Move 2 India

Indian citizens and foreign nationals who are moving to India can transfer their personal effects and household goods free of any duty payment subject to the following specifications:

- The owner of the goods should have lived overseas for at least 2 years and must be shifting his/her residence to India.

- If Indian nationals, they should not have visited India for more than 180 days in the preceding two years.

- The goods must have been in the possession of the importer or his/her family for at least a year.

- Foreign nationals must present valid visa upon arrival of the shipment.

- Imports by non-residents only permitted if they enter India for a stay of not less than 24 hours and not more than 6 months, provided they visit India not more than once a month.

- Goods will have to be shipped out within 30 days of the owner arriving in India (it takes 8 weeks to ship goods to India from USA) - in the event of a delay, goods can be cleared only if the customs clear the delay. Such being the situation, every case is decided on individual merits.

- The owner has to be present during customs clearance and therefore, the owner should have reached India before the shipment arrives or else end up paying heavy demurrage/container detention charges.

- There used to be a compulsory one-year-stay-in-India condition for claiming of Transfer of Residence duty benefits but that has now been done away with. Importers can now leave the country anytime after claiming TR concessions.