# Recommendations on INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING & MOVING COMPANIES? USA -> SPAIN



## ancutzica (Nov 7, 2008)

Hello everybody.

I was wondering if anyone would have any recommendations regarding international shipping and moving companies? 

I need to move all of my stuff (including CAR) from the US to Madrid. 

Thanks so much!


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## chris(madrid) (Mar 23, 2008)

THE CAR! - make sure you're aware of ALL THE FUN you'll have importing it.


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## Stravinsky (Aug 12, 2007)

ancutzica said:


> Hello everybody.
> 
> I was wondering if anyone would have any recommendations regarding international shipping and moving companies?
> 
> ...


Does it have an EU certificate of conformity? If not you may struggle to get it matriculated.


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## chris(madrid) (Mar 23, 2008)

Stravinsky said:


> Does it have an EU certificate of conformity? If not you may struggle to get it matriculated.


It will almost certainly need € marked lenses - SAE/DOT wont cut it. 

It'll need an Engineers report if it's a vehicle that has not been sold in Europe - This applies to European cars with US-spec/size motors. Allow 1000Euros with no guaranty it'll pass!

If it's not a Euro-Spec vehicle you could well have problems with Spares. 

Unless it's something "cherished" it's NOT WORTH DOING.


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## decgraham (Apr 24, 2008)

Importing cars into Spain has been discussed on various threads on this site. I was looking at importing my car from Kuwait into Spain but as Chris and Stravinsky state it can be a difficult process. I decided against it after reading their advice and the advice of others on other sites. Google AutoScout you'll find a lot of cars for sale in Spain by area and it'll give you an idea of price. You may do better selling your car in the US.


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## libove (Feb 24, 2008)

I am half-way through a move with a company here in Atlanta called Atlantic Relocation. They are an agent of Atlas. I have been moderately pleased with them so far. When pushed - which I do a lot - they do stand up for me, interface with the onward service providers for me, etc.

International relocations involve a chain of people and companies - 
There is the local company who is your direct agent throughout the whole process. They help you estimate your costs, do your packing, contract the container, transshipment to a port, and get the container on to a boat. They should be your primary point of contact through the whole move, because they are the only one with whom you have a contract.

The various transshipment, ocean shipping, customs clearance, transshipment at the other side, and final delivery and unpacking people can all be other companies. You will have to interact with them, and you have no choice in who they are - your local agent picks one or two, and those pick the onward service providers.

So the most important thing, and largely the only thing, you can do, is to grill the heck out of the local provider you pick, including getting references from them who have dealt not only with the same company but with the same representative of the same company, and who have done similar scale moves, and learn how well they handled your interactions with all of the other service providers in the loop.

One more thing - as foreign onward service providers are just that: foreign, it may be worth trying to make sure your local provider has someone who is fluent in the destination language. In my case, I'm more than conversant in Spanish, and the receiving service provider in Barcelona (a company named Gil Stauffer, about whom I had heard one or two good things here on ExpatForum before) has people who are more than conversant in English. Putting the two together, we're doing well so far.

The hardest thing for me in the whole process so far (other than my wife getting stuck in Japan for three extra days due to flight congestion, leaving me having to meet the packers on my own, and leading to an interesting mix of shouldn't-have-gones and should-have-gones...) has been the question of valuing the shipment for insurance purposes. It's a lot harder than you think. Get started on it early, and plan to do a lot of Internet searches and maybe a little telephoning to merchants in your destination, so you can properly estimate the USD$ amount of the foreign currency replacement value of the goods if you had to replace them in the destination country!

Best wishes!

Jay in Atlanta -> Barcelona


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