation of privately owned vehicles (POV's) to the Philippines is veryrestrictive. The process is long, requires a great deal of paperwork, and a special import permit is required. This permit is available only in the Philippines, and can not be issued by an
embassy or consulate office
• CUSTOMER MUST BE PRESENT FOR CUSTOMS CLEARANCE
• Only returning Filipino residents and foreign embassy diplomats are allowed to import
motor vehicles "Duty Free"
• All motor vehicles must have an Import Authority Permit issued by the Philippine Bureau of Import Service before the vehicle is shipped.
• Owner must have lived abroad for at least one year and car must have been registered in his/her name at least six months if the car is more than three years old, vehicles more than three years old should be registered under shippers name at least one year prior to application of the Import Permit
• Failure to comply with above will result in PENALTIES AND CONFISCATION
of vehicle
• Auto must arrive within 60 days of customer's arrival
• Destination Agent must be contacted prior to shipping any vehicles
• All vehicles subject to taxes and duties
• Gasoline-fueled cars limited to 2,800 cc not over 1,500 kgs
• Right -hand driven vehicles not permitted
• Only one vehicle allowed per family
• Autos five years old or older not permitted
• Banned/unauthorized motor vehicles subject to seizure; owner subject to penalties
• Documents required:
o Original Registration and proof of ownership
o Import Permit from Department of Trade or Bureau of Import
Cars over 5 years old CANNOT be imported

[lovemaeparker]

Hello Terpe! Wow, you are very helpful :-) I am Peter, Love Maes hubby, replying here for both of us :-)

You were right about the cars! Gutted! I have owned a Jaguar for 21 years (4 different ones) and it seems i am going to have to end here! However, I would obviously run into probs with spares and maintenance over time so probably not a bad plan to dispense with it now. Regarding the bikes, I have a classic triumph (was 750cc but is now 850cc) that I simply will NEVER sell so that either comes with us or stays with a trusted friend here in the UK! I also have a few (4!) BMW C1 two wheeled city commuter bikes. 2 are 125cc and 2 are 200cc. I would be happy to sell a couple but would like to take two with us (one as a donor vehicle for mechanical problems). We found the customs website that has the info you kindly confirmed. Seems we need to write to them and ask about the bikes. They give a correspondence address but no email address? Any idea of the Philippines customs email for enquiries? The website is actually pretty useless lol.

I appreciate your comments/advice regarding shipping or buying new in Phils too. Will certainly be giving serious thought here. I think a 20ft container will be plenty if we are sensible. I doubt they will allow me to put a roof rack on the container! hahaha.

Your £4K estimate is a bit scary. However, it will cost whatever it costs of course.

We are in Bedford near J13 of the M1. Where are you located please? Maybe we can chat on Skype sometime? If you dont wish to put personal contact details here (I dont) look us up on Facebook by searching for Clever Captures Photography (apart from this I run an architectural practice!) and maybe we can hook up there first.

Really appreciate your comments and time here :-) My advice to you is stop thinking about leaving the sinking UK and get on with it as we are! We plan to be property developers there so buddy up with us so i can at least design you a cool home over there sometime! :-)

Kindest regards,

Peter & Love Mae

[lovemaeparker]

Hi Terpe,

How's your moving preparation to Phils going on?

[Terpe]

Peter,
Thank you for your kind words. It's always my pleasure to help, if I can.
I will post more info for you that i hope will help, especially for your beloved Triumph and some good shipping contacts.
Please look into the forum for this. It may be helpful for other readers.

I will contact you.

[Terpe]

Hi Terpe,

How's your moving preparation to Phils going on?

That's a complicated answer!!
According to my well thought out plans I should be in Phils already.
But.. just now I am taking care of my father who is not in good condition.
Thinking positive though, and putting some real detail to everything.
I just cannot think about putting my father into a nursing home right now and going half way round the world.
Take care and God Bless

[CleverCaptures]

Hi All....and Terpe :-) We are here in Phils now :-) All is good :-) Dare we ask how your Father is Terpe? Did you escape the UK madness yet? Best thing we ever did :-)

[fred]

Hi All....and Terpe :-) We are here in Phils now :-) All is good :-) Dare we ask how your Father is Terpe? Did you escape the UK madness yet? Best thing we ever did :-)

How did you get on with moving all your stuff here??
Hope everything went as planned!

[Terpe]

Hi All....and Terpe :-) We are here in Phils now :-) All is good :-) Dare we ask how your Father is Terpe? Did you escape the UK madness yet? Best thing we ever did :-)

Hello there .... glad to see your plan worked out and all is good.
Sadly, my father passed away 2012

Our plans to escape UK madness are already in the later stages of implementation

[CleverCaptures]

Hi Fred/Terpe. Sorry for your loss Terpe, I was obviously half expecting you to say that. It is commendable that you stayed put for him (slaps back). My father will be 94 later this year but, very fortunately, he is in fine fettle and still baking himself cakes each week and cooking his own glorious Sunday roast! I still think I need looking after more than HE does! There is no substitute for good health (you have to be old to know that! lol) so I was not anchored to the UK for any good reason.

We actually moved out here in May 2011 (3 years now!) which was quite soon after we found this forum. We just got a bit busy to revisit here until now!

Yes Fred, all the stuff got here no probs in a 20 footer. No motorbikes, no cars (huhuhu) and no breakages either! Until we unpacked and wifey dropped a glass lol. I mugged up on container shipping and it scared the pants off me! Insurance for everything was available but at a high price. The UK is insurance overload......at the end of my annual insurances I always felt like making sure a claim was due just to justify the premiums! I never did of course as setting fire to my home and my office (both while they were simultaneously being burgled by persons unknown), crashing both cars and all four motorcycles, losing all my camera equipment, mobile phones and credit cards and dishing out bad professional advice all on the same day would look a tad suspicious.....

Guess how many 20ft/40ft containers are "lost" each year. Nope. Guess again. Nope. Give in yet? Ok, one more guess? Nope. 30,000! That seems a lot but it is actually a very very very small number when compared to how many are shipped each year......and even a small number when compared to how many one ship can carry!! You have the opportunity to state where you wish your container to be stored on board. Above or below deck. As many get shoved off the boat when it gets a bit choppy (as they overloaded it on the basis of a calm voyage) (yes, they really DO push containers off deliberately!) So we just asked for it to go below deck to make "shoving off" unlikely. Best news of all was that the ship carrying our container was not hijacked once my marauding Somalian's flying the skull and crossbones and it arrived entirely intact and generally ship shape :-) We did not take out any insurance on the basis that the financial loss would not be as great as the personal loss of treasured items and no insurance can compensate for that.

Moved around since arriving here and generally having a good time :-)

[Terpe]

Container shipment to Philippines was always quite expensive....but still I was shocked recently with the quotes I had. So much so that we decided to ship only Balikbayan Boxes and the rest of the big stuff to sell, give away or just dump.

It's amazing how much 'junk' my wife accumulated during our UK decade.
Some of the stuff we will take to Philippines has been around the world already. How can we attach so much sentiment to objects and things

Nice to know your 'container experience' was a good one. Yes, I did know about containers getting jettisoned from time to time. Best not to think too much about that possibility

Looking forward to hearing more about your past 3 years experiences.

Welcome back