Shipping Personal Effects container to DR North Coast

[Caz]

We are thinking of moving from England to Cabarete Area of DR. Has anybody had experience of shipping a container (20Ft) from UK to that area. It would have household goods ,furniture and personal effects in it. By that time we hope to have temporary residency permits which might have some effect on the duty to be paid etc.
Any companies that could be recommended at the DR end?

Any information good or bad gratefully recieved.

CAZ

[Hillbilly]

You will have better sleep and less stomach troubles if you get rid of everything and get it here.

Wait for the others to reply.

HB

[Ken]

I agree with Hillbilly. You are asking for hearbreak and huge expense. The shipping cost is just the start. Getting the stuff out of customs and off the dock is where the real expense is likely to be unless you are very well connected politically.

[Jimmydr]

Originally Posted by Ken

I agree with Hillbilly. You are asking for hearbreak and huge expense. The shipping cost is just the start. Getting the stuff out of customs and off the dock is where the real expense is likely to be unless you are very well connected politically.

I agree as well.

[BushBaby]

As mentioned on your other post, send me an e-mail & I'll send you some "Official documentation" (write-ups) on how the Aduana works here. Multiply that by 17 & you are getting pretty close to the hassle you are going to cause yourself by bruinging in "Shackles of the past". New life = new furniture. household goods etc. Half the fun of moving to a new country is furnishing your new home with what is suitable for here. What you have now may very well NOT be suitable.

Arriving with nothing makes you much more "Identifiable" with the locals too as they don't have much & get pleasure out of seeing others do things they can not afford to!!

Again, I say here, Don't bother with Residencia until you get here!! If you HAVE to bring your household goods, wait until your Residencia has been started here & then get them shipped TO PUERTO PLATA not Santo Domingo or Rio Haina ports!! - Grahame.

[MrMike]

There's also the emotional distress of seeing your belongings pawed through by illiterate brutes while they look you up and down deciding how much to soak you for to take whatever wasn't worth it for them to steal.

Bring what you can carry. Maybe talk to Business Mail about some other major items, I certainly wouldn't try to handle it on my own.

[mountainfrog]

I do understand if people want to bring their personal belongings with them.
Furniture, carpets and other household goods acquired over the years are part of a person's identity. Why should one part with things that can make one feel at home even in a foreign country?
Well, there will always be people who arrive here with two suitcases; I don't really understand them.
I brought a 40 ft container from Germany to Haina. We went there with friends and our agent. We paid for a second container to be placed " doors to doors" to our container. The customs people could only unload ours loading the other while being supervised by our group of six.
After bribing them they lost interest in checking all the crates and boxes especially after I had convinced them
that my list 17A corresponded exactly with the contents of crate 17A.
So, it can be done, unless things have changed to the worse in the last eight years ...

m'frog
www.samanave.com

[Robert]

Read this thread!

http://dr1.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21056

[Sandeep]

From our personal experience, we wished we had shipped a lot more! We sent a container via Miami to Puerto Plata. The only issues we had were that it had to be inspected at Miami and that delayed the onward shipment by 2 weeks.

We used Sr. Mendez at the British Consulate office who found us a very creative broker as unfortunately our residency hadn't yet come through.

Total cost to clear at this end inc. broker charges and onward shipment to Sosua was approx $US 450. We also had brand new items still in their store bags, but a smile and handing out UK chocolates ensured that these were marked as used.

Ensure that you are present for the inspection and that the broker has his own contacts for the inspection to watch over all your items as they are taken out and inventoried. This bit can be a bit stressful. I ended up having to unpack my UK TV/VHS and climb in to bed to watch my old Carry On movies to recover.

[Conchman]

keep in mind that if the PRD lose tonight, their thugs inside customs are going to make it living hell for people trying to get things out of customs until they are removed in August.